With Walmart Plus Week just around the corner, you might be debating whether or not to sign up for the membership to shop exclusive deals during the sales event.
As Walmart expands its offerings and beefs up its membership program, the major retailer has become a popular alternative to Amazon Prime. It offers many of the same perks and comes with a lower membership fee. Even though it’s cheaper than Amazon Prime, is Walmart Plus worth it?
To help you decide, we’ve laid out the cost, benefits and potential savings that come with Walmart Plus. Add up the savings of the perks you would use to decide if Walmart Plus makes sense for you.
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How Much Is Walmart Plus?
The standard Walmart Plus membership costs $12.95 per month or $98 per year.
But those on Medicaid or eligible government assistance programs can sign up for Walmart Plus Assist. It comes with all the same perks, but costs just $6.47 per month or $49 per year.
And if you sign up now, you can pay $0 for the first 30 days. Thanks to this free trial offer, you can try out all the Walmart Plus benefits you’ve heard about before committing to the fee.
9 popular Walmart Plus benefits
(Image credit: Getty Images)
So, what do you get in exchange for that membership fee? Walmart is adding new perks all the time as it aims to compete with Amazon Prime. But these are some of the most popular Walmart Plus benefits available right now:
- Fast, free shipping with no order minimum. This includes same-day or next-day delivery when available.
- Free Paramount Plus Essential plan (and discounted rates on Paramount Plus with SHOWTIME).
- Save on gas. Get 10 cents off per gallon at over 13,000 Exxon, Mobil, Walmart and Murphy stations. You also get to pay member’s prices at Sam’s Club stations.
- Free prescription delivery.
- Free same-day grocery delivery on orders of $35 or more. Note that time slots are available on a first come, first-served basis, so you may need to plan ahead for busier shopping seasons, like holidays.
- Free Pawp virtual pet care membership, which includes unlimited, on-demand virtual visits with licensed vets.
- Member’s only discounts and freebies at Burger King, including 25% off your order every day and a free Whopper every three months.
- Free returns, including the ability to have your returns picked up from your house.
- Save time in-store with Mobile Scan & Go.
How much could you save with a Walmart Plus membership?
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As great as those Walmart Plus benefits sound, how do you know if they are worth the $12.95 per month (or $98 per year) you’d pay to access them? The answer depends on which of those perks you’d actually use.
To help you figure out how much you would really save with membership, we tallied up the potential annual savings of some of the the key Walmart Plus benefits:
- $59.99 on Paramount Plus Essential. If you would upgrade to Paramount Plus with SHOWTIME, you’d save $55 per year on the upgraded streaming subscription as a Walmart Plus member.
- $43.30 average savings on gas. This is based on the Department of Energy’s estimate that the average car uses 433 gallons of gas per year. At 10 cents off per gallon, that’s $43.30 per year. Estimate how many gallons of gas you use to get a more precise savings calculation.
- $99 saved on Pawp virtual pet care membership. If you aren’t already a member, you can estimate your savings by figuring out how many of the vet visits you make in a year could be done virtually instead.
- About $25 per year at Burger King, if all you did was redeem your free Whopper every three months. Since prices vary from one restaurant to the next, the exact savings on your free Whoppers depend on your location. If you also use your daily 25% discount now and then, your total savings will be higher.
- $6.99 minimum saved per order on shipping fees. To calculate how much you’d save here, you’ll need to estimate how often you’d order from Walmart and how often those orders would come out to less than $35 (the minimum threshold to get free shipping without membership).
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Estimating your savings on groceries is a little trickier. If you currently rely on delivery services like Amazon Prime or Instacart to get groceries delivered to your door, here’s what your savings on fees could look like:
- $119.88 saved on grocery delivery compared to Amazon Prime, where members pay an additional $9.99 per month to get unlimited free same-day grocery delivery (and still need to meet the same $35 minimum threshold that Walmart Plus requires). The savings reflect the amount you’d save each year if you kept your Prime membership, but ditched the extra $9.99 monthly charge for grocery delivery. If you canceled Amazon Prime altogether, you can add another $139 to your annual savings with Walmart Plus.
- $99 saved on grocery delivery compared to Instacart. This number is based on the cost of an Instacart Plus membership which includes $0 delivery fees on orders over $35. It doesn’t include the added service fees or tips that can drive up the cost of an Instacart delivery, so actual savings could be higher for those who switch from Instacart to Walmart Plus. If you don’t have a membership, but still use Instacart occasionally, tally up the total you paid in fees and tips through the app over the last month or so to estimate how much you’d save each month by ordering those items from Walmart instead.
But, if you don’t currently have groceries delivered on a regular basis, this particular Walmart Plus perk doesn’t necessarily save you money. However, it does still offer the convenience of saving you a trip to the grocery store without having to worry about the extra fees that come with other delivery services.
The other factor that makes calculating your grocery savings tricky is that this perk applies only to items in stock at Walmart.
If you’re a loyal Whole Foods shopper, trading Amazon Prime for Walmart Plus doesn’t make sense. The same is true for Instacart Plus members who regularly order from multiple stores.
To figure out how much Walmart Plus would save you on groceries, then, go “window shopping” on Walmart’s website for some of your must-have items.
If you can find most of what you’d buy on a typical grocery run at Walmart, you know you’ll definitely be able to make good use of that free same-day grocery delivery.
Bottom line
If the perks you’d use regularly make up for all or most of the Walmart Plus membership fee, then it’s definitely worth signing up for.
That way, the other benefits like exclusive deals, early access to sales and Burger King freebies are an added bonus that provide even more value – but not ones that you feel pressured to use to make your membership worth the fee.