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Credit: Amazon

It's 2026, which means every tech company needs to have its own AI service—often available as a subscription, of course. For Amazon, that's Alexa+, which officially rolled out earlier this year. The experience is comparable to other smart AI platforms like Gemini: You can ask Alexa+ more complex questions and queries than Alexa proper, but you can also still rely on it for smart home control. For the most part, however, Alexa+ is locked behind a paywall: If you have Prime, you have Alexa+; if you don't, you need to pay $19.99. It's a steep entry price for Amazon users without a Prime subscription.

That's now changing, depending on your TV. Amazon announced on Wednesday a new initiative to roll out Alexa+ for free for compatible Fire TV devices. The company says that millions of customers are already using Alexa+ on their Fire TVs, and while it doesn't specify, my guess is the vast majority of those are Prime users. It seems Amazon is trying to fill the gaps in its user base here, by offering Alexa+ to Prime-less Fire TV users.

Amazon says that Alexa+ delivers a "smarter, more conversational voice experience" than its original Alexa assistant. Alexa+ is designed to understand context better than the previous iteration, which means it should be able to respond to more detailed, complex questions. In addition, Amazon says the assistant remembers your preferences, and returns more relevant recommendations.

According to Amazon, Alexa+ users have almost twice as many chats on Fire TV with the bot as they did with Alexa. Amazon thinks that's because Alexa+ understands the questions more clearly. The company says that its latest AI assistant can surface results from "tens of millions" of movies, TV shows, and sports programming, without users needing to scroll through those titles themselves. For example, Amazon recommends asking Alexa+ things like "Recommend me a top-rated thriller." If those results aren't quite what you're looking for, the company suggests you follow up with "something newer" or "with a female lead." Alexa wasn't designed for that type of back-and-forth, but Amazon says Alexa+'s contextual awareness makes it possible.

While Alexa+ works with entertainment, it's still a smart home assistant, too. You can ask Alexa+ to move a show or movie to another Fire TV in your house, access live camera feeds from your security system, run scenes and routines, control individual smart devices, check the weather, and set timers.

According to Amazon, not all Fire TVs are eligible for free Alexa+. As of this announcement, only current-generation Fire TV devices, including Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Cube, Amazon Ember smart TVs, and other smart TVs with Alexa+ built-in (such as those from Hisense and Panasonic) will get free Alexa+ automatically. That said, Amazon teases that it may add support for more devices over time. The full list according to Amazon's help page is:

• Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen)

• Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen)

• Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd)

• Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series

• Fire TV Omni QLED Series

• Fire TV 4-Series

• Fire TV 2-Series

• Hisense U6

• Panasonic W95

• Panasonic Z85A

• Panasonic Z95A

• Panasonic Z95B

Amazon says you don't have to activate anything or download an app: Your TV should soon have Alexa+ on its own. However, if you want Alexa+ across other Amazon products, you will need to either subscribe to the platform, or subscribe to Prime.