Walmart+ has charged $98 a year since it launched, and that sticker price is the least interesting number about it. The ones that decide whether you profit are buried in the details: a $35 order minimum, a $6.99 fee for missing it, a $10 Express charge that members still pay, and a billing policy with no refund window. We read Walmart’s terms and help pages, ran the break-even math for different kinds of households, and found several ways to pay less than the full price, including one that wipes the fee out for certain cardholders.
Key Answers Before You Pay Anything
These are the questions we kept seeing people get wrong. Each answer is short on purpose; the sections below carry the math and the exceptions.
Walmart+ costs $98 a year or $12.95 a month, both plus tax. Twelve monthly payments come to $155.40, which is $57.40 more than the annual plan. Walmart also advertises a 30-day trial for $1. Choose monthly only if a card benefit reimburses it.
Yes. Walmart+ Assist (qualifying government aid) and Walmart+ Student (enrolled college and graduate students) both cost $49 a year or $6.47 a month. AARP members can get the annual plan for $58. Certain American Express cardholders get a monthly credit that covers the fee. Age alone does not qualify you for anything.
A non-member pays $7.95 to $9.95 per store delivery. At those prices the $98 plan is earned back in 10 to 13 deliveries, the $58 AARP plan in 6 to 8, and the $49 plans in 5 to 7. Order once a month and the full-price plan is roughly a wash.
Orders under $35 trigger a $6.99 fee. Express delivery costs members $10 on top of everything. Marketplace sellers can add their own shipping, and some categories, such as pharmacy and tires, have not counted toward the $35 minimum. Free delivery also is not a same-day guarantee.
It is 10 cents a gallon at participating Walmart, CITGO, Exxon, Mobil and Murphy stations, with no gallon cap. You would need about 82 gallons a month to cover a $98 fee on gas alone. At 40 gallons a month it saves roughly $48 a year, a useful slice rather than the whole case.
Not under Walmart’s published terms, which call membership fees non-refundable. Canceling stops the next renewal and a paid term keeps running to its end. Cancel during a trial and the benefits stop immediately. Paid members can instead pause for one month, up to three times in twelve months.
No on both counts. SNAP can pay for eligible groceries on an online order, but state SNAP agencies say it cannot cover delivery fees, and the Walmart+ fee needs a regular card. That is exactly why the $49 Assist rate matters to SNAP households.
Not really. Prime costs $139 a year and carries more digital extras. Walmart+ is cheaper and leans on physical stores: delivery from your local Walmart, fuel savings and Scan & Go. Plenty of households keep both and let each one cover the shopping it does best.
What You Will Actually Pay, Depending on How You Join
The membership has one list price and at least five doors. Which door you walk through can swing the yearly cost from $155 to nothing.
Start with the number that never moves. Walmart+ debuted in September 2020 at $98 a year or $12.95 a month, and neither figure has changed since. That is rare for a subscription, and it is worth noticing because Amazon’s rival plan sits at $139 a year. The list price is stable; the money gets lost in how people sign up.
Take the monthly plan. Twelve payments of $12.95 add up to $155.40, while the annual plan covers the same twelve months for $98. In our review of Walmart’s membership pages, we found nothing in the monthly plan that the annual plan lacks. The $57.40 premium buys flexibility and nothing else. The one clear exception is a card benefit that reimburses the monthly fee, which we cover in the situations section below.
