How to change country to watch Amazon Prime Video US from anywhere

Amazon is available in almost every country in the world, so you can technically keep using Prime Video while on vacation. However, American travelers are in for a shock: the US library is several times larger than most other regions’ which means that the vast majority of its content will simply not be accessible. Instead, you’ll be limited to whatever’s available locally and a small selection of “traveling” content (predominantly Amazon Originals since the company has the rights to broadcast these worldwide). But don’t panic; we have the solution; you just need to use a VPN and change your IP address to the US.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) route your traffic through servers in another country, hiding your true location and allowing you to access regional content from anywhere in the world. This might all sound a bit technical but suffice it to say that using a VPN makes unblocking Prime Video US nice and easy. They’ll also enhance your security, shielding your activities from hackers and hotspot owners while preventing local ISPs from putting limits on what you can access.

Below, we’ll walk you through the entire process of changing your Prime Video region from start to finish. We’ll also address some of the most common problems you might encounter and explain how to resolve them. Stick with us, and you’ll be streaming your favorite US content in no time.

How to unblock Amazon Prime Video US with a VPN

It’s quick and easy to switch your location on Amazon Prime Video (and it doesn’t have anything to do with your account region). Follow these steps to unblock Prime Video US from anywhere.

Here’s how to watch Prime Video USA while traveling abroad:

1. The first step is to sign up with a suitable VPN provider. We recommend NordVPN, but we’ve also had consistent success unblocking Amazon Prime Video US with these reliable alternatives: Surfshark, IPVanish, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and PrivateVPN.
2. Download and install the VPN app, then log in using the credentials created during registration.
3. Select a server in the US. In our experience, servers in major cities like New York or Los Angeles tend to be the most reliable when it comes to unblocking streaming platforms.
4. Log in to your Amazon Prime Video account.
5. Search for the show you’d like to stream. It should have a Watch Now button – click this. If everything has gone to plan, the video should be playing as though you were still back home in the US!

Want more help? Watch our video guide to watching US content on Amazon Prime.

Best VPN for Amazon Prime Video US

NordVPN

Nov 2024 unblocks amazon prime videoTested Nov 2024

NordVPN is our top pick for anyone hoping to watch Prime Video abroad. It has minimal impact on your connection speed, averaging 39.07 Mbps on a home broadband connection with an average speed of 41.03 Mbps without the VPN. That’s a reduction of less than 2 Mbps! Not only that, this provider boasts almost 2,000 American servers plus the ability to access just about every streaming service we’ve tried. In other words, if you get bored of Prime Video, you can always check out what’s on Netflix, Disney+, or Hulu.

This provider doesn’t compromise where security is concerned. It offers unbreakable encryption, a customizable kill switch, and IP leak protection, as well as automatic ad and tracker-blocking. There’s also an audited no-logs policy and special obfuscated servers designed to help you browse freely in places with extreme censorship (like China or the UAE, for instance).

Despite having a wide range of advanced tools, NordVPN tries to be as user-friendly as possible. It offers apps for all major platforms (Windows, Android, MacOS, iOS, and Linux), with the option to manually install it on most routers. The website boasts an expansive help section but staff are available 24/7 via live chat just in case you need them. Users can secure up to 10 devices at once, and every plan comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.

BEST VPN FOR AMAZON PRIME VIDEO US:NordVPN is fast, security-conscious, and perfect for streaming geo-blocked services abroad. Keeps no logs and comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.

Read our full review of NordVPN.

Want more VPN choices? Check out our best VPNs for Amazon Prime Video article for detailed reviews of some quality alternatives.

How to stream Prime Video US on mobile devices while abroad

Unblocking region-specific content is always a little trickier on mobile devices. That’s because websites can examine your GPS location and cross reference that with your IP address to make sure you’re really where you say you are. Here’s how to disable this feature in your device’s settings before attempting to stream Prime Video USA abroad.

On Android, you can do this by swiping down on the home screen and toggling Location off.

On iOS, navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, select Amazon Prime Video, and disable Precise Location. 

Still, having issues? In that case, ditch the app and watch via the website instead. It may try to force you to open the app, but you can sidestep this issue by forcing it to use the desktop site. In most browsers, this is as simple as tapping the three dots in the top-right and checking the box marked Desktop site.

