What is Alexa+?
Alexa+, also referred to as Alexa plus, is a new subscription service from Amazon that upgrades their voice assistant, Alexa, using generative AI technology. It aims to provide a more natural and capable assistant, understanding complex ideas and half-formed thoughts like a trusted friend. It’s designed to handle tasks across various services and devices, making it more versatile for users.
Key Features
- Conversational Ability: It’s more conversational, understanding and responding to natural language, including colloquial expressions and complex ideas.
- Action Capabilities: It can orchestrate tasks like controlling smart home devices, making reservations, playing music, ordering food, and setting alerts, using systems and APIs.
- Personalization: It knows your preferences, like purchases and listening history, and can tailor suggestions, such as recommending pizza for you but vegetarian for your daughter.
- Availability: It’s available across home, office, car, and new mobile apps on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, remembering context across devices.
- Proactivity: It suggests actions like starting your commute early for traffic or alerting you to sales on desired gifts.
- Home Management: Enhances control over music, video, and smart home, like setting up Fire TV or checking Ring for packages.
- Knowledge Base: Powered by large language models and Alexa’s vast knowledge, it answers specific questions and can summarize documents or create quizzes from study materials.
- Privacy and Security: Built on AWS with a centralized Alexa Privacy dashboard, designed for transparency and control.
Pricing and Availability
It costs $19.99 per month for non-Prime members, but is free for Amazon Prime members, which also includes benefits like delivery, Prime Video, and Music. It’s rolling out in the US in the next few weeks, prioritizing early access for Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 owners, with sign-up at new Alexa.
Note on Echo Plus
It’s worth mentioning that “Alexa Plus” might also refer to the Echo Plus, a specific smart speaker model from Amazon with features like a Zigbee hub and better sound quality. However, given the recent announcement on February 26, 2025, it’s more likely the user is asking about the new service.
Comprehensive Analysis of Alexa Plus: The New AI-Powered Service and Potential Confusion with Echo Plus
This note provides a detailed exploration of what Alexa plus, or Alexa+, is, focusing on its features, pricing, availability, and potential confusion with the Echo Plus smart speaker, based on recent announcements and user feedback as of February 26, 2025. The goal is to offer a thorough understanding of the service, ensuring all relevant information is included for a complete assessment, while acknowledging the complexity and potential for misinterpretation.
Background and Context
The user’s query, “what Alexa plus is,” coincides with a significant announcement from Amazon on February 26, 2025, introducing Alexa+, a next-generation AI-powered version of their voice assistant, Alexa. This service aims to enhance user interaction with generative AI, offering more conversational and capable features. However, the term “Alexa plus” could also refer to the Amazon Echo Plus, a specific model of smart speaker launched in 2017, which has additional features like a Zigbee hub and temperature sensor. Given the timing and prominence of the Alexa+ announcement, it’s likely the user is referring to the new service, but the potential for confusion warrants exploration.
What is Alexa+?
Alexa+, also referred to as Alexa plus in some contexts, is a subscription service that upgrades the Alexa voice assistant with generative AI technology. Announced during Amazon’s first Devices event since 2023, it’s described as “smarter, more conversational, and more capable,” aiming to act like a trusted personal assistant. It’s built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and integrates with large language models (LLMs) to enhance its knowledge base and interaction capabilities.
Key features, as detailed in the official announcement [Introducing Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa](https://www.aboutamazon.com/ news/devices/new-alexa-generative-artificial-intelligence), include:
- Conversational Ability: It offers expansive, natural conversations, understanding half-formed thoughts, colloquial expressions, and complex ideas, responding in a way that feels like talking to a trusted assistant. For example, it can handle queries like “what’s the lowest point in any ocean” or half-formed song requests from movies.
- Action Capabilities: It orchestrates tasks across tens of thousands of services and devices using “experts,” which are systems and APIs for specific tasks. This includes controlling smart home devices like Philips Hue and Roborock, making reservations via OpenTable and Vagaro, playing music on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and iHeartRadio, ordering from Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, Grubhub, and Uber Eats, and setting alerts for events like Ticketmaster concerts or Ring notifications. It also has agentic capabilities for self-directed web navigation, such as finding oven repair services via Thumbtack.
- Personalization: It leverages user data like purchases, listening history, shipping address, and payment preferences to tailor experiences. Users can add family recipes, dates, facts, and dietary preferences, enabling personalized suggestions, such as recommending pizza for the user, vegetarian options for their daughter, and gluten-free for their partner.
- Availability and Context: It’s available in the home, office, and car, with a new mobile app on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and accessible via browser at new Alexa. It remembers context across Echo devices, phones, cars, and computers, ensuring a seamless experience.
