Amazon has launched paid one-hour and three-hour delivery tiers across the United States, adding per-order fees on top of Prime as the ultrafast fulfilment race accelerates.
The e-commerce giant spent two decades training consumers to expect speed for free - now it wants them to pay extra for it.
It's rolling out one-hour and three-hour delivery in parts of the United States first, charging Prime members US$9.99 and $4.99 per order, respectively, while non-members will have to fork out an eye-whopping $19.99 for one-hour and $14.99 for three-hour delivery.
Whether consumers consistently pay $10 on top of Prime for one-hour delivery will determine national rollout.
The gap between Prime and non-Prime pricing ($9.99 vs $19.99) is structured to push membership conversion.
The three-hour option is live in more than 2,000 cities and towns in America, while the speedy one-hour delivery covers hundreds of locations, including parts of Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. and smaller markets such as Des Moines, Boise and American Fork, Utah.
More than 90,000 products are eligible - household essentials, pantry items, cleaning supplies, over-the-counter medications, electronics, toys, clothing and home and garden products.
"Our customers are busier than ever and are looking for new ways to save time while keeping their households running," Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations Udit Madan said.
"We're excited to say that two decades after Prime first launched, we're still innovating to make delivery even faster, while maintaining the same everyday low prices and vast selection Amazon is known for."
Built on existing rails
Rather than spinning up a separate network, the Seattle-based retailer is running its new tiers through existing same-day fulfilment sites - the same infrastructure that has been quietly scaling for years.
In 2025, Amazon shifted more than 13 billion items via same-day or next-day delivery globally, a 30% increase from the prior year.
That followed a more than 60% expansion in same-day delivery sites during 2024, extending operations to more than 140 metro areas across the country.
None of this is Amazon's first crack at ultrafast delivery, though.
It launched Prime Now back in 2014, offering one-hour delivery, then shuttered the standalone service in 2021.
There was another attempt three years later, with a separate program promising rapid fulfilment from brick-and-mortar retailers, yet that eventually was discontinued in 2024.
The company is also piloting Amazon Now, a 30-minute delivery service for household essentials and fresh groceries, in Seattle, Philadelphia and select international markets..
Walmart and quick commerce
In America at least, Amazon is not the only retailer chasing the clock - Walmart can now reach 93% of U.S. households with same-day delivery, up from around 80% in late 2023, backed by more than 4,600 stores across the country - a physical footprint Amazon simply does not have.
The Bentonville retailer's sub-three-hour deliveries grew 70% year-over-year, with sub-one-hour delivery its fastest-growing fulfilment channel.
Then there's the quick-commerce cohort of companies getting from A to Z fast.
Instacart, DoorDash and Uber Eats have been steadily expanding product ranges beyond restaurant food into general retail, building delivery networks that overlap directly with Amazon's same-day infrastructure.
The U.S. same-day delivery market reached $7.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to hit $26.1 billion by 2032.
There has been no mention of rolling the new ultrafast delivery tiers in any other country at the time of writing.
