Amazon sets Black Friday Week for November 19 to 30, with 8 a.m. drops

Amazon announced its 2026 holiday deal calendar on November 9, 2026. Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday run from Thursday, November 19 through Monday, November 30. That's the same 12 days as 2025, shifted a day earlier on the calendar because Thanksgiving falls on November 26.

The detail that matters most for a brand's P&L is a new one. Amazon says that "for the first time ever," deals drop twice on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday: once at midnight and again at 8 a.m. Pacific. A second scheduled spike in the late Eastern morning changes how you should pace ad budgets on the two days the event is built around.

What Amazon announced on November 9, 2026#

Amazon published the calendar in a press release titled Amazon's Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday Return November 19-30. It quotes Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores: "Customers count on Amazon for low prices and great selection every day, not just during the holidays."

Here's what's in it that a brand team should care about:

• Today's Big Deals. Twelve days of themed daily drops across Toys, Tech, Fashion, Beauty, Premium Gifts and Stocking Stuffers.
• Two drops on the two big days. Midnight and 8 a.m. PT on November 27 and November 30, with savings Amazon puts at "up to 60% off."
• Live sports on Prime Video. About 15 hours on Black Friday, starting at 6 a.m. PT, with no subscription or Prime membership required. That includes the fourth annual Black Friday Football game, Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh Steelers, and an NBA doubleheader. Prime Video also carries its first NCAA basketball game, Duke against UConn, on November 25.
• Small business placement. Amazon repeats that more than 60% of sales in its store come from independent sellers, and points shoppers to the Small Business badge and to asking Alexa for Shopping to "shop small businesses."
• Alexa for Shopping as a deal tracker. It can track deals and price drops, buy automatically with Auto-Buy "when the price is right," and show Price History with up to 365 days of pricing on product pages.

How 2026 compares with 2025#

The window is the same length and the format is mostly the same. The scheduled second drop is the change.

Amazon's 2025 page, Black Friday 2025: Shop the best deals from Amazon, describes new daily deal drops under Today's Big Deals but doesn't give times of day. The 2026 release is the first to put a clock on them.

What the 8 a.m. drop does to ad pacing#

The short answer: it moves part of the peak later in the day, and most budgets aren't set up for that.

On a normal event day, a lot of brands front-load. Budgets get raised the night before, the midnight traffic hits, and by mid-morning Eastern the campaigns that matter most are capped or running on fumes. Amazon is now telling shoppers to come back at 8 a.m. Pacific, which is 11 a.m. Eastern, for a second round of deals. If your Sponsored Products budget on a hero ASIN is gone by then, you've paid for the midnight crowd and sat out the second one.

There's a cost side to this too. In their case against Amazon, the Federal Trade Commission and 22 states allege that Amazon has raised advertising prices above auction results by as much as 250% on major shopping days. Amazon disputes the case and, in an August 31, 2026 response, called it "misguided." We covered the unredacted FTC complaint on November 6, 2026. Whatever happens in court, it's a reason to watch your own cost per click by hour on November 27 and 30 rather than trusting a daily average.

Our read#

Three things stand out from how we run accounts through this window.

Plan two peaks, not one. We'd split Black Friday and Cyber Monday budgets into an overnight block and a block that opens at 8 a.m. PT, and use budget rules or a scheduled change to protect the second block. The same goes for any Deal or Prime Exclusive Discount you've got running: check that inventory and promotional budgets last past mid-morning.

Price history is now in the shopper's hand. Alexa for Shopping shows up to 365 days of pricing and can buy automatically at a target price. A "deal" that's only a deal against a briefly inflated list price will look like what it is. Brands that held price through October 2026 will read better than brands that raised it to discount it.

The shelf is wider than the deal page. Prime Video's 15 hours of free live sports on Black Friday and Alexa for Shopping are both part of how Amazon is selling this event. If you're running Prime Video ads or DVA+, the Black Friday Football audience is one that also happens to be on Amazon the same day. If you're not, it's a reason to make sure your search and product detail pages are ready, because that's where those viewers land.

What to do before November 19#

None of this is complicated, but it has to be set up before November 19, not on the morning of November 27. It's the kind of week where good retail media advertising and good Amazon account management turn out to be the same job. For how we'd measure the event afterward, especially for brands with repeat buyers, see why ROAS is the wrong number for a consumables brand.