- Proactivity: It suggests actions based on user needs, such as starting a commute early for traffic or alerting users to sales on desired gifts, enhancing its utility as a proactive assistant.
- Home Management: It enhances music, video, and smart home control, for example, setting up Fire TV in the living room, moving music to speakers, or checking Ring for packages or dog walks, making it a central hub for home management.
- Knowledge Base: Infused with LLMs and Alexa’s vast knowledge, it can answer specific questions and handle document summarization or action, such as adding live music events to the calendar or turning study materials into quizzes from shared documents, emails, photos, and messages.
- Privacy and Security: Built on AWS, it’s centralized in the Alexa Privacy dashboard, designed for transparency and control, ensuring user data is handled securely.
Pricing and Availability
Alexa+ is priced at $19.99 per month for non-Prime members, but is free for existing Amazon Prime members, who also benefit from delivery, Prime Video, Music, and deals. This pricing structure was confirmed during the event, as reported in [Amazon Alexa event as it happened](https://www.techradar.com/ news/live/amazon-alexa-event-2025-live). It’s initially rolling out in the US in the next few weeks, with early access prioritized for homes with Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21, and users can sign up for early access at new Alexa. International availability is still unknown, as noted in Alexa Plus explained: 9 things you need to know.
Potential Confusion with Echo Plus
The term “Alexa plus” could also refer to the Echo Plus, a smart speaker model introduced by Amazon in 2017, with updates in 2018 and 2019. The Echo Plus is a more premium version of the standard Echo, featuring a Zigbee hub for smart home control, a temperature sensor, and generally stronger sound quality, as reviewed in Amazon Echo Plus (2nd Generation) Review | PCMag. It’s priced higher than the standard Echo, with a 2019 model at $149.99, offering features like Bluetooth connectivity and Alexa functionality, but it’s been somewhat superseded by newer Echo models, as noted in Amazon Echo Plus review | TechRadar.
Given the recent announcement of Alexa+ on February 26, 2025, and the user’s query timing, it’s more likely they are referring to the new service. However, the overlap in terminology could cause confusion, especially for users familiar with older Amazon products. The Echo Plus is still available for purchase, as seen in Amazon.com: Echo Plus, but its relevance has diminished with newer Echo models and the introduction of Alexa+.
Impact on Users and Suitability
Alexa+ is designed for users seeking a more advanced, personalized, and proactive voice assistant, particularly those with Amazon Prime memberships, as it’s free for them. It’s suitable for households with Echo devices, especially the supported models, and those who use multiple services and devices, given its orchestration capabilities. However, non-Prime users might find the $19.99/month fee steep, especially compared to the original Alexa, which is free on compatible devices. The service’s initial US availability might limit its appeal internationally, as noted in user discussions on TechRadar.
For users considering the Echo Plus, it’s more relevant for those looking for a physical device with smart home hub capabilities, but given its age and the focus on Alexa+, it’s less likely to be the user’s intent here.
Table: Comparison of Alexa+ and Echo Plus
| Aspect | Alexa+ (Service) | Echo Plus (Device) |
|---|---|---|
| Type | AI-powered subscription service | Smart speaker with Alexa built-in |
| Key Features | Conversational AI, task orchestration, personalization | Zigbee hub, temperature sensor, better sound quality |
| Pricing | $19.99/month (non-Prime), free for Prime members | $149.99 (2019 model, varies by condition) |
| Availability | US, rolling out, early access for select Echo Shows | Still available, but superseded by newer Echo models |
| Launch Date | February 26, 2025 | 2017 (first gen), updated 2018, 2019 |
| User Suitability | Prime members, multi-device households | Smart home enthusiasts, premium speaker seekers |
Legal and Practical Considerations
Alexa+ is subject to Amazon’s terms of service, with privacy controls centralized in the Alexa Privacy dashboard, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. The service’s reliance on AWS and LLMs suggests robust infrastructure, but users should be aware of potential data usage for personalization, as outlined in privacy policies. The Echo Plus, being a hardware product, comes with standard warranties and support, but its relevance is waning with newer models and the focus on software enhancements like Alexa+.
Conclusion
Alexa plus, or Alexa+, is a new AI-powered subscription service from Amazon, enhancing Alexa with generative AI for more conversational and capable features, free for Prime members at $19.99/month for others, initially available in the US. It offers personalized assistance, proactive suggestions, and task orchestration, suitable for multi-device households. However, the term might also refer to the Echo Plus smart speaker, a less likely intent given the recent announcement. This analysis ensures a comprehensive understanding, balancing the service’s features with potential confusion, and providing all relevant details for users.