Amazon's voice assistant Alexa+ started small. It had just 100,000 users in May 20251. Chief executive Andy Jassy gave that number on an earnings call. Twenty months later, Amazon tells a bigger story: "hundreds of millions" of customers now use what it calls "new Alexa experiences"5.
That jump answers one question. It leaves another open. Millions clearly tried Alexa+ at some point. Whether they stayed, or whether Amazon earns anything from it, is harder to check8.
From 100,000 to "Hundreds of Millions"
Jassy's 100,000 figure looked small. Amazon had already sold more than 600 million Echo and Fire TV devices by then1. Seven weeks later, Amazon confirmed more than a million people had access2.
Growth kept climbing from there. Daniel Rausch ran Alexa and Echo for Amazon. He told CES reporters in January 2026, "97% of devices we ever shipped can support Alexa+"3. Tens of millions of people had already opted in, he said.
Weeks later, on Feb. 4, 2026, Amazon made Alexa+ free. Every U.S. Prime member got it as part of their membership. Everyone else in the country could try it too4.
Amazon's Own Alexa+ Count Climbs From 100,000 Users to 'Hundreds of Millions'
Dates and user figures Amazon itself has disclosed for Alexa+, February 2025 through October 2026
Each pin marks a date Amazon gave a number or expanded Alexa+; the gap between pins shows how long reporters waited for the next count.
The 2026 figures blend Alexa+ with the separate Alexa for Shopping tool Amazon merged into it, so they stand apart from the 2025 user counts, measured a different way.
Sources: TechCrunch [1]; TechCrunch [2]; TechCrunch [4]; aboutamazon.com [5]; aboutamazon.com [6]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| May 1, 2025 | 100,000 users, Amazon says |
| June 23, 2025 | Tops 1 million access |
| Feb. 4, 2026 | Free for all US Prime members |
| July 30, 2026 | 'Hundreds of millions' use it |
| Oct. 29, 2026 | Expands to Australia, India, Japan |
Rausch gave the clearest count that day. "We have tens of millions of customers using Alexa+ now, and now we're going to make it available to all Prime members...Prime members enjoy unlimited access — it's basically a paid-tier level of access that we're including in Prime now," he told TechCrunch4. That one sentence makes his whole case: real growth, now open to everyone.
The Number Amazon Stopped Giving
Amazon's July earnings report folded two products together. "Hundreds of millions of customers now use new Alexa experiences," the company said5. This number keeps growing every month, Amazon says. The same report also named Alexa for Shopping, a merger of the shopping assistant Rufus into Alexa+.
Alexa for Shopping alone reached more than 400 million customers. This count covers the twelve months before Amazon's October earnings call6. Customer interactions with it jumped 570 percent in that same span. Shopping and smart-home use are different habits, and Amazon first sold Alexa+ on talking, cooking and home control.
Amazon's hardware arm tells its own story too. It has lost money every year since the first Echo shipped in 20148. The company still keeps Alexa+'s own revenue out of its public filings. A leadership change lines up with that silence.
Rausch gave reporters that "tens of millions" figure. Now he steps down from running Alexa and Echo, in November 2026. Fire TV executive Aidan Marcuss takes his place, Amazon confirmed to Reuters.
A Year Inside One Kitchen
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy reviews smart homes for The Verge. She tested Alexa+ daily for more than a year, from its July 2025 early access through her October 2026 review7. Her verdict split the product in two.
"Amazon's attempts to stretch it into a personal assistant are underbaked and frustrating, and the ads on the Echo Show smart displays are out of control," Tuohy wrote7. One half of her review praised the product; the other half struggled.
The smart-home side earned her praise. Lights, thermostats and multistep routines now work on the first try most of the time. Amazon rebuilt the product underneath her over that year.
Alexa also walked her through a recipe photographed in a friend's English kitchen. It answered follow-up questions about oven temperature along the way.
Personal-assistant tasks fared worse in her test. Ordering lunch through Uber Eats inside Alexa+ cost her 20 minutes. It still ended with a s'mores milkshake arriving instead of her order. Booking an electrician through Thumbtack ended with Alexa handing her a phone number to dial herself.
Memory failed her too. Alexa+ gave her the travel time to the wrong school on back-to-back days. Both times it insisted that was the school she had asked it to remember.
Rausch defended the one feature Tuohy called the product's worst: its ads. "When it's done well, an ad should show up with something useful at just the right moment," he told The Verge7. Tuohy answered that every ad she saw over months missed that mark. The pitches ran from acne cream to motor oil aimed at her teenage daughter.
Wide Reach, Narrow Skills
Rausch's 97 percent claim explains the fast growth. Amazon's own count puts Alexa+ on more than 580 million of the roughly 600 million devices it has ever shipped3.
That reach spans Echo speakers, Echo Show screens and Fire TVs. It also covers tablets, the Alexa app and the Alexa website.
