Amazon Business Guides
How the operational features actually work, including the parts Amazon documents in three different help pages and nobody reads.
The short version of all three
- Tax exemption is free, takes one enrollment, and activates within 15 minutes — but Amazon rejects six common document types.
- Net terms (45 and 60 days) need a paid tier and a Business Credit Account, granted upon approval. Not automatic.
- Multi-user access and approvals are free. The paid tiers add enforcement, not the ability to have users.
The pages in this section cover features rather than decisions. They exist because Amazon documents each of them across several help articles with different vocabulary, and because almost every third-party write-up gets the free-versus-paid line wrong on at least one of them.
The free/paid line, since it decides all three
Two of the three features below are free. That is not the impression most guides leave, so it is worth stating plainly before you read them:
Tax-exempt purchasing is free. Enrollment in the Amazon Tax Exemption Program sits on the free account. If you hold a valid certificate, you do not need to buy anything. The enrollment walkthrough covers the process and — more usefully — the documents Amazon explicitly will not accept, which is where nonprofits most often get stuck.
Multi-user accounts and approvals are free. You can invite buyers, set per-user permissions, and route orders to an approver without a membership. That guide marks exactly where the free version stops and the paid Guided Buying feature begins.
Extended payment terms are not free, and they carry a second gate on top of the fee. Pay by Invoice and net terms explains why "buy the Small tier and get 45-day terms" is an overstatement of what Amazon actually promises.
Which guide you need
You are a nonprofit, school, church or reseller. Start with tax-exempt purchasing. It is the highest-value free feature on the platform for you, and the enrollment has real failure modes worth reading about before you attempt it. Segment specifics are on Amazon Business for nonprofits.
Cash-flow timing is your problem. Go to net terms. Be aware it forces a tier decision — 45-day terms are a Small tier benefit at $499/year, not something you can add to Essentials.
Several people need to order, or somebody keeps buying the wrong thing. Multi-user accounts and approvals. Note that "review it afterwards" and "stop it happening" are different features at different prices.
How these pages are sourced
Every factual claim in this section links an Amazon-owned page — the plan page or a specific help-center article — rather than another guide. That is deliberate: competitors are the ones with the stale figures, and citing them is precisely how inaccuracy propagates. Our methodology page explains the rule and how to check any claim here yourself.
Where Amazon hedges its own wording — "may have access to", "upon approval", "eligible orders" — we keep the hedge rather than upgrading it into a promise. If you find a claim here stated more confidently than Amazon states it, that is an error and we would like to hear about it.
Operational guides
Three features that change day-to-day purchasing, with the eligibility gates and gotchas stated up front.
Tax-exempt purchasing
ATEP enrollment step by step, and the six documents Amazon will not accept.
Pay by Invoice & net terms
What Amazon's net terms are, which tier unlocks 45 and 60 days, and the approval gate.
Multi-user accounts & approvals
Adding buyers, setting permissions, and building an approval chain that people follow.
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Plans and prices verified against Amazon on August 11, 2026. How we check.
Common questions
Which Amazon Business features are free and which are paid?
Tax-exempt purchasing, multi-user accounts, approval workflows, purchasing reports, business-only pricing and quantity discounts are free with the account. Extended payment terms of 45 or 60 days, Spend Visibility, Guided Buying, free business delivery and Prime Business Rewards require a paid Business Prime tier.
How does Amazon Business tax exemption work?
An account administrator enrolls through Amazon's tax exemption wizard under Business Settings, providing the states of exemption, the exemption type and the supporting documents. Amazon says exemption activates within 15 minutes of a successful enrollment, with a confirmation email.
What are Amazon Business net terms?
Extended payment terms let you pay on invoice rather than at checkout. Amazon includes 45-day terms on the Small Business Prime tier and 60-day terms on Enterprise, both with a Business Credit Account and both subject to approval.
How many users can I add to an Amazon Business account?
The free account supports multiple users with per-user permissions. Seat caps apply only once you buy a Business Prime tier: 5 on Essentials, 20 on Small, 200 on Medium and unlimited on Enterprise.
What is the difference between approval workflows and Guided Buying?
Approvals are free and mean an order is reviewed by a designated approver before it is placed. Guided Buying is a paid Business Prime feature that shapes what buyers can select in the first place, and on Enterprise can block certain purchasing behavior outright.