Starting Oct. 1, Amazon will change its program that allows Prime members to share free shipping benefits with people outside their household.

Starting in October, you'll have to get your own Amazon Prime subscription in order to benefit from the company's free shipping program. First-time subscribers get a year of Prime membership for $15, but you'll be stuck shelling out $15 a month to maintain your subscription thereafter.

Starting Oct. 1, Amazon Prime customers wanting to share shipping benefits and added digital perks can do so using the Amazon Family program.

First Reads is a program that gets you early access to new books across popular genres. Prime members get at least one free Kindle e-book every month from a curated list hand-picked by editors.

The company began notifying users in recent days that it plans to end the Prime Invitee Program on Oct. 1, according to a notice viewed by CNBC.

A retail membership soon became much more than just free deliveries too, with Amazon adding benefits like free access to Amazon Music and Prime Video, among others. Walmart also bulked up its membership perks with the addition of Paramount+ in 2022.

Starting in October, those privileges can no longer be shared with anyone outside of a Prime member’s household. The Prime Invitee program, which had made this possible, is being replaced by Amazon Family [1].