Prime Day · Timing · Everyone

What time does Prime Day 2026 start?

By Siddharth Kumar · Updated June 2026

Prime Day 2026 starts at 12:01 a.m. PDT on June 23. In other US time zones that is 3:01 a.m. ET, 2:01 a.m. CT and 1:01 a.m. MT. The event runs four days through 11:59 p.m. PDT June 26, with Today's Big Deals refreshing three times daily at 12 a.m., 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT.

As an Amazon Associate, MySecretCart earns from qualifying purchases. Your price never changes. Full disclosure.

The best Prime Day deals — the limited-quantity, deepest-cut ones — often sell out in the first few hours. Knowing the exact start time in your time zone is the difference between grabbing one and seeing the words "deal ended." Amazon sets every deal clock on Pacific time, so here is the math done for you, plus the daily rhythm that determines when the best windows open.

Time ZoneStart Time (June 23)End Time (June 26)Notes
Pacific (PDT)12:01 a.m.11:59 p.m.Buy at Amazon
Mountain (MDT)1:01 a.m.10:59 p.m.Buy at Amazon
Central (CDT)2:01 a.m.11:59 p.m.Buy at Amazon
Eastern (EDT)3:01 a.m.2:59 a.m. (June 27)Buy at Amazon

The official start time and what it means in your zone

Prime Day 2026 opens at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday, June 23. Amazon anchors every deal timer to Pacific time, so any countdown you see during the event is measured from that clock. The 2025 event introduced a four-day, 96-hour format, and 2026 carries that forward: the window closes at 11:59 p.m. PDT on Friday, June 26. For Mountain shoppers, the start is 1:01 a.m. MDT — late enough that setting an alarm is realistic. Central shoppers face 2:01 a.m. CDT, and East Coast shoppers face 3:01 a.m. EDT on a Tuesday night, which for most people means the smart play is preparing the evening of June 22 rather than gambling on a pre-dawn session. The table above shows every zone side by side, so no arithmetic is required. One thing worth noting: Prime Day 2026 is the first June Prime Day since 2021 (when the event started June 21), but it is not the earliest Prime Day on record — that distinction still belongs to that 2021 event.

The three daily deal-drop windows: when to check back

Knowing the start time matters most for Day 1, but the daily rhythm shapes the entire four-day event. Today's Big Deals refresh three times every day at 12 a.m., 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT. Each drop delivers at least five new deals, many around 50 percent off, and in active windows fresh deals can appear as often as every five minutes. Day 1 morning is historically the richest window for electronics — the category where Amazon devices (Echo, Kindle, Fire TV) and Apple audio gear (AirPods Pro, AirTag) tend to see their steepest, fastest-moving cuts. Day 2 catches restocks of items that sold out overnight, so if you miss a deal on June 23, it is worth a check at the 8 a.m. PDT window on June 24. The AirPods Pro and Apple AirTag are consistent first-hour sellouts in the Apple category; the Echo Dot reliably goes deep on discount as Amazon promotes its own hardware. The Kindle Paperwhite is another perennial Prime Day highlight — its waterproof, weeks-long battery design makes it a frequent impulse buy when the price drops.

How to use Alexa and price alerts to never miss a deal

Three preparation steps make a meaningful difference in whether you actually capture a deal or just watch it expire. First, set an Alexa deal alert by voice before June 23. The exact phrasing is: 'Alexa, notify me about deals on [product name].' Alexa will push a notification to your phone and announce the deal aloud when it goes live — no manual checking required. Second, on any Amazon product page, click 'Set a price alert' (or 'Set lower price alert') and enter your target. You can optionally enable auto-buy, which lets Amazon purchase the item automatically the moment it hits your price during the sale window. Third — and this is the step most shoppers skip — check the 365-day price history before the event opens. Amazon shows this graph on most product pages, and browser extensions can surface it even more easily. The goal is to know what a genuine low looks like for a specific item, so you are not chasing a deal tag on a price that has been at that level for months. The Echo Dot earns its place here beyond just being a deal target: it is the device that makes voice deal-alerts trivially easy to set and receive, putting Alexa's notification system in whatever room you spend time in.

What to do right now: the night-before timing checklist

Because East Coast and Central shoppers face middle-of-the-night start times, the highest-value move is to front-load all preparation to the evening of June 22. Run through this sequence before midnight: confirm your Prime membership is active (Prime Day is exclusively for members); add target items to your Amazon wish list so they load in one tap on a phone; set price-target alerts with auto-buy enabled for items you are confident about; and enable Alexa deal notifications on the Echo Dot for items you want to monitor. The readers who benefit most from a 3 a.m. start are not the ones who wake up and shop impulsively — they are the ones who did ten minutes of setup the night before and let Amazon's alert system do the work. Noise-cancelling earbuds like the AirPods Pro and compact smart-home accessories like the Echo Dot tend to go fastest in the opening hours, so they especially reward advance preparation rather than browsing at the last minute.

Frequently asked

What time does Prime Day 2026 start in Eastern time specifically?

Prime Day 2026 starts at 3:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, June 23. That translates directly from the 12:01 a.m. PDT official start. For most East Coast shoppers, the practical strategy is to prepare the evening of June 22 and check back at the 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) daily deal drop rather than waking up at 3 a.m.

Do the 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT deal drops happen on all four days or just Day 1?

All four days. Today's Big Deals refresh three times daily at 12 a.m., 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT on each of the four event days (June 23 through June 26). Day 1 morning is historically the richest window for electronics, but Day 2 often restocks items that sold out overnight, so checking across multiple days is worth the effort.

What is the best strategy if you cannot shop at 12:01 a.m. PDT?

Set a target-price alert with auto-buy enabled on your priority items before the event opens. That way Amazon can act automatically the moment a deal hits your price. For items where you want to review before buying, set an Alexa deal notification so you get alerted without having to stay up or check manually. The 8 a.m. PDT drop is the most accessible window for shoppers in standard wake hours.

Can you set a price alert that auto-buys the moment a deal goes live?

Yes. On any Amazon product page, use the 'Set a price alert' option and enable the automatic purchase setting when prompted. Amazon will buy the item at your target price using your default payment method and shipping address the moment it qualifies. You will receive an order confirmation email, and you can cancel within the standard window if needed.

Do Prime Day deals expire and come back, or is each deal one-time only?

Most Prime Day deals are one-time, while-supplies-last offers — once inventory sells out, the deal ends permanently. However, Day 2 frequently sees restocks of the previous day's sellouts, and Amazon sometimes re-runs popular deals in later daily drops. Do not count on a sellout returning, but do check the 8 a.m. PDT drops on June 24 and 25 if you missed something on Day 1.

Does Prime Day start at the same time internationally, or only in the US?

Prime Day launches in each country based on that country's local midnight, not the US Pacific time anchor. In the UK, for example, it starts at midnight BST on June 23 — which is several hours before the US event opens. US deal pages will not show the event until 12:01 a.m. PDT regardless of where you are browsing from.

Related guides