Amazon.com (AMZN) 10-K 31 Jan 20 2019 FY Annual report Financial data

Cover Page

Cover Page - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Jan. 22, 2020	Jun. 30, 2019
Cover page.
Document Type	10-K
Document Annual Report	true
Document Period End Date	Dec. 31, 2019
Document Transition Report	false
Entity File Number	000-22513
Entity Registrant Name	AMAZON.COM, INC.
Entity Incorporation, State or Country Code	DE
Entity Tax Identification Number	91-1646860
Entity Address, Address Line One	410 Terry Avenue North
Entity Address, City or Town	Seattle
Entity Address, State or Province	WA
Entity Address, Postal Zip Code	98109
City Area Code	206
Local Phone Number	266-1000
Title of 12(b) Security	Common Stock, par value $.01 per share
Trading Symbol	AMZN
Security Exchange Name	NASDAQ
Entity Well-known Seasoned Issuer	Yes
Entity Voluntary Filers	No
Entity Current Reporting Status	Yes
Entity Interactive Data Current	Yes
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Small Business	false
Entity Emerging Growth Company	false
Entity Shell Company	false
Entity Public Float			$ 786,284,080,955
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		497,810,444
Amendment Flag	false
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2019
Document Fiscal Period Focus	FY
Entity Central Index Key	0001018724
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31

Consolidated Statements of Cash

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Statement of Cash Flows [Abstract]
CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS, AND RESTRICTED CASH, BEGINNING OF PERIOD	$ 32,173	$ 21,856	$ 19,934
OPERATING ACTIVITIES:
Net income	11,588	10,073	3,033
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash from operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized content costs, operating lease assets, and other	21,789	15,341	11,478
Stock-based compensation	6,864	5,418	4,215
Other operating expense (income), net	164	274	202
Other expense (income), net	(249)	219	(292)
Deferred income taxes	796	441	(29)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Inventories	(3,278)	(1,314)	(3,583)
Accounts receivable, net and other	(7,681)	(4,615)	(4,780)
Accounts payable	8,193	3,263	7,100
Accrued expenses and other	(1,383)	472	283
Unearned revenue	1,711	1,151	738
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities	38,514	30,723	18,365
INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Purchases of property and equipment	(16,861)	(13,427)	(11,955)
Proceeds from property and equipment sales and incentives	4,172	2,104	1,897
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired, and other	(2,461)	(2,186)	(13,972)
Sales and maturities of marketable securities	22,681	8,240	9,677
Purchases of marketable securities	(31,812)	(7,100)	(12,731)
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities	(24,281)	(12,369)	(27,084)
FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
Proceeds from long-term debt and other	2,273	768	16,228
Repayments of long-term debt and other	(2,684)	(668)	(1,301)
Principal repayments of finance leases	(9,628)	(7,449)	(4,799)
Principal repayments of financing obligations	(27)	(337)	(200)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities	(10,066)	(7,686)	9,928
Foreign currency effect on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash	70	(351)	713
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash	4,237	10,317	1,922
CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS, AND RESTRICTED CASH, END OF PERIOD	36,410	32,173	21,856
SUPPLEMENTAL CASH FLOW INFORMATION:
Cash paid for interest on long-term debt	875	854	328
Cash paid for operating leases	3,361	0	0
Cash paid for interest on capital leases		381	200
Cash paid for interest on finance leases	647
Cash paid for interest on financing obligations	39	194	119
Cash paid for income taxes, net of refunds	881	(1,184)	(957)
Assets acquired under operating leases	7,870	0	0
Property and equipment acquired under capital leases		10,615	9,637
Property and equipment acquired under finance leases	13,723
Property and equipment acquired under build-to-suit arrangements	$ 1,362	$ 3,641	$ 3,541

Consolidated Statements Of Oper

Consolidated Statements Of Operations - USD ($) shares in Millions, $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Total net sales	$ 280,522	$ 232,887	$ 177,866
Operating expenses:
Cost of sales	165,536	139,156	111,934
Fulfillment	40,232	34,027	25,249
Technology and content	35,931	28,837	22,620
Marketing	18,878	13,814	10,069
General and administrative	5,203	4,336	3,674
Other operating expense (income), net	201	296	214
Total operating expenses	265,981	220,466	173,760
Operating income	14,541	12,421	4,106
Interest income	832	440	202
Interest expense	(1,600)	(1,417)	(848)
Other income (expense), net	203	(183)	346
Total non-operating income (expense)	(565)	(1,160)	(300)
Income before income taxes	13,976	11,261	3,806
Provision for income taxes	(2,374)	(1,197)	(769)
Equity-method investment activity, net of tax	(14)	9	(4)
Net income	$ 11,588	$ 10,073	$ 3,033
Basic earnings per share	$ 23.46	$ 20.68	$ 6.32
Diluted earnings per share	$ 23.01	$ 20.14	$ 6.15
Weighted-average shares used in computation of earnings per share:
Basic (in shares)	494	487	480
Diluted (in shares)	504	500	493
Net product sales
Total net sales	$ 160,408	$ 141,915	$ 118,573
Net service sales
Total net sales	$ 120,114	$ 90,972	$ 59,293

