Amazon has introduced a number of services and sub-platforms over the last few years, such as Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Kindle, and Audible.
Since 2012, Amazon has offered an entertainment program called Amazon FreeTime (also known as Amazon Kids+).
If you have children, perhaps you’re wondering what exactly Amazon FreeTime is. If so, continue reading through this article to learn more about it!
What Is Amazon Freetime?
Amazon FreeTime (now exclusively referred to as Amazon Kids+) is a subscription service through Amazon that offers thousands of movies, tv shows, games, books, and more that are appropriate for children ages 3-12. The service includes Parental Lock features to narrow the selection down to entertainment that is suitable for kids.
If you’d like to learn more about how much FreeTime costs, what the subscription includes, how to use it, and more, continue reading through this article for more helpful information!
Is Amazon FreeTime The Same As Amazon Kids+?
When first released in 2012, Amazon’s kid-friendly program was first coined Amazon FreeTime.
However, Amazon recently renamed this subscription service to Amazon Kids+ in 2020.
Nevertheless, Amazon FAQ and Help pages will still retain the name FreeTime to make researching the application quicker and easier for parents who know the service by its original name.
How Much Does Amazon FreeTime Cost?
Amazon offers a few different payment plans for Amazon FreeTime.
For US-based customers:
For US Prime Members, Freetime is only $2.99 per month. For non-Prime members, the Freetime subscription is $4.99. Subscribers have the option of paying per month or year.
The flat fee for one year for Prime members is $83, and for non-Prime members, the service costs $199 per year.
For Canadian customers:
For Prime Members, FreeTime is only $3.99 per month, and the four-person family plan is $8.99 per month.
For non-Prime members, the monthly fee is $5.99 per month, and the family plan is $12.99.
Just like the US, Canadian customers can pay for a full year instead of on a per-month basis.
For non-Prime members, the full-year pre-paid plan is $129.99; for Prime members, the yearly fee is $89.99.
What Does Amazon FreeTime Unlimited Include?
When purchasing an Amazon FreeTime subscription, parents and kids are granted access to content in the following categories:
- Ebooks
- Movies
- TV Shows
- Educational apps
- Games
- Audiobooks
All the content in the above categories is targeted towards children who are 3-12 years of age, making all entertainment kid-friendly.
What Content is Available on Amazon FreeTime?
Amazon has catered all of its FreeTime content to kids per their age group.
They have separated the entertainment into groups numbering ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Some of the content in each separate category is as follows:
Ages 3-5:
Movies/TV Shows:
- Peppa Pig
- Pete the Cat
- Cat in the Hat (series)
- My Little Pony
- Air Buddies
- Disney Junior Appisodes
- Tumble Leaf
- Sesame Street
- Disney
- Nick Jr.
Games and Books:
- Colors & Shapes Card Game
- Family Forever: A Julia Storybook
- Princesses Wear Pants
Ages 6-8:
Movies/TV Shows:
- Kung Fu Panda
- Johnny Test
- Pokemon: the Series
- Barbie Dreamtopia
- Sabrina: the Animated Series
- Sonic Underground
- Costume Quest
Games and Books:
- Dive, Dolphin!
- Little Kids First Big Book of the World
- The Boxcar Children
- Barbie Games
- Budge
- Unit 11
- Punctuation
Ages 9-12:
Movies/TV Shows:
- Lego Friends
- Batman: Lego Movie
- Just Add Magic
- Cartoon Network
- Nickelodeon
- Disney
Games and Books:
- Marvel Reads
- Fruit Ninja
- Star Wars games
- Sonic
- Egyptian Mythology
- Pacman
- Trapped in a Video Game
- Rugby League 18
- Big Nate Welcome to my World
- Transformers: Rescue Bots
In addition to the above-listed content, Amazon FreeTime offers a large variety of entertainment, including educational programs, books, and games.
Parents can also cater the content hub on their child’s profile to their age group so that the entertainment available is more age-appropriate.
What Books are Available on Amazon FreeTime?
Amazon FreeTime has over 1,000 books available for kids, including popular book series and authors.
A few of the most recent and more popular books are listed below:
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
- Frindle by Andrew Clements
- Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson
- Keeper of the Lost Cities
- Exile: Keeper of the Lost Cities 2
- Everblaze: Keeper of the Lost Cities 3 by Shannon Messenger
- Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
- Phoebe and her Unicorn by Dana Simpson
- Mary Poppins by P.L Travers
- A Series of Unfortunate Events Book #1 by Lemony Snicket
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
- Nate the Great by Marjorie Wynman Sharmot
- Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
- Nancy Clancy by Jane O’Connor
- The Saddle Club: Horse Crazy by Bonnie Bryant
Amazon.com contains a long list of the most popular children’s books on Amazon FreeTime.
If parents are wondering what content would be available for their children, they can read through the list to see if the books available on FreeTime are worth purchasing the subscription for.
Which Devices Is Amazon FreeTime Compatible With?
Amazon FreeTime can be used on Kindle, Kindle Fire, Android, IOS devices, and Chromebook laptops.
Unfortunately, not every application on Amazon FreeTime can work on regular PCs and laptops such as Acer and Dell.
Additionally, some FreeTime games and apps, such as PUBG, Snapseed, Beauty Plus, etc are built for mobile devices only.
