Alexa+

Alexa+ is Amazon's generative AI upgrade to the Alexa assistant, running on Amazon's Nova models combined with Anthropic's Claude, and available across Echo devices, Fire TV, the Alexa mobile app, and the Alexa.com website. It moves beyond the old command-and-response style of Alexa into open-ended conversation and multi-step task handling: it can plan a dinner and book the restaurant through OpenTable, order food via Uber Eats, control smart home devices, manage calendars and reminders, and carry context across a conversation rather than resetting with each query. It also supports the Model Context Protocol for connecting to outside tools and services, and Amazon has started licensing the underlying tech to partners like BMW for in-car assistants.

It's built for existing Alexa and Echo owners, especially Prime members, since Amazon made Alexa+ free with Prime when it opened up nationwide access in February 2026. Non-Prime users can try a limited free tier through the app or Alexa.com, or pay $19.99 a month for full access. The core audience is households already invested in Echo speakers and smart home gear who want an assistant that can actually complete errands and shopping tasks rather than just answer questions or set timers.

What sets Alexa+ apart from ordinary chatbots is its device reach and its grip on the smart home: it sits on hundreds of millions of existing Echo units and integrates directly with services like Philips Hue, Spotify, and Amazon's own shopping and Wallet systems, giving it a foothold in daily household routines that standalone AI assistants don't have. Whether it consistently outperforms rivals on general conversation is less clear, but its distribution through Amazon's device ecosystem is hard for competitors to match.