How to unblock Prime Video US on Smart TVs

There are quite a few ways to access geo-restricted content on a Smart TV. The best method will depend on your device, whether you can access the Google Play Store, and what kind of other hardware is available to you. Below, we’ll cover all methods in order of simplicity:

• Use a Smart DNS service: Some VPNs offer a Smart DNS service that allows you to access US-only content without installing anything. All you have to do is navigate to your TV’s network settings and change the DNS address to the one provided by your VPN. However, this doesn’t encrypt your traffic and usually only works with American TV.
• Install a VPN on your TV: If your TV supports the Google Play Store, just install your VPN directly, connect, and stream as normal. This is fairly rare, however, and even if you can install the app, it may not work as intended.
• Share a VPN connection from another device: It’s possible to connect to a VPN on your laptop or home PC and share the connection. You can either run an Ethernet cable from your computer to the TV or set up a wireless encrypted hotspot. Check out our guides to creating a virtual wifi hotspot on Windows and Mac.
• Install a VPN on your router: Finally, you can install a VPN on most routers. This is fairly involved and will take an hour or so, but it will secure every single device on the network. This is regardless of your VPN’s connection limit because a router only counts as one device. There’s no need to do anything on your Smart TV either – just connect to the router as normal, and you should be able to stream Prime Video US (provided the router uses an American VPN server).

Why isn’t my VPN working with Amazon Prime Video?

Amazon’s geo-restriction is quite a bit more complex than that of other streaming platforms, which means it can be tricky to determine what exactly is causing your issue. Still, our experts have found that most problems can be resolved by following the troubleshooting process below.

First off, make sure your VPN is active and that you’re using a server in the United States. That sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people forget. If this wasn’t the issue, it’s possible that the mismatch between your current location and saved location data is causing Prime Video to throw an error (“Based outside of [country]? Some titles might be unavailable in your current location”). This is nice and easy to fix: just clear your cache and cookies, then reload the page.

Amazon Prime’s VPN or proxy error

If the Watch Now button is replaced by the above message, it means that your VPN wasn’t able to bypass Prime Video’s strict VPN-detection systems.

If this happens, try switching to a different US server. If you struggle to find a good one, contact your VPN’s support team to ask which servers are currently working with Amazon Prime, as these can change.

This video is currently unavailable error on Amazon

Even if you’re able to access Prime Video with a VPN connection, you’re not out of the woods yet. Anything on the main screen should play properly, but often, searching for specific titles that should be available results in an error saying, “This video is currently unavailable to watch in your location”. There are many potential causes for this, but generally, it means Amazon either knows there’s something strange about your connection or has decided to only show you content that’s available while traveling.

Your best bet here is to clear your cookies and cache, try a server in a major city (such as New York), and activate your VPN’s Stealth mode if one is available. To activate NordVPN’s obfuscated or ‘stealth’ servers, follow this tutorial.

Alternatively, you could try changing protocols; it’s possible Amazon is better at detecting OpenVPN traffic than WireGuard, for instance. If none of this helps, we’d suggest asking your VPN’s support team for help directly. The providers mentioned above all offer one-on-one assistance via live chat.

The site you use matters

Technically, it’s possible to stream Prime Video through two different sites: www.amazon.com and www.primevideo.com. The problem is that primevideo.com seems to have a different set of location-detection tools. It’ll only show your home library, and if you’re abroad, only displays titles that are available worldwide – you can’t even search for content that’s available elsewhere. When in doubt, we’d recommend using www.amazon.com (though many regional sites, including the Canadian and Australian versions, force you to use primevideo.com instead).

Methodology: How we found the top VPN for watching Prime Video

Finding the best VPNs for a given task isn’t easy. For instance, many lack the speed, reliability, or security to be truly useful, even if they can technically access Prime Video abroad. That’s why our team of experts evaluates potential recommendations using an extensive set of criteria that are relevant to the job at hand. Here’s an overview of what we looked for in five key areas:

Streaming ability

We’re specifically looking to unblock Amazon Prime Video’s US catalog, so naturally, any VPN that couldn’t do this reliably failed our testing. We also checked to see whether providers were capable of accessing other popular US platforms like Hulu, Paramount+, and Disney+.