The $1 trial deserves its own paragraph, because it is where most surprise charges begin. Walmart advertises 30 days for $1, after which the plan renews at full price. Canceling a trial ends your benefits immediately and Walmart’s terms say no refund is issued for the trial period. So the move that actually preserves the trial is to leave it running, then cancel in the last few days. When you start the cancellation flow, Walmart offers a Remind Me Later email that arrives three days before renewal, and that email is the safety net we would use.
| Way to join | Yearly fee | Who qualifies | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan | $155.40 ($12.95 × 12) | Anyone | $57.40 more than annual for the same benefits |
| Annual plan | $98 | Anyone | Renews automatically; fee is non-refundable |
| AARP offer | $58 (annual) | Current AARP members | Needs yearly AARP confirmation; not combinable with Assist or Student; AARP dues extra |
| Walmart+ Assist | $49 ($6.47 a month) | People enrolled in qualifying aid programs | Verified through SheerID and re-verified annually; falls back to full price if it fails |
| Walmart+ Student | $49 ($6.47 a month) | Enrolled college and graduate students | Eligibility ends when you leave school |
| Amex Platinum or Business Gold credit | $0 net on the monthly plan | Enrolled cardholders | Monthly plan only; annual plan and Plus Ups do not qualify |
| 30-day trial | $1 first month | New members | Cancel early and benefits stop at once, with no refund |
Order of operations matters here. AARP’s own disclosure says that if you are mid-trial when you redeem the offer, your discounted membership starts at that moment. If you are already a paid member, the discount waits until your current billing cycle ends. In other words, redeeming during the trial is the cleanest path to the $58 rate. Let the trial roll into the $98 plan first and you will pay full price for a year you could have discounted.
The same logic applies to Assist: Walmart’s materials describe a verification step before enrollment, so complete it before the trial converts, not after.
Keep these in one place. Walmart Customer Care takes cancellations and billing disputes by phone, and the same steps are available inside your account.
Every Perk, and the Catch Attached to Each
Walmart lists a dozen benefits. They are not equal. Two or three do almost all of the financial work, and the rest are bonuses that only matter if they happen to match your life.
| Benefit | Value to you | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free store delivery | $7.95–$9.95 per order | Groceries and more delivered, as fast as same day | $35 minimum; $6.99 fee below it; same-day is not promised |
| Free shipping | Fee on small orders | Next-day and two-day shipping from Walmart.com, no minimum | Excludes most Marketplace items; freight and location surcharges can apply |
| Pharmacy delivery | Per-delivery fee | Orders with prescriptions arrive as soon as today, no minimum | Not available with InHome; some medication types may not qualify |
| Video streaming | Up to $129 a year | Paramount+ Essential or Peacock Premium, one at a time | Ad-supported; switch only every 90 days; needs separate registration |
| Fuel savings | 10¢ per gallon | Walmart, CITGO, Exxon, Mobil and Murphy stations, plus member prices at Sam’s Club fuel | Participating stations only; app required; smaller discount in a few states |
| Burger King | Varies | 25% off a digital order once a day; free Whopper with a purchase once a quarter | Needs the BK app and a linked Royal Perks account |
| Walmart+ Travel | Up to 10% back | Walmart Cash on hotels, packages, cars and tours; 2% on air | Must book on the Walmart+ Travel site; reward is Walmart Cash, not cash |
| In-store extras | Small but real | Scan & Go, 25 free photo prints a month, free flat tire repair and road hazard warranty | Tire perks cover passenger vehicles; Scan & Go ends at a self-checkout |
| Returns from home | Time and gas | Pickup of eligible returns from your door | You must be home; select locations and eligible purchases only |
| Pawp pet care | About $99 a year | Free 24/7 vet access by app for your pets | Cannot prescribe medication; Emergency Protection is a paid add-on |
| Early access | Timing only | First look at online deals, including Black Friday | Paid members only; online only; while supplies last |
| OnePay card | 5% at Walmart | Unlimited 5% back at Walmart for members | Separate credit application and approval; interest if you carry a balance |
Delivery: where most of the value lives
If you take one fact from this section, take this one: free delivery is the benefit that decides everything. A non-member pays $7.95 or $9.95 to have a store order brought to the door. A member pays nothing once the basket reaches $35. Walmart’s own sign-up page words it as free delivery on orders over $35, delivered as fast as today. Notice the phrase carefully. It is a speed ceiling, not a promise, and slots depend on your address, your store and what is in stock.
