Amazon Business Account Requirements

That is the published list. It is shorter than most people expect, and notably it does not include a business license, articles of incorporation, a minimum trading history, or a minimum spend.

Going through each item

Business name, address and tax identification number

The identifying trio. The name and address should match how the business is actually registered, because a mismatch causes problems later — most visibly at tax-exemption enrollment, where Amazon requires the exemption document to match the business name or address on the account.

The tax identification number is where most questions arise, so it gets its own section below.

A valid business email address

Amazon verifies this. Two practical notes. First, use an address on the business's own domain if you have one — it keeps the business account cleanly separate from a personal Amazon account. Second, do not use an address that is already attached to a personal Amazon account unless you specifically intend to convert that account. Converting is the root of nearly every "my business and personal orders got tangled" complaint.

A payment method

A valid business credit card or other payment method. Worth separating clearly from a different thing people conflate with it: Amazon's extended payment terms — 45 days on the Small tier, 60 days on Enterprise — are not part of registration. They require a Business Credit Account, sit on paid Business Prime tiers, and Amazon grants them upon approval. We cover the distinction in Pay by Invoice and net terms.

Additional users (optional)

Not a requirement for registration — you invite colleagues afterwards by email and set per-user permissions. Free on the free account.

Gathering the requirements, step by step

The checklist is short. The order you assemble it in is what decides whether registration takes ten minutes or three days, because two of the items are awkward to change afterwards and one of them is not yours to rush. Work through these before you open the form.

Step 1 — Confirm the entity qualifies

Amazon's Business Accounts terms name three groups of Eligible Entities:

• All types of businesses — LLCs, LLPs, corporations, partnerships, sole proprietorships and PLLCs
• All types of governmental entities — federal, state, local and quasi-governmental
• All types of non-profit organizations — including 501(c) organizations, 527 organizations and similar tax-exempt organizations

Note what that list does and does not do. It is broad — sole proprietorships sit in it alongside corporations, and nonprofits and government bodies have their own lines. It does not create a different checklist per entity type: the four items above are asked of all of them. If you are still choosing how to describe yourself at signup, that is sole proprietorship or LLC.

Step 2 — Fix the legal name and address before you type them

Use the name and address the business is actually registered under, not a trading name or whichever mailing address is currently convenient. The reason is downstream: Amazon requires a tax-exemption certificate to match the business name or the address on the account, so a casual mismatch entered in minute two of registration becomes a rejected certificate in week three.

Step 3 — Settle which tax identification number you will use

Amazon asks for a tax identification number, not specifically an EIN. Decide which identifier the business files under before you start, and if that is genuinely unclear, ask whoever prepares your return rather than guessing at the form. The no-EIN case is covered in full below.

Step 4 — Choose the email address deliberately

This is the item people spend the least time on and regret the most. Three published rules govern it:

• An email address can only be associated with one business account at a time.
• If the same address is used for a personal and a business account, Amazon links the two automatically.
• If both accounts share that address, changing it later is no longer self-service — Amazon requires you to contact it.

The clean setup is an address on the business's own domain that has never been attached to a personal Amazon account. The messy one is reusing the address you already shop with, which is the root of nearly every "my business and personal orders got tangled" complaint. If you have already done it, the untangling is on converting a personal account.

Step 5 — Have a payment method that belongs to the business

A valid business credit card or other payment method. A personal card is not blocked at registration, but an account that buys on one defeats most of the reconciliation the account exists for. Nothing about this step commits you to extended terms — those are a separate application, assessed separately.

Step 6 — List the other buyers and the role each one gets

Optional at registration, but far easier to plan now than to retrofit. You need only their email addresses: an administrator can invite up to 20 users at a time by email, or add up to 1,000 people by spreadsheet, and Amazon sends a reminder if an invitee has not responded after 3 days. Amazon publishes 5 roles — administrator, requisitioner, punchout user, finance user and tech user — and one person can hold more than one. The full setup is multi-user accounts and approvals.

Step 7 — If you are tax-exempt, assemble the certificate first

Enrollment is free and sits on the free account, but Amazon checks the document against a specific list. It must satisfy all of the following:

• It matches the business name or the address on the Amazon Business account
• It is dated
• It is signed
• It lists a description of the items, where the form calls for one
• It carries a valid state tax ID, which Amazon confirms with the state taxing authority

Which is exactly why step 2 matters: the match is against the name or address you entered at registration. The whole walkthrough, including the six document types Amazon states it cannot accept, is on tax-exempt purchasing.

Step 8 — Expect a verification step, and leave room for it

Amazon verifies the business email address as part of registration. Where a registration goes to manual review instead of completing immediately, Amazon states it may take up to 24 hours to verify the account. Do not schedule your first urgent order against an assumption of instant approval — what the interim state looks like is on verification and approval.

The three cases that stall people

"I don't have an EIN"

Amazon asks for a tax identification number, not specifically an EIN. A sole proprietor who has never obtained an EIN generally files under their Social Security number, and that is the identifier the business operates on. Amazon supports sole proprietors explicitly — the Business Prime Duo tier is described as being for sole proprietors — so this is a recognized case rather than a workaround.

We are not going to tell you which identifier to enter for your specific tax situation; that is a question for whoever prepares your return.

"Do I need a business license?"

Amazon's published registration requirements do not list one. That is a statement about what Amazon asks for at signup, not about whether your state or city requires a license to trade — those are separate obligations that exist regardless of which account you buy from.

Specific Amazon programs can carry their own gates. Healthcare purchasing, for example, involves credentialing beyond standard registration. If your buying falls into a regulated category, expect an extra step.

"Can I register without a registered business?"

You need the identifying information above. If you genuinely operate a business — including as a sole proprietor — you have it. If you are an individual wanting business pricing without operating a business, the answer is that this is a business purchasing program and registering under false details is not something we are going to help with. Stay on a personal account.

What to have ready before you start

Registration is not difficult, but it stalls when people begin without the paperwork. Before you open the form, have the business name and address as registered, the tax identification number, access to the business email inbox for the verification message, and the payment card. If you intend to enroll for tax exemption in the same session, also have your exemption certificate and the list of states it covers — see the ATEP guide for what Amazon accepts and, importantly, the documents it rejects.

With those in front of you, the step-by-step is how to create an Amazon Business account. If you are not yet sure you want one, the honest version of that question is on is an Amazon Business account worth it, and the money question is what it costs — nothing, for the account itself.