Consolidated Statements of Comp

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Statement of Comprehensive Income [Abstract]
Net income	$ 11,588	$ 10,073	$ 3,033
Net change in foreign currency translation adjustments:
Foreign currency translation adjustments, net of tax of $5, $6, and $(5)	78	(538)	533
Reclassification adjustment for foreign currency translation included in “Other operating expense (income), net,” net of tax of $0, $0, and $29	108	0	0
Net foreign currency translation adjustments	(30)	(538)	533
Net change in unrealized gains (losses) on available-for-sale debt securities:
Unrealized gains (losses), net of tax of $5, $0, and $(12)	83	(17)	(39)
Reclassification adjustment for losses (gains) included in “Other income (expense), net,” net of tax of $0, $0, and $0	(4)	8	7
Net unrealized gains (losses) on available-for-sale debt securities	79	(9)	(32)
Total other comprehensive income (loss)	49	(547)	501
Comprehensive income	$ 11,637	$ 9,526	$ 3,534

Consolidated Statements of Co_2

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Parenthetical) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Statement of Comprehensive Income [Abstract]
Foreign currency translation adjustments, tax	$ (5)	$ 6	$ 5
Reclassification adjustment for foreign currency translation included in “Other operating expense (income), net,” tax	29	0	0
Unrealized gains (losses), tax	(12)	0	5
Reclassification adjustment for losses (gains) included in other income (expense), net, tax	$ 0	$ 0	$ 0

Consolidated Balance Sheets

Consolidated Balance Sheets - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$ 36,092	$ 31,750
Marketable securities	18,929	9,500
Inventories	20,497	17,174
Accounts receivable, net and other	20,816	16,677
Total current assets	96,334	75,101
Property and equipment, net	72,705	61,797
Operating leases	25,141	0
Goodwill	14,754	14,548
Other assets	16,314	11,202
Total assets	225,248	162,648
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable	47,183	38,192
Accrued expenses and other	32,439	23,663
Unearned revenue	8,190	6,536
Total current liabilities	87,812	68,391
Long-term lease liabilities	39,791	9,650
Long-term debt	23,414	23,495
Other long-term liabilities	12,171	17,563
Commitments and contingencies (Note 7)
Stockholders’ equity:
Preferred stock, $0.01 par value: Authorized shares - 500 Issued and outstanding shares - none	0	0
Common stock, $0.01 par value: Authorized shares - 5,000 Issued shares - 507 and 514 Outstanding shares - 484 and 491	5	5
Treasury stock, at cost	(1,837)	(1,837)
Additional paid-in capital	33,658	26,791
Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)	(986)	(1,035)
Retained earnings	31,220	19,625
Total stockholders’ equity	62,060	43,549
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity	$ 225,248	$ 162,648

Consolidated Balance Sheets (Pa

Consolidated Balance Sheets (Parenthetical) - $ / shares	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Statement of Financial Position [Abstract]
Preferred stock, par value (in usd per share)	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Preferred stock, authorized shares	500,000,000	500,000,000
Preferred stock, issued shares	0	0
Preferred stock, outstanding shares	0	0
Common stock, par value (in usd per share)	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Common stock, authorized shares	5,000,000,000	5,000,000,000
Common stock, issued shares	521,000,000	514,000,000
Common stock, outstanding shares	498,000,000	491,000,000

Consolidated Statements of Stoc

Consolidated Statements of Stockholders' Equity - USD ($) shares in Millions, $ in Millions	Total	Common Stock	Treasury Stock	Additional Paid-In Capital	Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss)	Retained Earnings
Beginning Balance (in shares) at Dec. 31, 2016		477
Beginning Balance at Dec. 31, 2016	$ 19,285	$ 5	$ (1,837)	$ 17,186	$ (985)	$ 4,916
Increase (Decrease) in Stockholders' Equity [Roll Forward]
Net income	3,033					3,033
Other comprehensive income (loss)	501				501
Exercise of common stock options		7
Exercise of common stock options	1			1
Stock-based compensation and issuance of employee benefit plan stock	4,202			4,202
Ending Balance (in shares) at Dec. 31, 2017		484
Ending Balance at Dec. 31, 2017	27,709	$ 5	(1,837)	21,389	(484)	8,636
Increase (Decrease) in Stockholders' Equity [Roll Forward]
Cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle	687					687
Net income	10,073					10,073
Other comprehensive income (loss)	(547)				(547)
Exercise of common stock options		7
Exercise of common stock options	0			0
Stock-based compensation and issuance of employee benefit plan stock	5,402			5,402
Ending Balance (in shares) at Dec. 31, 2018		491
Ending Balance at Dec. 31, 2018	43,549	$ 5	(1,837)	26,791	(1,035)	19,625
Increase (Decrease) in Stockholders' Equity [Roll Forward]
Cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle	912				(4)	916
Net income	11,588					11,588
Other comprehensive income (loss)	49				49
Exercise of common stock options		7
Exercise of common stock options	0			0
Stock-based compensation and issuance of employee benefit plan stock	6,867			6,867
Ending Balance (in shares) at Dec. 31, 2019		498
Ending Balance at Dec. 31, 2019	62,060	$ 5	$ (1,837)	$ 33,658	(986)	31,220
Increase (Decrease) in Stockholders' Equity [Roll Forward]
Cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle	$ 7				$ 0	$ 7