We found that the $35 line is where most unhappy members get stung. A basket that lands at $34.20 triggers a $6.99 minimum order fee, and Walmart’s fee schedule has described the fee as applying to members as well. That is a harsh penalty for being 80 cents short, and it is easy to dodge: add a cheap pantry item before checkout, or fold two small mid-week orders into one.
Express is a different animal. It is the two-hour option, and members pay a flat $10 for it. Walmart’s page says that saves up to $9.95 against what non-members pay, since non-members’ combined fees run $17.95 to $19.95. A $10 charge for speed is fair. Just do not mistake it for a freebie; it is the one delivery cost the membership never removes.
Shipping and the Marketplace blind spot
Free shipping with no minimum is real, and for gift-heavy seasons it is useful. The blind spot is the Marketplace. Walmart’s page says the benefit excludes most Marketplace items, so an order that mixes Walmart-sold goods with third-party sellers can still show shipping charges. Heavy freight items and some delivery locations carry surcharges too. If a checkout screen shows a shipping line you did not expect, look at who is selling each item before you assume the membership failed.
Pharmacy delivery for people who cannot easily get out
Members get free delivery on orders that include prescriptions, with no order minimum, as soon as the same day in some areas. Two limits are worth knowing before you build a routine around it. It is not available when you use the InHome service, and eligibility can depend on the type of medication. Call your Walmart pharmacy and ask directly whether each of your prescriptions can ride in a delivery before you rely on it. That one phone call costs nothing and prevents a missed refill.
Streaming: the perk with the sharpest edges
Walmart+ includes one of two ad-supported services at a time: Paramount+ Essential or Peacock Premium. Walmart puts the value at up to $129 a year. You may swap between them only once every 90 days, so choose with the next three months in mind rather than whichever show is trending today. You also have to register with the streaming provider separately, which is the step people forget, then wonder why nothing is playing. The benefit is tied to your membership status, so expect it to end when you cancel.
The honest way to count this perk is to ask whether you already pay for either service. If you do, canceling it is a direct, dollar-for-dollar offset. If you would never have subscribed, the perk is pleasant but should not figure in your math.
Fuel, Burger King, travel and the small stuff
The fuel discount is 10 cents a gallon at participating stations, with a smaller 5 cents in a few states, Oklahoma among them. There is no gallon limit, and all fuel grades qualify. To get it, open the Walmart app at the pump and follow the prompt or scan the QR code on the pump screen. If the pump does not cooperate, the station attendant can help. Divide $98 by ten cents and you get 980 gallons a year, about 82 a month, which is how much driving it takes for gas alone to pay the fee.
Burger King’s offer is 25% off one digital order per calendar day plus a free Whopper with a purchase each quarter, but only after you link a Royal Perks account through the Walmart app. Walmart+ Travel returns up to 10% of hotel, package, car and tour spending as Walmart Cash, with 2% on flights. Walmart Cash is store credit, so it only helps if you shop there anyway. The remaining extras, 25 free photo prints a month, flat tire repair and discounts on money services, are the kind of perk that is worth exactly what you actually use.
Pawp: useful, with one thing the ads leave out
The base Pawp membership gives you 24/7 access to veterinary professionals by app, and Walmart+ covers it. Pawp’s own help center confirms the base membership is included at no cost. Standard pricing elsewhere runs around $99 a year, so for pet owners it offsets part of the fee on its own. The catch: telehealth vets cannot prescribe medication, and the optional Emergency Protection add-on, which can reimburse up to $3,000 for one life-threatening event a year across as many as six pets, is billed separately by Pawp. Read its terms before you assume your emergency is covered.
The OnePay card: read this twice
Members can apply for the OnePay CashRewards card, which earns 5% back at Walmart. It is a credit card with its own application, approval and interest. A 5% reward means little if you carry a balance, because interest erases it in a few months. If you pay in full every month and shop at Walmart weekly, it is a real discount. If you do not, skip it and do not let a reward rate drive a borrowing decision.