How Do I Subscribe to Amazon FreeTime?
In order to subscribe to Amazon FreeTime, parents must follow the below steps:
- Download Amazon FreeTime to your Kindle.
- On your Amazon FreeTime app, select Parent Settings and tap Manage Content & Subscription.
- Type in your parental controls password, tap the Ok button.
- Under Manage Subscription Content, select the Subscribe to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited option.
- If you’re a single child family, select Subscribe to the Single Child Plan. If you have multiple children in your household, select Subscribe to the Family Plan (this option is cheaper for larger families).
Is Amazon FreeTime Included With Prime?
Amazon FreeTime is not included in the Prime subscription fee. However, Prime members are reduced from $4.99 to $2.99 per month.
If a parent has more than one child in the house, they are urged to purchase the full-year subscription fee ($83 for Prime members).
Additionally, this will enable them to save more money as the year subscription covers up to four children.
What Parental Control Is Accessible With FreeTime
With FreeTime, parents can personalize such things as screen time limits, set educational goals, and filter content, so it’s more appropriate for their child’s age group.
Additionally, there is also a handy feature called Learn First, an app block feature with FreeTime.
With this, parents can block all games and entertainment until their child reaches the day’s educational goal.
Learn First also contains a Bedtime feature which enables parents to shut down Amazon Kids for the rest of the day.
Another feature is that Amazon allows individual profiles to be made for each child in the household.
This will make catering content to their age group much easier, as well as setting their individual goals and screen time limits.
All of these settings can be accessed either on My Account or the Parent Dashboard on a parent’s Amazon account.
How Do I Use Amazon FreeTime on Kindle/ Kindle Fire?
In order to have access to Amazon FreeTime on Kindle or Kindle Fire, parents must follow these below steps to use the app:
- Create a parental controls password and create a profile for your child.
- One the Homepage, tap Apps, and click on Kindle FreeTime.
- Press Get Started.
- Enter your parental controls password. If you do not already have a password, there will be the option to create a password. Afterward, tap on the Continue button.
- You’ll be brought to the Add Child screen. Once there, select Add Photo and choose a profile photo.
- Enter your child’s birthdate, name and gender. If you have other children in the house whom you’d like a profile for, save the details for the first kid and select Add Another Child. You can create up to four profiles for your kids on Amazon FreeTime.
- Press Done to save the settings, and the profile will be created.
In order to access and manage the settings on Amazon FreeTime, parents must follow these steps:
- Swipe down from the screen to open up the Quick Settings application.
- Tap Settings and enter your parental controls password.
- go to the Home page, tap Apps and open Kindle FreeTime.
- Tap Manage Content & Subscription, Daily Goals & Time Limits, Manage Child Profiles, or More… in order to edit, manage and save the settings.
In order to use their child’s profile, parents can tap the profile icon to enter their profile.
In order to access the Content Libraries, parents must do the following:
- Once in the child’s profile, the content library will pop up by title. For example, parents may select the Books icon, and if the title is not already downloaded, it will automatically begin downloading to Kindle Fire when connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Is Amazon FreeTime Available Worldwide?
Currently, Amazon FreeTime is available in the United States and Canada.
There is no international option for Amazon FreeTime in the UK, India, or any other country where Amazon ships.
However, if parents are taking their family out of the country and want to use the app in a place it’s not available, they can download and save content to their child’s profile to enable use.
Is There a Free Version of Amazon FreeTime?
When parents purchase a kid-friendly Kindle or Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet for their children, the purchase comes with a free year of Amazon FreeTime.
Fortunately, the service is still compatible with regular Kindles, androids, IOS devices, and tablets.
Does Amazon FreeTime Work Without Wifi?
Amazon FreeTime requires a reliable internet connection in order to work properly.
However, for travel and other instances where parents cannot access the internet, they can download and save content on their child’s profile ahead of time so that certain activities can be used.
Ebooks, games, educational programs, and audiobooks can all be saved and downloaded.
Unfortunately, the movies and TV shows in Amazon FreeTime require an internet connection to stream. At this time, they can’t be saved and downloaded.
Does Amazon FreeTime Renew Automatically?
Amazon FreeTime renews automatically every month or every year, depending on the plan parents have chosen.
How Do I Cancel Amazon FreeTime?
In order to cancel a subscription to Amazon FreeTime, parents must do the following:
- On your Amazon FreeTime app, select Parent Settings, and tap Manage Content & Subscription.
- Enter your parental controls password and select Ok.
- Under Manage Subscription Content, press Unsubscribe from Amazon FreeTime Unlimited.
Once parents have unsubscribed from Amazon FreeTime, any recent charges will be fully refunded.
Content that parents have purchased and downloaded from Amazon FreeTime will still be available on their Kindle Fire.
For more streaming tips and tricks for Amazon customers, you can see our other guides on if Amazon Prime Video is in 4K, why there are commercials on Prime video, and if you keep your movies after canceling Prime Video.
Conclusion
Amazon FreeTime (now referred to as Amazon Kids+) is an optional streaming service offered on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Fire, and other android and IOS devices that support the app.
Computers can support some features like streaming, but not mobile games.
Parents can download and sort through all content available with parental lock features enabling them to better cater the entertainment to their child’s age group.
Movies, TV shows, ebooks, games, educational programs and audiobooks are all available.
