Amazon October Prime Day 2024: Dates officially announced

It’s official — Amazon’s October Prime Day sale, Prime Big Deal Days, is happening on Oct. 8 and 9. The mega sale is exclusive to Prime members, giving them 48 hours of discounts on products across categories like tech, travel, home essentials, kitchen gadgets and beauty as many begin to think about holiday shopping.

I’ve covered Amazon Prime Day for over five years and have been keeping a watchful eye on the must-have information and deals. Here’s everything I know about October’s Prime Day sale so far — I’ll keep updating you leading up to the event.

SKIP AHEAD When is Prime Big Deal Days? | Prime Big Deal Days v.s. Prime Day | How to sign up for a Prime membership | When do early deals start? | Why trust NBC Select?

Prime Big Deal Days is an iteration of Prime Day — it’s a 48-hour sale in October that’s exclusive to Prime members, during which brands discount products to some of their lowest prices of the year. The first Prime Big Deal Days sale happened in 2022 but under a different name. Ever since, Amazon has hosted two Prime Day-level events per year.

Prime Big Deal Days 2024 is on Oct. 8 and 9. The event is happening around the same time it did in 2022 (Oct. 11 to 12) and 2023 (Oct. 10 to 11).

Other than the timing of the sales — Prime Big Deal Days in October and Prime Day in July — the sales are not much different. They’re both exclusive to Prime members and 48 hours long, plus brands discount similar products during both events. Shoppers can also take advantage of Lightning Deals and early access deals during both events. However, there’s typically more emphasis on gift giving during Prime Big Deal Days since October is when people start thinking about holiday shopping.

Prime Big Deal Days also serves as a kickoff for early Black Friday sales. In recent years, we’ve seen many retailers begin their early Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in mid-October, so by positioning Prime Big Deal Days right before that period, Amazon sets the stage for other retailers to start rolling out their discounts.

Prime Big Deal Days 2024 is happening in 19 countries, according to Amazon: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Turkey and the United States.

Yes, only Prime members get access to shop Prime Big Deal Days.

Amazon Prime is the retailer’s loyalty program. A standard membership costs $139 a year or $15 a month, and new members get a 30-day free trial. Amazon also offers a discounted Prime for Young Adults membership ($69 a year) and a discounted Prime Access membership for those who qualify for certain government assistance programs ($7 a month).

Benefits of a Prime membership include access to shop Prime Day deals and free, fast shipping, such as free two-day, one-day and same-day delivery. Prime members also get a handful of streaming and entertainment perks, plus they can order groceries online through Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh and sign up for a free Grubhub+ membership.

Before Prime Big Deal Days, you can sign up for a Prime membership on Amazon’s website or app. New members get a 30-day free trial — Amazon automatically charges you for your Prime membership once the free trial period ends.

You can start shopping early October Prime Day deals right now, including promotions on credit cards like the Prime Visa and Prime Store Card, travel experiences and Amazon Music Unlimited. But keep in mind that the most plentiful early deals and the best prices are typically available the week before the event. To stay updated about early deals, download the Amazon app, which can notify you about sales in real time.

Retailers like Walmart, Target and Best Buy tend to host mega sales around Prime Big Deal Days, similar to how they do so during Prime Day. For example, Target is hosting Target Circle Week from Oct. 6 to 12. We’ll keep you updated as more retailers announce the dates of their October savings events.

I’m an associate updates editor at NBC Select who has been covering Amazon since 2020. In addition to numerous sales stories, I wrote NBC Select’s history of Amazon Prime Day and Prime membership guide. For this article, I researched Prime Big Deal Days 2024 and reviewed information from Amazon press releases.