How to Block Amazon on iPhone

Blocking Amazon on iPhone starts with a Screen Time App Limit under Shopping & Food, but the app limit is the easy part. Amazon runs on nine separate country domains, and locking the app icon does nothing to any of them. If the reason you're doing this is what you're spending rather than how long you're spending it, that's the more useful thing to know going in: one-tap purchasing means opening Amazon and buying something are effectively the same motion, and an app-only block barely slows either one down.

How do you set a Screen Time limit on Amazon?

1. Open Settings → Screen Time → App Limits.
2. Tap Add Limit, then choose Shopping & Food (Amazon is filed under this category) or search for the Amazon Shopping app directly and select just that app.
3. Set a time — 1 minute is common for people who want the app effectively unusable rather than just rationed.
4. Choose which days it applies.
5. Tap Add.

Set a Screen Time passcode under Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings, separate from your device passcode, if you haven't already. Without one, the limit is just a suggestion you can delete. Menu wording shifts slightly between iOS versions, but the App Limits path has stayed roughly consistent for years.

Why does an Amazon limit stop working after a few days?

When the limit is reached, iOS shows an Ignore Limit button offering one more minute, 15 more minutes, or the rest of the day. Tap it, enter the Screen Time passcode if one is set, and the block lifts for that stretch. At midnight, the limit resets to zero no matter how much of it you used.

Amazon has a specific advantage here that most apps don't: a legitimate, sympathetic reason to reopen it constantly. Checking on a delivery or a return isn't browsing, and it doesn't feel like the thing you're trying to stop — but "Ignore Limit" doesn't distinguish between checking a tracking number and browsing a recommendation feed, and each order-status check is a small, reasonable-feeling opening for the second one to happen too.

Does blocking the Amazon app also block Amazon's website?

Not even close, and this is the single most important fact about blocking Amazon. An App Limit blocks the app icon and nothing else. Amazon runs a separate storefront for each major market — amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.es, amazon.fr, amazon.it, amazon.co.jp, amazon.com.br, and the charity-linked smile.amazon.com — so a Safari block on just amazon.com leaves eight other fully working storefronts, each ready to check out with your saved payment method and address. That makes Amazon the leakiest app on this list to block by website: most apps have one domain, maybe two; Amazon has nine, and missing even one defeats the point of blocking the rest.

To close all of them, go to Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content, choose Limit Adult Websites, and add each of the nine domains above individually to the "Never Allow" list. There's no shortcut that catches them all at once — each one has to be entered by hand.

What else survives an Amazon block?

Two companion apps are easy to miss: Amazon Shopping vs Prime Video — despite sharing the same account and brand, they're separate apps, and blocking one does nothing to the other. Since the spending happens in Amazon Shopping, not Prime Video, leaving Prime Video open is usually fine if spending is specifically what you're trying to limit. If you also find yourself using Prime Video as a time sink, it needs its own App Limit — the same Shopping & Food category doesn't cover it, since it's filed separately.

What makes Amazon specifically hard to stop opening?

The pull isn't really about browsing time — it's that browsing and buying are the same motion. One-tap purchasing removes the pause that normally sits between "I want this" and "I bought this," and a recommendation feed keeps surfacing more things to want in that same tap. Most apps on this list are hard to close because the content doesn't end; Amazon is hard to close because there's no friction between seeing something and owning it.

Framing this as a spending problem rather than a screen-time problem usually fits better here than the framing that works for something like Instagram or TikTok — the cost of an Amazon habit shows up on a card statement, not just in hours.

What's the most realistic way to actually block Amazon?

If shopping apps in general are the issue rather than just Amazon, Temu and Shein both use different tactics worth reading about, and the full list of app guides covers other categories too. For strategies that don't depend on blocking any single app, the guide on reducing screen time without relying on willpower is a useful next read.

What can't a Screen Time block fix about Amazon spending?

No setting here makes Amazon impossible to reach — you can always change Content & Privacy Restrictions, delete the blocking app, or check out on a laptop, a tablet, or someone else's phone if you're determined to. A block on your iPhone doesn't touch any other device signed into the same account, and it can't tell the difference between an order you need to check on and one you're about to place.

The evidence that blocking tools change spending habits long-term is thin — most of what exists tracks short-term drops in app opens, not sustained changes in what gets bought or where. If the goal is closing an obvious, specific gap — an app you open out of habit and end up buying something in — the domains and app limit above are a reasonable structural aid. If the spending itself feels hard to control regardless of which device or site it happens on, that's a pattern better addressed with a person than with a phone setting.

FAQ

Does blocking amazon.com also block amazon.co.uk?

No. Each country marketplace — amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.es, amazon.fr, amazon.it, amazon.co.jp, amazon.com.br, and smile.amazon.com — is a separate domain with its own listing under Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content. Blocking one leaves the rest fully working, including your saved payment method.

Will one-tap buying still work if I set an App Limit on Amazon?

Yes, until the limit is actually reached. An App Limit only blocks the app icon once your set time runs out; up to that point, and any time you tap "Ignore Limit," one-tap purchasing works exactly as normal.

What happens when I tap "Ignore Limit" on Amazon?

iOS unlocks Amazon for one more minute, 15 more minutes, or the rest of the day. If you've set a Screen Time passcode, it asks for that code first — the main thing that makes the button harder to tap for a quick order-status check that turns into browsing.

Does blocking Amazon Shopping also block Prime Video?

No. Amazon Shopping vs Prime Video are separate apps under the same account, and an App Limit on one has no effect on the other. If Prime Video isn't part of what you're trying to limit, it's usually fine to leave it open.

Does deleting the Amazon app delete my orders or account?

No. Deleting the app only removes it from your phone. Your account, order history, and saved payment methods stay on Amazon's servers and are available again as soon as you reinstall and sign in, or the moment you open any of the nine domains in Safari.

Can an app like Step N Scroll see which apps I'm blocking?

No. Apple's Family Controls framework gives third-party apps opaque tokens representing blocked apps, not the app's actual identity. Developers in this category cannot see that you're specifically blocking Amazon.

Sources

• Apple Support — "Set up Screen Time for yourself on iPhone"
• Apple Support — "Set content and privacy restrictions on iPhone"
• Federal Trade Commission — "Online Shopping"
• Pew Research Center — "Online Shopping and E-Commerce"