Description of Business and Acc

Description of Business and Accounting Policies	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Description of Business and Accounting Policies	DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTING POLICIES Description of Business We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. In each of our segments, we serve our primary customer sets, consisting of consumers, sellers, developers, enterprises, and content creators. We serve consumers through our online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience. We offer programs that enable sellers to sell their products in our stores and fulfill orders through us, and programs that allow authors, musicians, filmmakers, skill and app developers, and others to publish and sell content. We serve developers and enterprises of all sizes through our AWS segment, which offers a broad set of global compute, storage, database, and other service offerings. We also manufacture and sell electronic devices. In addition, we provide services, such as advertising to sellers, vendors, publishers, and authors, through programs such as sponsored ads, display, and video advertising. We have organized our operations into three segments: North America, International, and AWS. See “Note 10 — Segment Information.” Prior Period Reclassifications Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation, including the addition of restricted cash to cash and cash equivalents on our consolidated statements of cash flows and the reclassification of long-term capital lease obligations that existed at December 31, 2018 from “Other long-term liabilities” to “Long-term lease liabilities” within the consolidated balance sheets, as a result of the adoption of new accounting guidance. See “Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted.” Principles of Consolidation The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Amazon.com, Inc. and its consolidated entities (collectively, the “Company”), consisting of its wholly-owned subsidiaries and those entities in which we have a variable interest and of which we are the primary beneficiary, including certain entities in India and certain entities that support our seller lending financing activities. Intercompany balances and transactions between consolidated entities are eliminated. The financial results of Whole Foods Market, Inc. (“Whole Foods Market”) have been included in our consolidated financial statements from the date of acquisition on August 28, 2017. Use of Estimates The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosures of contingent liabilities in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Estimates are used for, but not limited to, income taxes, useful lives of equipment, commitments and contingencies, valuation of acquired intangibles and goodwill, stock-based compensation forfeiture rates, vendor funding, and inventory valuation. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. For example, in Q4 2019 we completed a useful life study for our servers and are increasing the useful life from three years to four years for servers in January 2020, which, based on servers that are included in “Property and equipment, net” as of December 31, 2019, will have an anticipated impact to our 2020 operating income of $2.3 billion . Earnings per Share Basic earnings per share is calculated using our weighted-average outstanding common shares. Diluted earnings per share is calculated using our weighted-average outstanding common shares including the dilutive effect of stock awards as determined under the treasury stock method. In periods when we have a net loss, stock awards are excluded from our calculation of earnings per share as their inclusion would have an antidilutive effect. The following table shows the calculation of diluted shares (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Shares used in computation of basic earnings per share 480 487 494 Total dilutive effect of outstanding stock awards 13 13 10 Shares used in computation of diluted earnings per share 493 500 504 Revenue Revenue is measured based on the amount of consideration that we expect to receive, reduced by estimates for return allowances, promotional discounts, and rebates. Revenue also excludes any amounts collected on behalf of third parties, including sales and indirect taxes. In arrangements where we have multiple performance obligations, the transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation using the relative stand-alone selling price. We generally determine stand-alone selling prices based on the prices charged to customers or using expected cost plus a margin. A description of our principal revenue generating activities is as follows: Retail sales - We offer consumer products through our online and physical stores. Revenue is recognized when control of the goods is transferred to the customer, which generally occurs upon our delivery to a third-party carrier or, in the case of an Amazon delivery, to the customer. Third-party seller services - We offer programs that enable sellers to sell their products in our stores, and fulfill orders through us. We are not the seller of record in these transactions. The commissions and any related fulfillment and shipping fees we earn from these arrangements are recognized when the services are rendered, which generally occurs upon delivery of the related products to a third-party carrier or, in the case of an Amazon delivery, to the customer. Subscription services - Our subscription sales include fees associated with Amazon Prime memberships and access to content including audiobooks, digital video, digital music, e-books, and other non-AWS subscription services. Prime memberships provide our customers with access to an evolving suite of benefits that represent a single stand-ready obligation. Subscriptions are paid for at the time of or in advance of delivering the services. Revenue from such arrangements is recognized over the subscription period. AWS - Our AWS arrangements include global sales of compute, storage, database, and other services. Revenue is allocated to services using stand-alone selling prices and is primarily recognized when the customer uses these services, based on the quantity of services rendered, such as compute or storage capacity delivered on-demand. Certain services, including compute and database, are also offered as a fixed quantity over a specified term, for which revenue is recognized ratably. Sales commissions we pay in connection with contracts that exceed one year are capitalized and amortized over the contract term. Other - Other revenue primarily includes sales of advertising services, which are recognized as ads are delivered based on the number of clicks or impressions. Return Allowances Return allowances, which reduce revenue and cost of sales, are estimated using historical experience. Liabilities for return allowances are included in “Accrued expenses and other” and were $468 million , $623 million , and $712 million as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Additions to the allowance were $1.8 billion , $2.3 billion , and $2.5 billion and deductions from the allowance were $1.9 billion , $2.3 billion , and $2.5 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Included in “Inventories” on our consolidated balance sheets are assets totaling $406 million , $519 million , and $629 million as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , for the rights to recover products from customers associated with our liabilities for return allowances. Cost of Sales Cost of sales primarily consists of the purchase price of consumer products, inbound and outbound shipping costs, including costs related to sortation and delivery centers and where we are the transportation service provider, and digital media content costs where we record revenue gross, including video and music. Shipping costs to receive products from our suppliers are included in our inventory, and recognized as cost of sales upon sale of products to our customers. Payment processing and related transaction costs, including