Twitch Prime is a premium membership program that provides users with various benefits on the popular live streaming platform Twitch.tv. Twitch Prime is included with an Amazon Prime membership at no additional cost.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know about how long Twitch Prime‘s free trial lasts, what you get with a Twitch Prime membership, how much streamers make from Twitch Prime subscriptions, and more.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium upgrade for Twitch users that provides a variety of benefits, including:
Free monthly channel subscription – Each month you get one free channel subscription to use on the streamer of your choice. This is like a normal $5 subscription.
Exclusive emotes and badges – Access to exclusive Twitch Prime chat emotes, badges, and expanded bit colors.
Free games & in-game loot – Free PC games every month and exclusive in-game content like skins, characters, currency, etc.
No ads – No advertisements when watching Twitch streams while logged into a Twitch Prime account.
Twitch Prime was originally called Twitch Turbo when it launched in 2014. It was rebranded to Twitch Prime in September 2016 when Amazon Prime membership was added as a requirement/benefit.
So in short, Twitch Prime provides premium perks on Twitch, and the only way to get Twitch Prime is by having an active Amazon Prime membership.
Free 30-Day Twitch Prime Trial
If you‘ve never tried Twitch Prime before, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. This gives you full access to Twitch Prime benefits for the first month.
To start the free trial:
- Go to the Twitch Prime sign up page.
- Click "Try Twitch Prime" and then "Link Account".
- Log in with your Amazon account or create one if you don‘t have one already.
- Link your Twitch account to your Amazon account.
Once linked, you‘ll have instant access to Twitch Prime for the next 30 days. You can take advantage of the free subscription, free games, ad-free viewing, and all other Prime benefits during this period.
The 30-day free Twitch Prime trial is great for testing out the premium features before paying. But be sure to cancel before the month ends if you don‘t want to be charged!
Monthly Twitch Prime Subscription
After the 30 day trial ends, your Twitch Prime membership will automatically continue as a paid subscription billed to your Amazon account every month. Here are the key details on the monthly subscription:
Cost – $12.99 per month in the U.S. The price may vary slightly in other countries. This is billed to your Amazon account.
Auto-renewal – Twitch Prime renews each month until you cancel it. You won‘t receive any additional warnings before the next charge.
How to cancel – You can cancel the auto-renewal by going into your Amazon Prime membership settings and managing the subscription. This will prevent you from being charged the next month, but you‘ll still have access until the end of your current period.
So while the 30 day trial is free, Twitch Prime does become a paid membership after that. Many users forget to cancel before that first charge kicks in, so be sure to set a reminder if you just want to do the free trial!
Twitch Prime‘s "Free Sub" Explained
One of the best perks of Twitch Prime is the free channel subscription you get to use each month. Here are the key details on how the free sub works:
You can use your Prime sub on any partnered Twitch channel. The streamer will receive revenue as if you paid the normal $5 monthly sub cost.
Each month, you get one free Prime sub token to use. If you don‘t use it that month, it doesn‘t roll over or accumulate.
You can cancel and re-use the free sub on different channels each month. But you can only be subscribed to one channel per month via Prime.
The free sub is only for 30 days. After that period, you‘ll have to resubscribe with Prime for the next month if you want to keep supporting that streamer.
Twitch Student Prime members also get a free sub to use each month while they have an active Prime Student membership.
The Twitch Prime free subscription is great for supporting your favorite streamer each month at no extra cost to you! Just be sure to come back and re-sub each month.
Do Streamers Get the Full $5 from Twitch Prime Subs?
When a user subscribes to a channel via their Twitch Prime free subscription, the streamer receives a portion of the $5 normal sub fee. But how much exactly?
According to Twitch‘s partnership terms, streamers receive 50% of the subscription fee from all subscriptions – including Prime subs.
So for each Prime sub to their channel, the streamer gets $2.50. Twitch receives the other $2.50. This is the same split as a regular paid $5 subscription.
In 2021, Twitch Prime members used 41 million Prime sub tokens across the platform. That‘s over $100 million dollars paid out to streamers from Prime subs!
The only difference is that with Prime, the sub cost is covered by Amazon – viewers aren‘t directly paying $5 like a regular sub. But streamers still get their share.
