Blink membership costs $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year
Blink membership is a paid plan for the Blink home security camera system. The monthly option costs $3.99, and the annual option costs $39.99 — which works out to about $3.33 per month if you pay yearly. Both plans give you the same features; the annual plan just saves you money if you commit for a full year.
Blink cameras work without membership, but the membership unlocks cloud video storage. Without it, you can still view live feeds and receive motion alerts on your phone, but video clips won't save automatically to the cloud. Membership stores 30 days of video history for each camera you own.
If you own multiple cameras, one membership covers all of them. You don't pay per camera — a single $3.99 monthly subscription backs up video from every Blink device on your account.
Key Takeaways
- Blink membership costs $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year, and one subscription covers all your cameras.
- The main benefit is cloud storage of video clips for 30 days; without membership, live view and alerts still work but nothing saves.
- You can cancel anytime if you pay monthly, or wait for your annual renewal date if you choose the yearly plan.
- Blink also offers a paid plan called Blink+ that includes additional features like person detection and costs more per month.
What membership includes versus what you get free
Without paying for membership, Blink cameras still record and send motion alerts to your phone in real time. You can open the app and watch a live feed from any camera whenever you want. The camera itself stores a short clip locally, but that clip disappears after a few hours unless you manually save it.
Membership adds automatic cloud backup. Every motion-triggered clip saves to Amazon's servers for 30 days. You can review what happened while you were away without having to be watching live. If someone breaks into your home or a package gets stolen, you have a month of video to review or share with police.
Motion alerts work the same way with or without membership — you get a notification on your phone the moment the camera detects movement. The difference is what happens to the video after that moment.
Blink+ versus standard membership
Blink offers a second tier called Blink+, which costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. This plan includes everything in standard membership plus person detection, which means the camera can tell the difference between a person and an animal or moving object. It also adds video history that goes back 60 days instead of 30.
Person detection is useful if you have pets that trigger motion alerts constantly. With Blink+, you can set the app to notify you only when a person is detected, cutting down on false alarms from your dog or cat walking past the camera.
Standard membership is enough for most people. Blink+ makes sense if you have frequent false alerts from pets or if you want the longer 60-day history for security purposes.
How to pay and cancel
You set up membership through the Blink app on your phone or through the web portal at blinkforhome.com. When you first set up a Blink camera, the app offers you a free trial of membership — usually 30 days. After the trial ends, you choose whether to start a paid plan or let it expire.
If you choose monthly billing, your card is charged $3.99 on the same day each month. You can cancel anytime through the app settings, and the cancellation takes effect immediately — you won't be charged again. If you choose annual billing, you're charged $39.99 once a year, and you can cancel anytime, but the refund policy depends on how long you've had the subscription.
Blink is owned by Amazon, so if you have an Amazon account, your Blink subscription ties to that account. You manage it through your Amazon account settings as well as through the Blink app itself.
Whether membership is worth the cost
The decision depends on why you bought the cameras. If you mainly want to check on your home while you're away or get alerts when someone's at the door, you don't need membership — the free features handle that. If you want a record of what happened, especially for security or insurance purposes, membership is cheap enough that most people find it worth $3.99 a month.
The 30-day cloud history is long enough for most situations. If a package is stolen, you usually notice within a few days. If there's a break-in, police will want the video right away. Thirty days covers both scenarios.
The annual plan saves about $8 per year compared to paying monthly, which is a small discount but adds up if you keep the subscription for years. If you're not sure whether you'll stick with Blink long-term, the monthly plan lets you cancel without penalty.
Blink cameras without membership from other companies
If cloud storage is important to you but you don't want a subscription, other security camera brands offer different models. Wyze cameras have a free tier with limited cloud storage. Google Nest cameras include cloud storage with a Nest Aware subscription, which costs more than Blink but includes additional features like person and package detection built in.
Some cameras store video only locally on a microSD card or a home hub, which means no monthly fee but also no access to video when you're away from home. The trade-off is convenience versus cost.
Blink's pricing is competitive for the feature set. If you already own Blink cameras, the membership cost is straightforward. If you're deciding between brands, factor in the subscription cost over time — a $40 annual camera might cost $80 total over two years once you add membership.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need membership to get motion alerts?
No. Motion alerts work without membership. The camera detects movement and sends a notification to your phone in real time. Membership only affects whether video clips save to the cloud automatically — without it, you can still watch live video whenever you open the app.
Can I try membership before I pay?
Yes. Blink usually offers a free trial of membership when you first set up a camera, typically for 30 days. After the trial ends, you choose to start a paid plan or let it expire. The trial period gives you time to see whether cloud storage matters for your situation.
What happens to my videos if I cancel membership?
Videos stored in the cloud are deleted when your membership ends. Any clips you manually saved to your phone or downloaded stay on your device. New motion clips won't save to the cloud after cancellation, though live view and alerts continue to work.
Can one membership cover multiple homes?
One membership covers all cameras on a single Blink account. If you have cameras at two different addresses, you would need separate accounts and separate memberships for each location.
Is there a discount if I buy multiple cameras?
No. Membership is per account, not per camera. Whether you have one camera or ten, one $3.99 monthly subscription covers all of them. You only pay once for the whole system.