those associated with seller transactions, are classified in “Fulfillment” on our consolidated statements of operations. Vendor Agreements We have agreements with our vendors to receive funds primarily for cooperative marketing efforts, promotions, incentives, and volume rebates. We generally consider these amounts received from vendors to be a reduction of the prices we pay for their goods, including property and equipment, or services, and are recorded as a reduction of the cost of inventory, cost of services, or cost of property and equipment. Volume rebates typically depend on reaching minimum purchase thresholds. We evaluate the likelihood of reaching purchase thresholds using past experience and current year forecasts. When volume rebates can be reasonably estimated, we record a portion of the rebate as we make progress towards the purchase threshold. Fulfillment Fulfillment costs primarily consist of those costs incurred in operating and staffing our North America and International segments’ fulfillment centers, physical stores, and customer service centers, including costs attributable to buying, receiving, inspecting, and warehousing inventories; picking, packaging, and preparing customer orders for shipment; payment processing and related transaction costs, including costs associated with our guarantee for certain seller transactions; responding to inquiries from customers; and supply chain management for our manufactured electronic devices. Fulfillment costs also include amounts paid to third parties that assist us in fulfillment and customer service operations. Technology and Content Technology and content costs include payroll and related expenses for employees involved in the research and development of new and existing products and services, development, design, and maintenance of our stores, curation and display of products and services made available in our online stores, and infrastructure costs. Infrastructure costs include servers, networking equipment, and data center related depreciation and amortization, rent, utilities, and other expenses necessary to support AWS and other Amazon businesses. Collectively, these costs reflect the investments we make in order to offer a wide variety of products and services to our customers. Technology and content costs are generally expensed as incurred. Marketing Marketing costs primarily consist of advertising and payroll and related expenses for personnel engaged in marketing and selling activities, including sales commissions related to AWS. We pay commissions to third parties when their customer referrals result in sales. We also participate in cooperative advertising arrangements with certain of our vendors, and other third parties. Advertising and other promotional costs to market our products and services are expensed as incurred and were $6.3 billion , $8.2 billion , and $11.0 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . General and Administrative General and administrative expenses primarily consist of costs for corporate functions, including payroll and related expenses; facilities and equipment expenses, such as depreciation and amortization expense and rent; and professional fees and litigation costs. Stock-Based Compensation Compensation cost for all stock awards expected to vest is measured at fair value on the date of grant and recognized over the service period. The fair value of restricted stock units is determined based on the number of shares granted and the quoted price of our common stock. Such value is recognized as expense over the service period, net of estimated forfeitures, using the accelerated method. The estimated number of stock awards that will ultimately vest requires judgment, and to the extent actual results or updated estimates differ from our current estimates, such amounts will be recorded as a cumulative adjustment in the period estimates are revised. We consider many factors when estimating expected forfeitures, including historical forfeiture experience and employee level. Other Operating Expense (Income), Net Other operating expense (income), net, consists primarily of marketing-related, contract-based, and customer-related intangible asset amortization expense, and expenses related to legal settlements. Other Income (Expense), Net Other income (expense), net, consists primarily of adjustments to and gains on equity securities of $18 million , $145 million , and $231 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , equity warrant valuation gains (losses) of $109 million , $(131) million , and $11 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , and foreign currency gains (losses) of $247 million , $(206) million , and $(20) million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Income Taxes Income tax expense includes U.S. (federal and state) and foreign income taxes. Certain foreign subsidiary earnings are subject to U.S. taxation under the U.S. Tax Act, which also repeals U.S. taxation on the subsequent repatriation of those earnings. We intend to invest substantially all of our foreign subsidiary earnings, as well as our capital in our foreign subsidiaries, indefinitely outside of the U.S. in those jurisdictions in which we would incur significant, additional costs upon repatriation of such amounts. Deferred income tax balances reflect the effects of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities and their tax bases and are stated at enacted tax rates expected to be in effect when taxes are actually paid or recovered. Deferred tax assets are evaluated for future realization and reduced by a valuation allowance to the extent we believe they will not be realized. We consider many factors when assessing the likelihood of future realization of our deferred tax assets, including our recent cumulative loss experience and expectations of future earnings, capital gains and investment in such jurisdiction, the carry-forward periods available to us for tax reporting purposes, and other relevant factors. We utilize a two-step approach to recognizing and measuring uncertain income tax positions (tax contingencies). The first step is to evaluate the tax position for recognition by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates it is more likely than not the position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of related appeals or litigation processes. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount which is more than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement. We consider many factors when evaluating our tax positions and estimating our tax benefits, which may require periodic adjustments and which may not accurately forecast actual outcomes. We include interest and penalties related to our tax contingencies in income tax expense. Fair Value of Financial Instruments Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. To increase the comparability of fair value measures, the following hierarchy prioritizes the inputs to valuation methodologies used to measure fair value: Level 1 — Valuations based on quoted prices for identical assets and liabilities in active markets. Level 2 — Valuations based on observable inputs other than quoted prices included in Level 1, such as quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets and liabilities in markets that are not active, or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data. Level 3 — Valuations based on unobservable inputs reflecting our own assumptions, consistent with reasonably available assumptions made by other market participants. These valuations require significant judgment. For our cash, cash equivalents, or marketable securities, we measure the fair value of money market funds and certain marketable equity securities based on quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. Other marketable securities were valued either based on recent trades of securities in inactive markets or based on quoted market prices of similar instruments and other significant inputs derived from or corroborated by observable market data. We did not hold significant amounts of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, or marketable securities categorized as Level 3 assets as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . We hold equity warrants giving us the right to acquire stock of other companies. