Amazon has officially announced the new dates for its 2023 Prime Day sale. July 11-12 is the official start and end times for the upcoming shopping event, which is once again set to have thousands of products drop to what can only be considered Black Friday-equivalent (or better) deals.

Over the years Prime Day has become immensely popular, captivating millions of customers who eagerly anticipate the event to seize discounted products. Consequently, this has also spurred other retailers like Best Buy and Walmart to join the competition by offering their own sales and discounts during the same period, effectively transforming Prime Day into a widespread shopping extravaganza throughout the entire online retail industry.

When is Prime Day 2023?

Prime Day 2023 will officially take place from July 11 to July 12 this year. You can expect the early Prime exclusive to start soon, but for now, July 11-12 is when the serious deals will begin.

This isn’t a serious departure from Prime Day last year, which took place on July 12-13, but the time between Prime-exclusive sales is getting shorter since we got the Prime Early Access sale (October Prime Day) just before Black Friday last year as well.

Prime Members: Top Up $50 and Get $5 Extra for Free

If you are planning to buy anything during Prime Day 2023, you’ll definitely want to take advantage of this. Starting from July 3 at 12 AM PDT, Prime members will be able to top up $50 onto their Amazon account, and then receive an additional $5 for free on top. Reminder: This deal starts on July 3 and isn’t live yet.

In order to qualify for the $5 promotional code, you must be a current Prime member; apply the offer to your account; and purchase at least $50 in qualifying Amazon.com eGift Cards in a single order at Amazon.com beginning July 3, 2023 and ending July 10 2023.

Eligible Amazon Prime customers who upload a photo for the first time to the Amazon Photos app are also able to get $15 promotional credit off their first order of $30 or more on Amazon. This is another superb method for getting ready to buy anything over Prime Day. There’s also a few early deals already live on Amazon, including several discounts on Amazon smart devices, and 3-months of Kindle Unlimited for free.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Prime Day is typically held in July and is exclusive to Amazon Prime members, who pay a Prime membership fee for various benefits like free two-day shipping, access to Prime Video streaming services, and more. During Prime Day, Amazon offers a wide range of discounts, deals, and promotions across various product categories, including electronics, video games, home appliances, fashion, beauty, toys, and more.

Reminder: You’ll Need to Be a Prime Member

This all sounds great, but you might also be wondering: How much is a Prime membership? For US-based customers, Amazon Prime is $14.99 per month or $139 per year (£7.99/month or £89 in the UK). There’s a 30-day free trial, and students can also get a 6-month trial and Prime at 50% off ($7.49/month) after their trial period ends.

You’ll need to be a Prime member to take part in Prime Day 2023, but that 30-day trial should cover you for the whole shopping event, alongside any other deals that pop up beforehand. Plus, if you don’t want to pay for Prime, you don’t have to, just remember to turn off auto-renewal as well.

With how expensive everything is getting in 2023, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts or follow @IGNDeals on Twitter for even more updates before Prime Day.

More Great Deals Before Prime Day

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.