The Break-Even Math Nobody Prints
Walmart reports that annual members who stay at least a year save about $382 a year on average, before the fee. That figure is real, but it comes from people who already stuck around, so treat it as an upper-middle estimate rather than a forecast for you. Here is the arithmetic you can run on your own habits.
In our break-even testing, we modeled only the delivery fee, because it is the one saving every member can count on, then layered other perks on top. The result is lopsided. On the $98 plan you need about 13 deliveries if non-members would pay $7.95 and 10 if they would pay $9.95. Drop to the $58 AARP rate and the threshold falls to 6 to 8. At $49 it is 5 to 7, which means two orders a quarter nearly does it.
| How often you order | Orders a year | Non-member fees | Versus $98 plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | $413.40 – $517.40 | Large win: $315 to $419 ahead |
| Every other week | 26 | $206.70 – $258.70 | Clear win: $109 to $161 ahead |
| Monthly | 12 | $95.40 – $119.40 | Roughly a wash at the low fee |
| Quarterly | 4 | $31.80 – $39.80 | Loss: skip it or use the $49 route |
Look at the monthly row. A household that orders once a month pays $95.40 in delivery fees at the lower price, which is $2.60 less than the membership. On delivery alone it loses. Add gas, a streaming service you actually cancel, or free pharmacy delivery and it flips. That is why the answer to is Walmart+ worth it depends on stacking, not on any single perk.
Gas math is simple. At ten cents a gallon, 20 gallons a month saves $24 a year, 40 gallons saves $48, 60 saves $72 and 100 saves $120. Stack a 40-gallon driver on top of an every-other-week orderer and the saving passes $250 against a $98 fee. Stack the same driver on a quarterly orderer and you are still underwater.
Write down how many store deliveries you would take in a year, how many gallons you buy at a participating pump, and the yearly price of a streaming service you would drop. Multiply deliveries by $8.95 (the middle of the fee range), gallons by $0.10, and add the streaming price. If the total beats your entry price by at least $25, buy it. If it lands within $10 either way, the perks you will not use are the tiebreaker, and a trial or discount route is the safer bet.
Fees that can still appear on a member’s bill
| Charge | Amount | Applies to | Can you avoid it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum order fee | $6.99 | Store delivery orders under $35 | Yes: add items to reach $35 |
| Express delivery | $10 flat for members | Two-hour delivery | Yes: choose standard delivery |
| Marketplace shipping | Set by the seller | Most third-party items | Yes: buy Walmart-sold items |
| Freight or location surcharge | Varies | Heavy items and some addresses | Sometimes: pickup can avoid it |
| Sales tax | Varies by state | The membership fee itself | No |
| InHome Plus Up | Walmart’s help page listed $40 a year or $7 a month on top of Walmart+ | Optional in-kitchen delivery | Yes: skip it; confirm current price |
Two footnotes on that table. Walmart’s fee schedule has listed pharmacy, photo, wireless and tires as categories that do not count toward the $35 minimum, so a basket padded with those can still come up short. And the InHome price comes from Walmart’s help page, which is older than the rest of our sources; confirm the current rate in your app before you add it, and note that it requires a compatible smart lock or garage opener.
Find Your Situation
Averages only get you so far. These are the households where the decision looks different, and the particular trap each one tends to walk into.
For someone who does not drive, store delivery and prescription delivery are not conveniences; they are the point. A weekly grocery order at the non-member fee costs $413 to $517 a year, so even the full $98 plan looks cheap, and the two discount routes make it cheaper still.
Here is the part that gets missed. Age by itself earns no Walmart+ discount. There are two separate roads. If you hold an AARP membership, the annual plan is $58. If you receive qualifying assistance such as SNAP, Medicaid, SSI or LIHEAP, Walmart+ Assist is $49. You cannot stack them; AARP’s terms exclude Assist members. Compare them honestly: AARP dues are billed on top of the $58, and AARP lists $15 for a first year with automatic renewal, so a first-year AARP route runs about $73. If you qualify for Assist, it is the cheaper road.