Next, we noted the number of US servers (where this data was available) and the number of different locations in the States. This is important as the further away you are, the less stable your connection becomes. VPNs with clusters on both coasts, for instance, allow you to choose whichever is closest, thereby reducing the chance of buffering, stuttering, or disconnection when streaming.

Finally, we checked to see whether the VPN offered a Smart DNS service capable of accessing Prime Video and whether it supported router installation. Three scores were assigned based on our findings, then weighted and normalized to provide us with a single final rating for each VPN. NordVPN delivered an impressive 8.56 out of 10, and would have scored even higher if it had covered a few additional locations.

US server speed

We periodically run industry-wide speed tests to see which VPN is fastest at a given moment. However, as these are performed on a superfast connection, they don’t always reflect how well a service would perform in real-world scenarios.

That’s why we also run case-specific tests. In this instance, we ran three speed tests throughout the day, in the morning, at noon, and in the afternoon, before averaging the results. Crucially, these tests were run using a home broadband connection and US servers. We also used the desktop version of Ookla’s speed test so that background internet usage didn’t skew our testing.

We found that NordVPN delivered impressive results, with an average speed of 39.07 Mbps – barely any lower than our average speed with no VPN active: 41.03 Mbps.

Security and privacy

Although they’re useful in a variety of situations, a VPN’s first job is to protect your privacy. We refuse to recommend any services that can’t promise a high level of security and as you might expect, a no-logs policy is non-negotiable. That’s far from the only requirement we have, though. Our experts evaluate each VPN on 15 separate criteria to make sure that their security offering is in line with industry recommendations.

NordVPN earned a near-perfect 9.5 out of 10 on security. Its only shortcoming was having slightly weaker authentication than some of its rivals. It’s still effectively impossible for an attacker to compromise your connection but other VPNs offer slightly longer encryption keys, and to be fair, our score had to reflect that.

Ease of use

Most people don’t want to spend their valuable free time configuring a VPN, and especially if they’re on a trip abroad. That’s why we look for services that make day-to-day operation as simple and seamless as possible. This is a little tricky to quantify but that hasn’t stopped us; we’ve personally tested each service, noting down how easy it was to sign up (or cancel), checking whether every feature was available in every version of the app, and hunting down any little quality of life features that other providers might not offer. Here’s what we found:

NordVPN was actually the top-performing service in this regard, scoring an impressive 9.6 points out of 10. Its score suffered a little due to not offering its own router app and having some features that were unavailable on mobile. It’s worth mentioning, however, that neither custom firmware nor full functional parity are standard in this industry. In other words, it lost out due to other providers offering more, not NordVPN offering less.

Value for money

We advise people not to decide which VPN to use based on price alone but there’s no denying it’s important to think about. The good news is that you can often get a high-quality VPN without breaking the bank – in fact, some of our favorites are among the cheapest on the market. To ensure that we find the services offering the most bang for your buck, we look into factors like the lowest possible price, connection limits, and how often each provider goes on sale. Here’s how NordVPN fared:

Once again, NordVPN delivered impressive results, scoring 9.5 out of 10. It lost for having a connection limit (while 10 is pretty generous, some of its rivals have no limits) and having a relatively high monthly subscription price (around $13). However, we’re big fans of its student discount, no-fuss money-back guarantee, and constantly-running promotions.

Watching Prime Video US with a free VPN

There are a ton of free VPNs out there, and they have one thing in common: they usually claim to offer all of the benefits of a paid service without the cost. As you might expect, that’s too good to be true. Free providers usually have very limited server networks but many users, leading to slow speeds and long wait times. They are also much less likely to work with geo-blocked streaming platforms. In other words, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to watch Prime Video with a free VPN. In addition, most free VPNs come with security issues that make them not worth the risk.

Don’t worry, though! Most paid VPNs include a free trial or a 30-day money-back guarantee. Just pay for a month of coverage upfront, use the service to access Amazon Prime Video US, and if you’re not impressed, cancel to receive a full refund. On the other hand, if you’d like to continue using the VPN after your trip abroad, you can choose a longer subscription to cut the cost.

Changing country on Amazon Prime Video: FAQs