Amazon is expanding its delivery services across multiple U.S. cities, introducing new one-hour and three-hour delivery options to compete with instant delivery services like Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats.
This initiative will make over 90,000 items available for rapid delivery, enhancing customer accessibility. The Amazon app will feature a filter for items eligible for one or three-hour delivery, marked with a distinct label. Prime members will be charged $9.99 for one-hour deliveries and $4.99 for three-hour deliveries, while non-Prime members will pay $19.99 and $14.99, respectively.
The one-hour delivery option will be available in hundreds of cities, including major markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as well as smaller cities like Des Moines, Boise, and American Fork. The three-hour delivery service will be available in over 2,000 cities and towns. To support this expansion, Amazon is launching a dedicated storefront showcasing items eligible for these expedited delivery options.
According to Udit Madan, senior vice president of Worldwide Operations at Amazon, the goal is to help customers save time. Madan stated, “We saw an opportunity to use our unique operational expertise and delivery network to help make customers’ lives a little easier while unlocking even more value for Prime members.”
Amazon is leveraging its existing same-day fulfillment sites for this new service. This move follows previous attempts by the company to enter the instant delivery sector, including the launch of one-hour deliveries under the “Prime Now” program in 2014, which was later discontinued in 2021. More recently, Amazon piloted a 30-minute delivery service in Seattle and Philadelphia in December 2025.
Internationally, Amazon has also made significant strides in the quick-commerce field. In 2024, it launched Amazon Now in India, offering a 10-minute grocery delivery service. Additionally, a 15-minute delivery service was introduced in the United Arab Emirates last October.
