Amazon is preparing what could be its biggest drone delivery push yet. The company announced plans to expand Prime Air, its drone delivery service, to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026 — roughly six times its current footprint of 11 delivery sites across 10 metro areas.
Prime Air already operates in parts of Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas, and Amazon says it plans to add Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, and New York soon, with specific new markets including Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Syracuse, and Boise. Each drone delivery site covers roughly 175 square miles, and Amazon says the expansion should bring the service within reach of communities representing tens of millions of customers.
The pitch is speed: eligible orders can arrive in as little as 30 minutes, though Amazon says a typical delivery window runs closer to an hour from checkout. The drones can carry packages up to about 5 pounds, which Amazon says covers more than 60% of its most frequently ordered items, including groceries, medications, electronics, and cosmetics. Pricing is straightforward — free for Prime members on orders of $50 or more, $2.99 for smaller Prime orders, and $4.99 for non-members.
Safety and regulation have long been the biggest hurdles for drone delivery at scale, and Amazon points to its FAA Part 135 certification — the same regulatory framework used for commercial air carriers — along with waivers that let its drones fly beyond a pilot’s direct line of sight. The company also highlights its “Detect-and-Avoid” system, which it says lets drones independently monitor surrounding airspace and make real-time decisions to avoid obstacles.
Amazon says it has already completed hundreds of thousands of drone deliveries this year, and this expansion marks a shift from treating Prime Air as a scattered set of pilot programs toward building it into a genuine nationwide logistics network. Whether that holds up at six times the current scale — and whether neighborhoods actually want fleets of delivery drones overhead — will likely become clearer as the rollout reaches more cities through the rest of 2026.