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , these warrants had a fair value of $440 million and $669 million , and are recorded within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets. These assets are primarily classified as Level 2 assets. Cash and Cash Equivalents We classify all highly liquid instruments with an original maturity of three months or less as cash equivalents. Inventories Inventories, consisting of products available for sale, are primarily accounted for using the first-in, first-out method, and are valued at the lower of cost and net realizable value. This valuation requires us to make judgments, based on currently available information, about the likely method of disposition, such as through sales to individual customers, returns to product vendors, or liquidations, and expected recoverable values of each disposition category. We provide Fulfillment by Amazon services in connection with certain of our sellers’ programs. Third-party sellers maintain ownership of their inventory, regardless of whether fulfillment is provided by us or the third-party sellers, and therefore these products are not included in our inventories. We also purchase electronic device components from a variety of suppliers and use several contract manufacturers to provide manufacturing services for our products. During the normal course of business, in order to manage manufacturing lead times and help ensure adequate supply, we enter into agreements with contract manufacturers and suppliers for certain electronic device components. A portion of our reported purchase commitments arising from these agreements consists of firm, non-cancellable commitments. These commitments are based on forecasted customer demand. If we reduce these commitments, we may incur additional costs. We also have firm, non-cancellable commitments for certain products offered in our Whole Foods Market stores. Accounts Receivable, Net and Other Included in “Accounts receivable, net and other” on our consolidated balance sheets are amounts primarily related to customers, vendors, and sellers. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , customer receivables, net, were $9.4 billion and $12.6 billion , vendor receivables, net, were $3.2 billion and $4.2 billion , and seller receivables, net, were $710 million and $863 million . Seller receivables are amounts due from sellers related to our seller lending program, which provides funding to sellers primarily to procure inventory. We estimate losses on receivables based on known troubled accounts and historical experience of losses incurred. Receivables are considered impaired and written-off when it is probable that all contractual payments due will not be collected in accordance with the terms of the agreement. The allowance for doubtful accounts was $348 million , $495 million , and $718 million as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Additions to the allowance were $626 million , $878 million , and $1.0 billion , and deductions to the allowance were $515 million , $731 million , and $793 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Software Development Costs We incur software development costs related to products to be sold, leased, or marketed to external users, internal-use software, and our websites. Software development costs capitalized were not significant for the years presented. All other costs, including those related to design or maintenance, are expensed as incurred. Property and Equipment, Net Property and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Incentives that we receive from property and equipment vendors are recorded as a reduction in our costs. Property includes buildings and land that we own, along with property we have acquired under build-to-suit lease arrangements when we have control over the building during the construction period and finance lease arrangements. Equipment includes assets such as servers and networking equipment, heavy equipment, and other fulfillment equipment. Depreciation and amortization is recorded on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets (generally the lesser of 40 years or the remaining life of the underlying building, three years for our servers, five years for networking equipment, ten years for heavy equipment, and three to seven years for other fulfillment equipment). Depreciation and amortization expense is classified within the corresponding operating expense categories on our consolidated statements of operations. Leases We categorize leases with contractual terms longer than twelve months as either operating or finance. Finance leases are generally those leases that allow us to substantially utilize or pay for the entire asset over its estimated life. Assets acquired under finance leases are recorded in property and equipment, net. All other leases are categorized as operating leases. Our leases generally have terms that range from one to ten years for equipment and one to twenty years for property. Certain lease contracts include obligations to pay for other services, such as operations and maintenance. For leases of property, we account for these other services as a component of the lease. For substantially all other leases, the services are accounted for separately and we allocate payments to the lease and other services components based on estimated stand-alone prices. Lease liabilities are recognized at the present value of the fixed lease payments, reduced by landlord incentives using a discount rate based on similarly secured borrowings available to us. Lease assets are recognized based on the initial present value of the fixed lease payments, reduced by landlord incentives, plus any direct costs from executing the leases or lease prepayments reclassified from “Other assets” upon lease commencement. Leasehold improvements are capitalized at cost and amortized over the lesser of their expected useful life or the lease term. When we have the option to extend the lease term, terminate the lease before the contractual expiration date, or purchase the leased asset, and it is reasonably certain that we will exercise the option, we consider these options in determining the classification and measurement of the lease. Our leases may include variable payments based on measures that include changes in price indices, market interest rates, or the level of sales at a physical store, which are expensed as incurred. Costs associated with operating lease assets are recognized on a straight-line basis within operating expenses over the term of the lease. Finance lease assets are amortized within operating expenses on a straight-line basis over the shorter of the estimated useful lives of the assets or, in the instance where title does not transfer at the end of the lease term, the lease term. The interest component of a finance lease is included in interest expense and recognized using the effective interest method over the lease term. We establish assets and liabilities for the present value of estimated future costs to retire long-lived assets at the termination or expiration of a lease. Such assets are depreciated over the lease period into operating expense, and the recorded liabilities are accreted to the future value of the estimated retirement costs. Financing Obligations We record assets and liabilities for estimated construction costs under build-to-suit lease arrangements when we have control over the building during the construction period. If we continue to control the building after the construction period, the arrangement is classified as a financing obligation instead of a lease. The building is depreciated over the shorter of its useful life or the term of the obligation. If we do not control the building after the construction period ends, the assets and liabilities for construction costs are derecognized, and we classify the lease as either operating or