Powered by generative AI, Alexa+ is a reinvention of Amazon’s hugely successful voice assistant.
As well as giving you answers to specific questions and performing set tasks, it remembers your personal information and takes context into account while also allowing you to speak more naturally when seeking to get things done.
The result is a more personalized assistant that delivers better outcomes and learns from your behavior in order to make more relevant suggestions.
Read on to discover what it’s capable of doing and why it’s an exciting development.
This article was correct as of March 2025. AI tools are updated regularly and it is possible that some features have changed since this article was written. Some features may also only be available in certain countries.
What is Alexa+?
The virtual assistant, Alexa, was announced alongside Amazon’s debut Echo device in November 2014 and it has allowed users to perform all manner of tasks from discovering the latest weather forecasts to finding facts from trusted sources.
Accessed by simply uttering, “Alexa”, it has proven to be a popular conduit for the playing of songs and podcasts and, thanks to a wide range of skills, many of which have been added by third-party developers, it has been possible to significantly widen the scope of the service.
Alexa+ takes the assistant to the next level using models from Anthropic, which makes both Claude and Amazon’s generative foundation model Nova.
Allowing you to adopt a more conversational tone when communicating with the assistant, Alexa+ is better at understanding what you’re asking of it. Since it keeps track of your activities (from what you’re buying and how you pay to what you’re listening to and watching), it’s also proactive, capable of figuring out what you may want and when.
What can you use Alexa+ for?
Alexa+ can be used in the same way as Alexa today. You can ask questions, get it to play songs from a service such as Amazon Music, Spotify or Apple Music, react to purchase recommendations by Amazon and manage your smart home among many other things.
But it’s the way that it carries out those tasks that differentiates the new from the old. One of the most frustrating things about Alexa is often having to repeat a request, either because it hasn’t understood what you’re trying to say or has misunderstood it and delivered something wildly different to what you expected.
Alexa+ is better at understanding you and one of the reasons for that is because you can feed it information which it will retain. You can tell it what you like and don’t like, share facts and key dates such as birthdays and the types of food you enjoy. You can also share photos, messages, emails, documents and calendar events, and get Alexa+ to draw upon the information for use in its responses and suggestions.
What can’t you use Alexa+ for?
Alexa+ is primarily driven towards being an assistant so it’s good at keeping you organized, helping to make sense of information and carrying out tasks (it will go as far as suggesting recipes, organizing a food delivery or making a restaurant appointment for you). It also ties in with smart home devices such as Amazon’s Ring and Fire TV.
So while it will deliver personalized news summaries, remind you of events, manage your calendar, summarize emails and documents, create and send emails and texts and help entertain you, it won’t be an effective work buddy, generating reports and creating spreadsheets and the like. It won’t create code either. And since it relies on cloud-based processing, it won’t be an effective service if you want to operate it offline.
How much does Alexa+ cost?
Alexa+ costs $19.99 and the reason we’re not providing the price for the UK and Australia here is because it’s currently US-only. If you like in America, though, and like the idea of using Alexa+, you should consider a Prime subscription at $14.99 a month (or $139 annually) instead. This gives you Alexa+ for “free” alongside all of the other benefits of Prime. You can also get Alexa+ as part of the Kids Plus package for $5.99 a month, again only in the US.
Where can you use Alexa+?
Early access is being restricted to the Echo Show 8, 10, 15 or 21 but Alexa+ will become available on all Alexa devices except the Echo Dot 1st Gen, Echo 1st Gen, Echo Plus 1st Gen, Echo Tap, Echo Show 1st Gen, Echo Show 2nd Gen, and Echo Spot 1st Gen.
Alexa+ will also be available in a new mobile app for iOS and Android as well as at Alexa.com.
Is Alexa+ any good?
We haven’t reviewed Alexa+ in full but the Alexa+ demo showed its power and TechRadar’s Senior Editor for AI, Graham Barlow, said it looked a lot more fun to talk to than ChatGPT or Siri.
It has much more of a personality than its rivals shown by its penchant for making jokes and throwing in funny comments which, Graham said, was evidence that “Amazon may have just found a niche”.
But more than that, it can carry out tasks well. And since it offers powerful AI integration in the home – if, that is, you primarily stick with Amazon products such as Ring – Graham reckons “it’s looking like Amazon is going to own the AI in your home”.
Use Alexa+ if…
You should use Alexa+ if you already have an Echo device, an Amazon Prime subscription and live in the US – you may as well because it’s free and you’ve nothing to lose. It’s also useful if you’re looking for a conversational AI assistant that is capable of learning your habits and using such data to deliver relevant responses and suggestions. And it’s great if you have an Amazon-focussed smart home or just want to better organize your life.
Don’t use Alexa+ if…
Don’t use Alexa+ if you’re worried about sharing personal information with a generative AI assistant – to get the most out of it, that’s what you’ll need to do. And go elsewhere if you want a virtual work colleague capable of knocking out a report or some amazing C++ code. Avoid if you don’t want to get sucked further into Amazon’s ecosystem, too.
Also consider
ChatGPT can also be used to hold conversations and better organize your life with the bonus of being capable of producing reports and code.
Siri is having a hard time at the moment but it’s a natural go-to if you use an Apple device.
Claude powers Alexa+ via Amazon Bedrock so why not go direct and see what it’s capable of doing.
Want to read more about Alexa+?
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