Our practical advice for this household: build every order past $35, call the pharmacy about delivery eligibility, and set a calendar reminder for annual re-verification, because a lapse drops you to the full price.
Walmart+ Assist exists for you. It is the same membership at 50% off: $49 a year or $6.47 a month. Verification runs through a third party called SheerID, and it needs proof of enrollment such as a benefits card photo or an award letter. Walmart’s launch materials named SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, SSI, TANF, tribal TANF, the National School Lunch Program and LIHEAP, and later lists are reported to run longer, so check the live list at walmart.com/plus/assist rather than assuming you are out.
Three details save headaches. First, choose the annual $49, not the $6.47 monthly, which adds up to $77.64. Second, the fee must be paid with a regular card; EBT cannot cover it, and state SNAP agencies say it also cannot cover delivery fees. Third, verification lasts one year, and if re-verification fails your plan reverts to the standard price, so do it as soon as the reminder arrives.
One more gotcha that does not appear on the glossy pages: reports indicate the $6.99 under-$35 fee has applied to EBT orders too. Keep each online order above $35 and handle small top-ups in the store.
This is the only route that can make the fee vanish. The card issuer reimburses up to $12.95 plus tax each month on one Walmart+ membership, as a statement credit. Three conditions apply, and each one hurts if missed. You have to enroll in the benefit. You must use the monthly plan, because annual memberships do not qualify. And you must pay with that card. Plus Ups such as InHome are excluded, and only one membership per account earns the credit.
If you already pay for the annual plan, cardholder guides advise switching to monthly before the annual renewal date. Several of them also suggest skipping the $1 trial, since the credit covers the monthly fee anyway. We found that this is the one place where choosing the monthly plan is correct.
Walmart+ Student gives you the Assist price, $49 a year or $6.47 a month, after verification of your enrollment. Delivery matters less if you live on campus and have no car, but shipping with no minimum helps with dorm and textbook-season buying. Know that eligibility lasts as long as you are enrolled, so graduating ends it and the plan moves to standard pricing. Put your expected graduation month in your calendar so the jump to $98 does not arrive as a surprise.
The 10-cent discount is flat, so it rewards volume. A commuter who burns 60 gallons a month saves $72 a year; at 100 gallons it is $120, which covers the entire fee by itself. The discount works at Walmart, CITGO, Exxon, Mobil and Murphy stations, and you also get member prices at Sam’s Club fuel centers. Before you commit, open the Walmart app and look at which of those brands are actually on your route. A discount at a station twelve miles out of your way costs more in gas than it saves.
One caution from reading the fine print: if you only drive a few gallons a week, the fuel perk alone will not carry the membership, so lean on delivery or streaming to justify it.
The Pawp benefit gives unlimited 24/7 chat and video access to veterinary professionals for free with the membership, which is helpful at 2 a.m. when you cannot tell whether a symptom is an emergency. It will not replace a clinic, and the vets cannot prescribe medicine. Do not treat the optional Emergency Protection as insurance without reading the conditions: it reimburses one qualifying life-threatening event per year, up to $3,000, and you need telehealth involvement first, according to reports on how the program works. It is billed separately by Pawp, so price it before you accept.
Skip it, or take a discount route. A quarterly orderer faces about $32 to $40 a year in non-member delivery fees, far below the $98 sticker. Curbside pickup does not need a membership, and Walmart’s deal events, including the fall event that ran October 5 through 11, did not require one either; members just get early access. If you want to try the perks anyway, the $49 Student or Assist routes or an AARP discount change the arithmetic enough to justify a try. Otherwise keep the $98 in your pocket.
Stacking matters. Walmart+ costs $98 against Prime’s $139, so the two together run $237 a year. Many households keep both because Prime wins on digital extras and fast shipping from Amazon, while Walmart+ wins on store delivery, fuel and in-store tools. If you already pay for Paramount+ Essential or Peacock Premium, cancel the paid one when you activate the included one, and count the saving against the Walmart+ fee. If you are trying to cut subscriptions rather than add them, ask which one you would rebuy first. The answer is usually the one tied to where you actually shop.