finance. Goodwill We evaluate goodwill for impairment annually or more frequently when an event occurs or circumstances change that indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. In testing goodwill for impairment, we may elect to utilize a qualitative assessment to evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If our qualitative assessment indicates that goodwill impairment is more likely than not, we perform a two-step impairment test. We test goodwill for impairment under the two-step impairment test by first comparing the book value of net assets to the fair value of the reporting units. If the fair value is determined to be less than the book value or qualitative factors indicate that it is more likely than not that goodwill is impaired, a second step is performed to compute the amount of impairment as the difference between the estimated fair value of goodwill and the carrying value. We estimate the fair value of the reporting units using discounted cash flows. Forecasts of future cash flows are based on our best estimate of future net sales and operating expenses, based primarily on expected category expansion, pricing, market segment share, and general economic conditions. We completed the required annual testing of goodwill for impairment for all reporting units as of April 1, 2019 , and determined that goodwill is no t impaired as the fair value of our reporting units substantially exceeded their book value. There were no events that caused us to update our annual impairment test. See “Note 5 — Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets.” Other Assets Included in “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets are amounts primarily related to acquired intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization; video and music content, net of accumulated amortization; long-term deferred tax assets; certain equity investments; marketable securities restricted for longer than one year, the majority of which are attributable to collateralization of bank guarantees and debt related to our international operations; lease prepayments made prior to lease commencement; and equity warrant assets. Digital Video and Music Content We obtain video content, inclusive of episodic television and movies, and music content for customers through licensing agreements that have a wide range of licensing provisions including both fixed and variable payment schedules. When the license fee for a specific video or music title is determinable or reasonably estimable and the content is available to us, we recognize an asset and a corresponding liability for the amounts owed. We reduce the liability as payments are made and we amortize the asset to “Cost of sales” on an accelerated basis, based on estimated usage or viewing patterns, or on a straight-line basis. If the licensing fee is not determinable or reasonably estimable, no asset or liability is recorded and licensing costs are expensed as incurred. We also develop original video content for which the production costs are capitalized and amortized to “Cost of sales” predominantly on an accelerated basis that follows the viewing patterns associated with the content. The weighted average remaining life of our capitalized video content is 2.7 years . Our produced and licensed video content is primarily monetized together as a unit, referred to as a film group, in each major geography where we offer Amazon Prime memberships. These film groups are evaluated for impairment whenever an event occurs or circumstances change indicating the fair value is less than the carrying value. The total capitalized costs of video, which is primarily released content, and music as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 were $3.8 billion and $5.8 billion . Total video and music expense was $6.7 billion and $7.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2019 . Total video and music expense includes licensing and production costs associated with content offered within Amazon Prime memberships, and costs associated with digital subscriptions and sold or rented content. Investments We generally invest our excess cash in AAA-rated money market funds and investment grade short- to intermediate-term fixed income securities. Such investments are included in “Cash and cash equivalents” or “Marketable securities” on the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Marketable debt securities are classified as available-for-sale and reported at fair value with unrealized gains and losses included in “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss).” Equity investments are accounted for using the equity method of accounting if the investment gives us the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control, over an investee. Equity-method investments are included within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets. Our share of the earnings or losses as reported by equity-method investees, amortization of basis differences, and related gains or losses, if any, are classified as “Equity - method investment activity, net of tax” on our consolidated statements of operations. Equity investments without readily determinable fair values and for which we do not have the ability to exercise significant influence are accounted for at cost with adjustments for observable changes in prices or impairments and are classified as “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets with adjustments recognized in “Other income (expense), net” on our consolidated statements of operations. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019, these investments had a carrying value of $282 million and $1.5 billion . Equity investments that have readily determinable fair values are included in “Marketable securities” on our consolidated balance sheets and measured at fair value with changes recognized in “Other income (expense), net” on our consolidated statement of operations. We periodically evaluate whether declines in fair values of our investments indicate impairment. For debt securities and equity-method investments, we also evaluate whether declines in fair value of our investments below their book value are other-than-temporary. This evaluation consists of several qualitative and quantitative factors regarding the severity and duration of the unrealized loss as well as our ability and intent to hold the investment until a forecasted recovery occurs. Additionally, we assess whether we have plans to sell the security or it is more likely than not we will be required to sell any investment before recovery of its amortized cost basis. Factors considered include: quoted market prices; recent financial results and operating trends; implied values from any recent transactions or offers of investee securities; credit quality of debt instrument issuers; other publicly available information that may affect the value of our investments; duration and severity of the decline in value; and our strategy and intentions for holding the investment. Long-Lived Assets Long-lived assets, other than goodwill, are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the assets might not be recoverable. Conditions that would necessitate an impairment assessment include a significant decline in the observable market value of an asset, a significant change in the extent or manner in which an asset is used, or any other significant adverse change that would indicate that the carrying amount of an asset or group of assets may not be recoverable. For long-lived assets used in operations, including lease assets, impairment losses are only recorded if the asset’s carrying amount is not recoverable through its undiscounted, probability-weighted future cash flows. We measure the impairment loss based on the difference between the carrying amount and estimated fair value. Long-lived assets are considered held for sale when certain criteria are met, including when management has committed to a plan to sell the asset, the asset is available for sale in its immediate condition, and the sale is probable within one year of the reporting date. Assets held for sale are

