Amazon Upgraded their AI with Alexa Plus, and Here's When It Will Be Released
Alexa+ is touted as "meaningfully smarter," bringing new features and a more comprehensive AI assistant to an Amazon device near you very soon.
Published Feb. 27 2025, 12:46 p.m. ET
Most people use AI in their day-to-day lives without giving it much thought. "Alexa, what time is it?" may or may not be a phrase used daily in your home. Or perhaps it's Siri or Gemini, or even Google Maps.
This is why it's always a little exciting when an announcement is made that your daily AI robot is getting an upgrade.
What new features will it include? How will it make our daily lives easier? In some ways, Alexa and her ilk are exactly what humanity dreamed of with AI: a helpful, not-too-sentient technology to make life easier and less complicated.
Amazon announced in February 2025 that they were releasing a new upgrade to their Alexa program. Here's when it will be released, and what you'll want to know about the important drop.
When will Alexa Plus be released? Good news for fans of the shopping assistant.
On Feb. 26, 2025, Amazon released a bevy of commercials announcing the impending arrival of Alexa Plus, also known as Alexa+.
An article from Amazon itself touted the new AI assistant as "powered by generative AI," adding that "Alexa+ is your new personal AI assistant that gets things done — she’s smarter, more conversational, more capable, and free with Prime."
That sounds like a lot of buzzwords and not a lot of substance, so what exactly will the new Alexa+ be bringing? As it turns out, quite a lot.
And the arrival date is closer than you might expect.
In the article announcing Alexa+ and listing all of the new features that users can enjoy, Amazon shared that the new program will arrive in the US "in the next few weeks during an early access period, and subsequently in waves over the coming months."
Four Echo devices will be the first ones to welcome Alexa+.
It will all start with several up-to-date Amazon devices, including Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 during the early access period. From there, Amazon says Alexa+ will spread to other devices and users can even download a new app to use on their phones.
It costs $19.99 to access Alexa+, but there's good news: Prime users can access it for free.
Amazon calls this iteration of Alexa "meaningfully smarter" and has updated the assistant's ability to generatively respond to queries and provide more features. In addition, Alexa+ allows you to upload information such as photos, documents, emails, and messages, which Alexa will remember and categorize to provide more customized responses and knowledge for you in the future.
According to Amazon, "Alexa+ can remember that you love pizza, your daughter is vegetarian, and your partner is gluten-free, to suggest a recipe or restaurant."
But the tech and commerce company promises that safety and privacy are at the forefront of the Alexa+ product, as Alexa before it. Security infrastructure for Alexa+ is built on AWS, and the company promises to "centralize important information such as your interactions with Alexa+ and various settings into the Alexa Privacy dashboard."
Ready to get started? Just keep your eyes peeled on your Amazon-enabled devices and wait; Alexa+ is almost here.