Read the terms before you sign up. Walmart’s Terms of Use limit membership to personal, non-commercial use, and say it cannot be transferred or assigned. If you purchase supplies for a business, resale or an organization, a personal Walmart+ account is the wrong tool and puts your membership at risk. Walmart also reserves the right to refuse or end memberships. Walmart operates a separate business program for commercial buyers, so look there first.
Free delivery only helps if a store near you delivers to your address, which depends on your ZIP and the store’s coverage. Check by entering your address in the Walmart app before paying. If no store delivers to you, you are buying a shipping-and-streaming membership, and the $98 plan is hard to justify. Shipping is still free over $35 for everyone, so the no-minimum benefit matters only for small items.
Cancel, Pause or Switch Without Losing Money
Joining takes a minute and leaving takes a little more care. Here is the playbook we would follow, built from Walmart’s own terms and help pages.
The foundation is Walmart’s refund policy, and it is blunt. The billing help page says Walmart cannot offer refunds on Walmart+, and the Terms of Use call membership fees non-refundable except as the terms expressly provide or as required by law. Some blogs claim a 48-hour or 15-day money-back window. We looked for it in Walmart’s published terms and could not find one, so do not plan around it.
What you do control is timing. Cancellation stops the next renewal, and on a paid term your benefits normally continue to the end of what you paid for. A trial is different: cancel and the benefits end immediately, with no refund. If you want to keep using a trial for the full 30 days, wait until near the end and use the Remind Me Later email Walmart sends three days before renewal.
Sign in, open Account, choose Walmart+, then Manage membership, then Manage next to your plan, and select Cancel. Confirm every prompt until you see that auto-renew is off or an end date is shown. You can also call Customer Care. Save the confirmation email; it is your only proof if a charge appears later.
Paid members can pause for one month at a time, up to three non-consecutive times in a rolling twelve months. You are not billed while paused, but benefits stop starting at the end of your current billing cycle, and your membership resumes on its own afterwards. Two traps. Trial members cannot pause. And undoing a pause or resuming early still counts against your three. Pausing is best when you will be away, not when you are simply unsure.
Walmart’s terms require at least one valid payment method on file at all times, so you cannot clear your cards without canceling first. Billing dates can reportedly be changed up to five times in a rolling twelve months. If you move to Assist after paying full price, Walmart’s FAQ mentions a refund in the form of a gift card for the old membership, so ask Customer Care how your case would be handled. Finally, Walmart may end a membership at its discretion, and while it may refund an unexpired term, summaries of the terms say it does not for fraud or misuse.
Streaming ends with the membership. Fuel savings, free delivery, pharmacy delivery, early access, Pawp’s free base membership and the OnePay 5% bonus are all tied to membership status. Use any Walmart Cash before you leave; Walmart’s FAQ has dedicated questions on what happens to it when you switch plans or cancel. If you added Pawp Emergency Protection, it is billed separately and can keep billing until the end of its own membership year unless you cancel it.
Prices and policies reflect Walmart’s published pages and terms as we reviewed them in October. Walmart can change fees, minimums, partner benefits and eligibility lists at any time, and individual stores and areas vary. Estimates such as break-even points use the non-member delivery fees of $7.95 and $9.95 that Walmart has published and exclude tips, sales tax and item prices. The InHome price comes from an older Walmart help page and should be confirmed in your app. Nothing here is financial advice. This page is independent and is not affiliated with Walmart, AARP, American Express or Pawp. Always confirm current pricing and terms with Walmart before you pay.
Key sources: Walmart.com/plus and Walmart Help Center (Terms of Use, billing and membership management) · AARP Member Benefits · NBC Select · American Express · Pawp Help Center · state SNAP agency guidance on online ordering