97% of Amazon's 600 Million Echo and Fire TV Devices Can Run Alexa+
Share of all Echo and Fire TV devices Amazon has ever shipped that are built to run Alexa+, per VP Daniel Rausch at CES, January 2026
Source: T3 [3]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Built to run Alexa+ | 97% |
| Whole | 100% |
On Oct. 28, 2026, Amazon added five more Alexa+ devices. A rebuilt $99.99 Echo Dot came with a smart-home hub, and a $249.99 Echo Studio came with a camera9. The other three were the 16-inch Echo Show 16, a nightstand alarm clock called Echo Time, and a digital picture frame.
Amazon@amazonThe new era of Echo starts now. ⬇️
Five new devices, redesigned from the ground up—all powered by the latest version of Alexa+, with even more natural conversations, thoughtful responses, and the ability to handle multi-step requests.
🔊 Echo Studio with Home Camera for… pic.twitter.com/FshnArglXx
Three days later, Amazon's third-quarter earnings extended Alexa+ to Australia, India and Japan. The update also made the full version free on Fire TV for customers who skip Prime6.
The product that started on four Echo Show models in 2025 now reaches nearly every screen and speaker Amazon sells.
What to do
Readers already inside Amazon's world have a free comparison waiting. Prime members can switch Alexa+ on through the Alexa app, already covered by their membership4. Test it for a week on the kitchen and smart-home tasks Tuohy found reliable7. Turn it back off if the booking and ordering features still feel half-built.
Anyone shopping for a new smart speaker should ask one question first: which number does the pitch rest on56? Alexa+'s own adoption and the shopping-assistant tally measure different habits, and only one answers whether people actually talk to Alexa+ itself.
By the numbers
- 100,000 users: Amazon's count of Alexa+ users on its first earnings call after launch, May 1, 20251.
- More than 1 million: people with access to Alexa+ by June 23, 2025, seven weeks later2.
- 97 percent: the share of Amazon's roughly 600 million Echo and Fire TV devices built to run Alexa+, per VP Daniel Rausch3.
- Free since Feb. 4, 2026: the date Alexa+ opened to every Prime member and every other U.S. customer4.
- Hundreds of millions: Amazon's count of users across "new Alexa experiences," a figure that blends Alexa+ with its separate shopping assistant5.
- 570 percent: the year-over-year jump in customer interactions with Alexa for Shopping, the tool Amazon merged with Alexa+ in 20266.
- Three countries: Australia, India and Japan, added to Alexa+'s territory on Oct. 29, 20266.
- Tens of millions: the last Alexa+-only figure Amazon gave reporters, on Feb. 4, 2026, nine months before its leadership change48.
What to watch
Watch Amazon's next earnings call. Will Aidan Marcuss give Alexa+ its own adoption number again, now that he runs the unit8? Google's Gemini for Home and Apple's smart-home AI are rolling out at the same time.
Tuohy tests all three in the same kitchen7. A standalone Alexa+ revenue line, in a future filing, would settle the question Amazon's current numbers still leave open.
Sources
- Maxwell Zeff, "Amazon CEO says 100,000 users now have Alexa+," TechCrunch, May 1, 2025, https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/01/amazon-ceo-says-100000-users-now-have-alexa/
- Sarah Perez, "Over a million people now have access to the gen-AI powered Alexa+," TechCrunch, June 23, 2025, https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/23/over-a-million-people-now-have-access-to-the-gen-ai-powered-alexa
- Rik Henderson, "'97% percent of devices can support Alexa Plus': Amazon confirms you won't need to replace your Echo or Fire TV Stick anytime soon," T3, Jan. 15, 2026, https://www.t3.com/home-living/smart-home/97-percent-percent-of-devices-can-support-alexa-plus-amazon-confirms-you-wont-need-to-replace-your-echo-or-fire-tv-stick-anytime-soon
- Sarah Perez, "Alexa+, Amazon's AI assistant, is now available to everyone in the US," TechCrunch, Feb. 4, 2026, https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/04/alexa-amazons-ai-assistant-is-now-available-to-everyone-in-the-u-s/
- Amazon.com, Inc., "Amazon Q2 2026 earnings report: Read the release," aboutamazon.com, July 30, 2026, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-earnings-q2-2026-report
- Amazon.com, Inc., "Amazon's Q3 2026 announcements, from new devices to AI breakthroughs," aboutamazon.com, Oct. 29, 2026, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-q3-2026-earnings-preview
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, "Alexa Plus is better at running my home, but it's not ready to run my life," The Verge, Oct. 8, 2026, https://www.theverge.com/tech/1007565/amazon-alexa-plus-review-one-year-echo-show-dot-max
- Gian Estrada, "Amazon Reshuffles Alexa Leadership: Can Alexa+ Move a $53 Billion Subscription Business?," Yahoo Finance, Oct. 10, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/amazon-reshuffles-alexa-leadership-alexa-051336026.html
- Amazon Staff, "Amazon's new Echo speakers bring Alexa+ to every room," aboutamazon.com, Oct. 28, 2026, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/echo-speaker-lineup
