The days of free Alexa+ for everyone just ended, with Amazon announcing today that it will start charging non-Prime members who want to use the AI-supercharged voice assistant on their Echo devices.
Starting now, full Alexa+ access will cost $19.99 a month for those without Prime, while Prime members will get Alexa+ as a free benefit with their subscriptions.
Amazon also announced a new free tier of Alexa+ that lets you text chat with the assistant over a web browser. The free version of Alexa+ will be “limited based on use,” Amazon added.
Amazon had previously announced that non-Prime members would have to pay for Alexa+ access. But up until now, Alexa+ was free for everyone during its “early access” preview period.
With Amazon now charging for Alexa+, it’s fair to say that the AI-enhanced assistant is essentially out of beta. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that Alexa+ is no longer in an early access mode.
Those who’d rather not pay extra for Alexa+ can still use the “classic” Alexa, which Amazon has promised will remain free.
It’s been nearly a year since Amazon unveiled Alexa+ — for the second time—at a splashy event in New York City. Previously, Amazon had touted its plans for a new generative AI-powered Alexa during its 2023 fall hardware event, well before it got the “Alexa+” name.
Unlike the old Alexa, Alexa+ offers ChatGPT-style conversational abilities and can suss out your intentions in ways the legacy Alexa voice assistant couldn’t.
Alexa+ also promises “agentic AI” abilities, capable of acting on your behalf and performing multi-step tasks that could eventually include filling out forms on the web.
But while chatting with Alexa+ is undoubtedly a different experience than it is with the “classic” Alexa, it’s not always better. As I’ve written previously, Alexa+ can be both surprising and exasperating, sometimes correctly guessing your intentions and other times diving into wild tangents when it misunderstands your meaning.
For the most part, I’ve been giving Alexa+ a pass given that it was in “early access” and thus free for everyone. But now that Amazon is charging for Alexa+, it’s time to get real about what it does right, when and how it fumbles the ball, and whether it’s actually worth the cash.
Stay tuned for my full review.
This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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