What Happens if Your Amazon Prime Expires?
Since Twitch Prime is directly linked to Amazon Prime, what happens if you let your Amazon Prime membership expire?
If your Amazon Prime subscription ends or does not renew for any reason, your Twitch Prime benefits will also automatically stop.
When your Prime expires, your Twitch and Amazon accounts will unlink. You‘ll lose access to the free sub, ad-free viewing, exclusive emotes, and all other Twitch Prime perks at that point.
However, your free Twitch Prime sub(s) from the current month will still continue until their 30 day subscription period ends. So if you cancel Prime mid-month, streamers will still receive revenue from your active Prime subs for the rest of that month.
The only way to cancel just Twitch Prime without impacting your Amazon Prime is to manually unlink the two accounts. But then you‘d lose all the Twitch benefits anyways.
So in summary, Twitch Prime depends directly on Amazon Prime. Canceling or letting Prime expire means Twitch Prime ends as well.
How to Unlink Twitch Prime from Amazon Prime
If you want to unlink Twitch Prime from your Amazon Prime membership for any reason, here are the steps:
Go to your Connections page on Twitch.
Under the Amazon/Twitch Prime connection, click "Unlink".
On the confirmation popup, click "Unlink" again.
This will dissociate your Twitch and Amazon accounts. Your Twitch Prime benefits will stop immediately.
You can repeat these steps at any time to relink your Amazon Prime membership and reactivate Twitch Prime.
Unlinking is useful if you want to cancel just one or the other. For example, you could cancel Amazon Prime but keep your Twitch account and paid channel subs intact.
Just keep in mind Twitch Prime itself requires an active Amazon Prime membership. Unlinking them just cancels the Twitch benefits.
Twitch Prime for Students
College students can sign up for Prime Student to get access to Twitch Prime at a discounted rate. Here are the key details on Prime Student for Twitch:
Prime Student gives you a 6 month free trial of Amazon Prime and Twitch Prime.
After the free period, Prime Student costs $6.49 per month rather than the regular $12.99 Prime cost.
You get full access to Twitch Prime benefits including the monthly free sub.
If you did a previous 30-day Twitch Prime free trial, you won‘t get an additional sub during the 6 month student trial.
Overall, Prime Student is a great way for college students to get an extended free trial of Twitch Prime and then keep the benefits at a lower monthly price point.
Maximum Stream Length on Twitch
For general Twitch streams, the maximum broadcast length is 48 hours.
After 48 hours, the stream will automatically disconnect and end the broadcast. This limit prevents excessively long streams from continuing indefinitely.
Twitch does not currently limit the number of hours you can stream per day or week, just the consecutive maximum per broadcast.
For context, many popular professional streamers are live for 4-8 hours on average per day. Streams longer than 12-15 hours start to become less common.
In terms of video storage, Twitch maintains archived broadcasts of VODs (Videos On Demand) for 14 days after the initial stream before deleting them. Only Twitch Turbo subscribers can keep archive broadcasts for 60 days.
So in summary, 48 hours is the cap per stream, and archives get deleted after 14 days unless you have Twitch Turbo.
Additional Twitch Prime / Prime Gaming Benefits
Along with the free subscriptions, Twitch Prime members also get various other benefits through Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime):
Free PC games – A selection of free games are available to download each month. These are full versions redeemable on PC.
In-game content – Special in-game loot including skins, weapons, currency, characters and more for various popular games like Apex Legends, Valorant, GTA V, etc.
Limited-time discounts – Special game discounts only for Prime members during certain promotions.
So on top of subs and ad-free viewing, you also get free games to keep plus tons of exclusive gaming content with Twitch Prime!
Twitch Prime vs Twitch Turbo
Twitch Turbo is a separate paid subscription that provides some overlap as well as differences compared with Twitch Prime:
| Feature | Twitch Prime | Twitch Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Included with Amazon Prime | $8.99/month standalone |
| Ad-free viewing | Yes | Yes |
| Exclusive emotes | Yes | No |
| Monthly game loot | Yes | No |
| Free games | Yes | No |
| Extended broadcast storage | No | Yes (60 days) |
| Badge | Yes | Yes |
As you can see, Twitch Turbo is focused on removing ads and extending video storage. Twitch Prime provides those perks plus free games and loot.