Financial Instruments

Financial Instruments	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Investments, Debt and Equity Securities [Abstract]
Financial Instruments	As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities primarily consisted of cash, AAA-rated money market funds, U.S. and foreign government and agency securities, and other investment grade securities. Cash equivalents and marketable securities are recorded at fair value. The following table summarizes, by major security type, our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis and are categorized using the fair value hierarchy (in millions): December 31, 2018 Cost or Amortized Cost Gross Unrealized Gains Gross Unrealized Losses Total Estimated Fair Value Cash $ 10,406 $ — $ — $ 10,406 Level 1 securities: Money market funds 12,515 — — 12,515 Equity securities 170 Level 2 securities: Foreign government and agency securities 815 — — 815 U.S. government and agency securities 11,686 1 (20 ) 11,667 Corporate debt securities 5,008 1 (19 ) 4,990 Asset-backed securities 896 — (4 ) 892 Other fixed income securities 190 — (2 ) 188 Equity securities 33 $ 41,516 $ 2 $ (45 ) $ 41,676 Less: Restricted cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities (2) (426 ) Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities $ 41,250 December 31, 2019 Cost or Amortized Cost Gross Unrealized Gains Gross Unrealized Losses Total Estimated Fair Value Cash $ 9,776 $ — $ — $ 9,776 Level 1 securities: Money market funds 18,850 — — 18,850 Equity securities (1) 202 Level 2 securities: Foreign government and agency securities 4,794 — — 4,794 U.S. government and agency securities 7,070 11 (1 ) 7,080 Corporate debt securities 11,845 37 (1 ) 11,881 Asset-backed securities 2,355 6 (1 ) 2,360 Other fixed income securities 393 1 — 394 Equity securities (1) 5 $ 55,083 $ 55 $ (3 ) $ 55,342 Less: Restricted cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities (2) (321 ) Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities $ 55,021 ___________________ (1) The related unrealized gain (loss) recorded in “Other income (expense), net” was $4 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 . (2) We are required to pledge or otherwise restrict a portion of our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as collateral for real estate leases, amounts due to third-party sellers in certain jurisdictions, debt, and standby and trade letters of credit. We classify cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities with use restrictions of less than twelve months as “Accounts receivable, net and other” and of twelve months or longer as non-current “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets. See “Note 7 — Commitments and Contingencies.” The following table summarizes gross gains and gross losses realized on sales of available-for-sale fixed income marketable securities (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Realized gains $ 5 $ 2 $ 11 Realized losses 11 9 7 The following table summarizes the remaining contractual maturities of our cash equivalents and marketable fixed income securities as of December 31, 2019 (in millions): Amortized Cost Estimated Fair Value Due within one year $ 35,064 $ 35,071 Due after one year through five years 9,262 9,304 Due after five years through ten years 301 302 Due after ten years 680 682 Total $ 45,307 $ 45,359 Actual maturities may differ from the contractual maturities because borrowers may have certain prepayment conditions. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows Reconciliation The following table provides a reconciliation of the amount of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash reported within the consolidated balance sheets to the total of the same such amounts shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows (in millions): December 31, 2018 December 31, 2019 Cash and cash equivalents $ 31,750 $ 36,092 Restricted cash included in accounts receivable, net and other 418 276 Restricted cash included in other assets 5 42 Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows $ 32,173 $ 36,410

Property and Equipment

Property and Equipment	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]
Property and Equipment	PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT Property and equipment, at cost, consisted of the following (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 Gross property and equipment (1): Land and buildings $ 31,741 $ 39,223 Equipment 54,591 71,310 Other assets 2,577 3,111 Construction in progress 6,861 6,036 Gross property and equipment 95,770 119,680 Total accumulated depreciation and amortization (1) 33,973 46,975 Total property and equipment, net $ 61,797 $ 72,705 __________________ (1) Includes the original cost and accumulated depreciation of fully-depreciated assets. Depreciation and amortization expense on property and equipment was $8.8 billion , $12.1 billion , and $15.1 billion which includes amortization of property and equipment acquired under finance leases of $5.4 billion , $7.3 billion , and $10.1 billion for 2017 , 2018 , and 2019

Leases Leases

Leases Leases	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Leases [Abstract]
Leases	Gross assets acquired under finance leases, inclusive of those where title transfers at the end of the lease, are recorded in “Property and equipment, net” and were $36.1 billion and $57.4 billion as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . Accumulated amortization associated with finance leases was $19.8 billion and $30.0 billion as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . Lease cost recognized in our consolidated statements of operations is summarized as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2019 Operating lease cost (1) $ 3,669 Finance lease cost: Amortization of lease assets 10,094 Interest on lease liabilities 695 Finance lease cost 10,789 Variable lease cost 966 Total lease cost $ 15,424 __________________ (1) Rental expense under operating lease agreements was $2.2 billion and $3.4 billion for 2017 and 2018 . Other information about lease amounts recognized in our consolidated financial statements is summarized as follows: December 31, 2019 Weighted-average remaining lease term – operating leases 11.5 Weighted-average remaining lease term – finance leases 5.5 Weighted-average discount rate – operating leases 3.1 % Weighted-average discount rate – finance leases 2.7 % As of December 31, 2019 , our lease liabilities were as follows (in millions): Operating Leases Finance Leases Total Gross lease liabilities $ 31,963 $ 28,875 $ 60,838 Less: imputed interest (6,128 ) (1,896 ) (8,024 ) Present value of lease liabilities 25,835 26,979 52,814 Less: current portion of lease liabilities (3,139 ) (9,884 ) (13,023 ) Total long-term lease liabilities $ 22,696 $ 17,095 $ 39,791

