Do Amazon Gift Cards Expire?

No. Amazon states that Amazon.com gift cards do not expire and carry no fees. Once the balance is applied to an Amazon account, it stays there until you spend it. That makes Amazon one of the more forgiving cards to hold — but there’s still a good reason not to sit on one you’ll never use (more below).

General information, not legal advice — confirm the current details in Amazon’s gift card terms, which can change.

The short answer

• Expiration: Amazon gift cards don’t expire, per Amazon’s stated policy.
• Fees: no purchase fees, activation fees, or inactivity/dormancy fees.
• Where the balance lives: once you redeem the claim code to your account, it becomes your Amazon Balance and can’t be transferred back out or refunded to cash.

How this compares to the general rule

US federal law (the CARD Act) already protects most gift-card funds from expiring for at least 5 years and limits inactivity fees. Amazon goes further by not expiring at all and charging no fees — so you’re comfortably covered. For the full picture across brands, see our gift card expiration and fees guide.

So why not just hold it forever?

Even though it won’t expire, an Amazon card is only worth its full value if you actually shop at Amazon. If you don’t, that money is effectively frozen. You can turn it into cash on FlipGift Escrow without ever sharing the card’s code: a buyer pre-pays a below-retail price into escrow, you use your own card to place their Amazon order, and the money is released to you when delivery is confirmed. Sellers typically net 78–89% of face value, the flat 2.5% fee is split between both sides, and because the code never changes hands there’s nothing for a stranger to drain — FlipGift stores no card numbers or PINs at all. One practical note: an Amazon balance locks to whichever account redeems it. That’s fine for escrow — you redeem the card yourself to fulfil the buyer’s order — but it does mean you can’t "un-apply" a code later, so decide before redeeming it for personal use.

Sell your Amazon card without sharing the code