Hardcore Twitch fans may want both for the maximum benefits. But for most users, Twitch Prime provides more value at no extra cost with Amazon Prime.
Twitch Prime User Statistics
Here are some statistics on the usage of Twitch Prime and Prime Gaming:
Over 30 million people have signed up for Twitch Prime.
In 2021, there were 41 million active Twitch Prime / Prime Gaming subscriptions.
Twitch Prime makes up over 50% of all paid Twitch subscriptions.
More than 120 million free games have been claimed through Prime Gaming.
Over $1 billion worth of gaming content has been given out through Prime Gaming special offers.
These figures illustrate just how massive Twitch Prime has gotten as it continues to gain new members through Amazon Prime sign-ups.
The free Twitch Prime sub has become one of the primary ways viewers subscribe to their favorite streamers each month.
Top Streamers by Number of Subscribers
The streamers with the most paid channel subscribers on Twitch are also usually the highest earners. Here are some top streamers ranked by their total sub count:
| Streamer | Followers | Total Subs |
|---|---|---|
| Ninja | 17.2 million | Over 275,000 subs |
| Shroud | 10.3 million | Over 210,000 subs |
| Tfue | 10.4 million | Over 195,000 subs |
| summit1g | 6.4 million | Over 185,000 subs |
| TimTheTatman | 5.6 million | Over 170,000 subs |
| Nickmercs | 6.3 million | Over 165,000 subs |
Ninja continues holding the top spot with over a quarter million loyal paying subscribers! Popular Call of Duty streamer Nickmercs recently crossed 165k subs as well.
While follower counts are easy to grow, paid subs represent a streamer‘s core consistent audience supporting them month after month. Top creators can earn 6 figures or more per month just from subscription revenue.
Estimated Earnings for Top Twitch Streamers
Based on public subscriber numbers and Twitch‘s 50% revenue share model, here are some rough estimates of how much top streamers can make per month from subscriptions:
Ninja – 275,000 subs * $2.50 per sub cut = $687,500 per month from subs alone. Of course he has additional revenue like donations, sponsors, and YouTube.
Shroud – 210,000 subs * $2.50 per sub = $525,000 per month from subs.
Tfue: 195,000 subs * $2.50 per sub = $487,500 per month from subs.
summit1g – 185,000 subs * $2.50 per sub = $462,500 per month from subs.
The very top streamers are earning over half a million dollars per month from Twitch subscriptions. Ad revenue, merch sales, brand sponsorships and more add to their overall earnings.
While getting thousands of subscribers is difficult, the subscription model provides a predictable monthly income stream for professional streamers – as long as they provide entertaining content to keep fans engaged.
Is Twitch Prime Worth It?
At the end of the day, is a Twitch Prime membership worth having just for the Twitch benefits?
For most casual Twitch users, the additional features probably aren‘t essential. You can still watch all streams for free with ads.
But if you are a hardcore Twitch fan who watches daily, the ad-free viewing alone can be worth it. Everything on top like free subs, games, and loot is just a bonus.
The value also depends how much regular use you get out of the wider Amazon Prime membership perks like free shipping and Prime Video.
For anyone who already uses Amazon Prime, activating Twitch Prime is an instant no brainer. But subscribing to Amazon Prime solely for Twitch Prime likely isn‘t worth $120+ a year for most people.
The Bottom Line
Twitch Prime grants premium benefits on Twitch, including bonus emotes, free subscriptions, ad-free viewing and free games each month. But it does require an active Amazon Prime membership.
The 30 day free trial gives you a chance to try it out. After that, maintaining Prime and Twitch Prime access costs $12.99 per month or $120 per year.
Streamers receive $2.50 from each Prime subscription, so it‘s a great way to support your favorites at no extra cost if you already have a Prime membership for Amazon.
While not completely necessary, Twitch Prime adds nice perks for avid Twitch users. The free games and subscriber tokens alone can offset the annual Prime cost for fans who really utilize the benefits.
