Amazon launched a 30-minute delivery service in four US cities on Tuesday, offering fast delivery on items like produce, baked goods, electronics and even booze. I gave it a shot, and it worked out well.

Amazon Now is available immediately in Seattle, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta and surrounding areas. The company said the service would be "rapidly expanding" to more cities, including Austin, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Oklahoma City and Phoenix by the end of the year. 

You can go to amazon.com/now to see if it's available in your area. You'll also see a "30-Minute Delivery" option in the banner on the Amazon app or homepage if you have access to the service.

Amazon said most locations can do the deliveries 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Delivery items include fresh groceries, household essentials and "locally relevant items." Alcohol delivery is available in some locations, where permitted.

If you're an Amazon Prime member, it costs $4. If you're not, it's $14. There's a fee of $2 for Prime members and $4 for non-members if your order is under $15. You can also add a tip for your delivery driver.

You can use Amazon Now on the mobile app or on Amazon.com. 

From my home in a Seattle suburb, I decided to try it out. On my laptop, I went to Amazon.com and spotted "30-Minute Delivery" on the horizontal menu near the top of the home page, to the right of the Rufus button.

Clicking "30-Minute Delivery" sent me to a web page that showed lots of items for food and drink, personal care, electronics, health, alcohol and more. At the top of the page, it showed the delivery time, which was less than 30 minutes:

I added some items to the shopping cart -- intentionally surpassing $15 to avoid the small-order fee -- and checked out. I noted the time I placed the order and waited. Only 16 minutes later, someone drove up and dropped off my purchases on the stoop. Everything was there:

Amazon doesn't promise delivery times of 30 minutes or less with Amazon Now, but the company said it tries to be as exact as possible with its ETA. If orders take too long to be delivered, Amazon will try to make it right by the customer, including a refund on the delivery fee, according to the company.

The 30-minute delivery is great for customer "convenience," said Udit Madan, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide operations.

"You can get everything from groceries for dinner, to AirPods before a flight, to household essentials like laundry detergent or toothpaste delivered right to your door," Madan said in the news announcement.

For alcohol, the driver must verify by ID that the person receiving the delivery is of age. That policy has been in effect for all Amazon deliveries of alcohol, the company said. 

How are orders filled?

Amazon said it is able to delivery quickly by using several microsites, which are 5,000-10,000 square feet in size. They are placed in the most optimal spots to effectuate 30-minute deliveries.

The half-hour delivery adds to Amazon's other fast shipment options, including 1-hour, 3-hour and same-day delivery options. Amazon also has Prime Air drone delivery for deliveries in less than an hour in nine US cities. 

Amazon said it delivered more than 13 billion items globally last year, either by same-day or next-day delivery. Same- or next-day delivery increased 30% for Prime members in the US from 2024 to 2025, with more than 8 billion items shipped.

Several other companies also do quick deliveries. Walmart, Home Depot, Target, DoorDash, Uber Eats and even 7-Eleven offer deliveries on the same day and/or within a few hours.