Woman reportedly tells Amazon Alexa to call 911. Then the device refuses because she doesn’t have emergency subscription

A woman’s attempt to get emergency help through a smart speaker allegedly failed because she lacked a paid subscription, according to a TikTok video that has drawn attention online. Mia, who shared the clip, described watching another video in which a woman said she had been beaten by her ex for four hours and felt like she was being unalived while lying on the floor.

Mia said in her TikTok video that the woman had her ex’s hands around her neck when she asked Alexa to call 911. According to Mia, the device refused and told the woman it could not place the call because she did not pay for the “$6.99 a month emergency, um, subscription.” On-screen text in Mia’s video read, “The subscriptions are actually getting out of hand now.”

Mia addressed Amazon directly in the video and asked why that was a thing. She added that she believed the account because of her own experience. She said she had been watching something on her phone in which a parrot told Alexa to call 911. Mia stated that Alexa thought she was the one making the request and responded, “No, girl, you don’t pay for that. We can’t do that.”

Alexa Emergency Assist links users to agents who can request emergency help

Amazon offers a paid service called Alexa Emergency Assist that is available in the U.S., according to Amazon News. The company says the subscription gives households hands-free, 24/7 access to help by saying “Alexa, call for help.” That command connects the user to trained Urgent Response agents from Rapid Response Monitoring Services.

Those agents can request the dispatch of police, fire, or ambulance services and share pre-saved details such as allergies, medications, or gate codes. Amazon states that the service does not dial 911 directly. It routes the request through the agents instead.

The subscription costs $5.99 per month or $59 per year for Amazon Prime members and $7.99 per month or $79 per year for non-Prime members in the U.S., according to Amazon’s pricing page. Anyone in the household can use it once profiles are set up, and users can add up to 25 emergency contacts who receive automatic notifications when a call is placed. Prime members have also been dealing with a forced Alexa upgrade on millions of accounts.

According to Android Authority, the service also works on the go through the Alexa app or devices such as Echo Auto, Echo Buds, and Echo Frames when location sharing is enabled. Amazon says it can detect the sound of smoke or carbon monoxide alarms and breaking glass, then send a Smart Alert to the user’s phone with the option to contact Urgent Response.

Without the subscription, Alexa generally cannot place emergency calls. This is due to FCC rules requiring location data and a callback number on 911-capable devices, which Amazon has chosen not to meet for standard Alexa calling. Users can still set a single emergency contact in the Alexa app or use a discontinued Echo Connect accessory with a landline to make unrestricted calls.

Viewers offered a range of reactions under Mia’s video. One commenter pointed to a different standard for cell phones and wrote, “dude, our phones when they’re out of service still can call 911…I think it’s a law.” 

Another said they had already taken their own device offline, writing, “I unplugged her. Listens to everything but helps with nothing.” A third described the situation as “Very dystopian,” while someone else stated, “I would sue the f–k out of them bcuz it’s recording my data anyway.”