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acq

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Business Combinations [Abstract]
Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets	ACQUISITIONS, GOODWILL, AND ACQUIRED INTANGIBLE ASSETS 2017 Acquisition Activity On May 12, 2017 , we acquired Souq Group Ltd., an e-commerce company, for approximately $583 million , net of cash acquired, and on August 28, 2017, we acquired Whole Foods Market, a grocery store chain, for approximately $13.2 billion , net of cash acquired. Both acquisitions are intended to expand our retail presence. During 2017 , we also acquired certain other companies for an aggregate purchase price of $204 million . The primary reason for our other 2017 acquisitions was to acquire technologies and know-how to enable Amazon to serve customers more effectively. 2018 Acquisition Activity On April 12, 2018 , we acquired Ring Inc. (“Ring”) for cash consideration of approximately $839 million , net of cash acquired, and on September 11, 2018 , we acquired PillPack, Inc. (“PillPack”) for cash consideration of approximately $753 million , net of cash acquired, to expand our product and service offerings. During 2018 , we also acquired certain other companies for an aggregate purchase price of $57 million . The primary reason for our other 2018 acquisitions was to acquire technologies and know-how to enable Amazon to serve customers more effectively. 2019 Acquisition Activity During 2019 , we acquired certain companies for an aggregate purchase price of $315 million . The primary reason for these acquisitions, none of which were individually material to our consolidated financial statements, was to acquire technologies and know-how to enable Amazon to serve customers more effectively. Acquisition-related costs were expensed as incurred and were not significant. Pro forma results of operations have not been presented because the effects of 2019 acquisitions, individually and in the aggregate, were not material to our consolidated results of operations. Purchase Price Allocation The aggregate purchase price of these acquisitions was allocated as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Purchase Price Cash paid, net of cash acquired $ 13,859 $ 1,618 $ 276 Indemnification holdback 104 31 39 $ 13,963 $ 1,649 $ 315 Allocation Goodwill $ 9,501 $ 1,228 $ 189 Intangible assets (1): Marketing-related 1,987 186 8 Contract-based 440 13 — Technology-based 166 285 139 Customer-related 54 193 14 2,647 677 161 Property and equipment 3,810 11 3 Deferred tax assets 117 174 29 Other assets acquired 1,858 282 41 Long-term debt (1,165 ) (176 ) (31 ) Deferred tax liabilities (961 ) (159 ) (34 ) Other liabilities assumed (1,844 ) (388 ) (43 ) $ 13,963 $ 1,649 $ 315 ___________________ (1) Intangible assets acquired in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 have estimated useful lives of between one and twenty-five years , two and seven years , and two and seven years , with weighted-average amortization periods of twenty-one years , six years , and five years . We determined the estimated fair value of identifiable intangible assets acquired primarily by using the income approach. These assets are included within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets and are being amortized to operating expenses on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Goodwill The goodwill of the acquired companies is primarily related to expected improvements in technology performance and functionality, as well as sales growth from future product and service offerings and new customers, together with certain intangible assets that do not qualify for separate recognition. The goodwill of the acquired companies is generally not deductible for tax purposes. The following summarizes our goodwill activity in 2018 and 2019 by segment (in millions): North America International AWS Consolidated Goodwill - January 1, 2018 $ 11,165 $ 1,108 $ 1,077 $ 13,350 New acquisitions (1) 1,031 177 20 1,228 Other adjustments (2) (5 ) (15 ) (10 ) (30 ) Goodwill - December 31, 2018 12,191 1,270 1,087 14,548 New acquisitions 71 29 89 189 Other adjustments (2) 2 1 14 17 Goodwill - December 31, 2019 $ 12,264 $ 1,300 $ 1,190 $ 14,754 ___________________ (1) Primarily includes the acquisitions of Ring and PillPack in the North America segment. (2) Primarily includes changes in foreign exchange rates. Intangible Assets Acquired intangible assets, included within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets, consist of the following (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 Acquired Intangibles, Gross (1) Accumulated Amortization (1) Acquired Intangibles, Net Acquired Intangibles, Gross (1) Accumulated Amortization (1) Acquired Intangibles, Net Weighted Average Life Remaining Marketing-related $ 2,542 $ (431 ) $ 2,111 $ 2,303 $ (340 ) $ 1,963 20.7 Contract-based 1,430 (224 ) 1,206 1,702 (302 ) 1,400 10.5 Technology- and content-based 941 (377 ) 564 1,011 (477 ) 534 3.6 Customer-related 437 (208 ) 229 282 (130 ) 152 4.3 Acquired intangibles (2) $ 5,350 $ (1,240 ) $ 4,110 $ 5,298 $ (1,249 ) $ 4,049 14.3 ___________________ (1) Excludes the original cost and accumulated amortization of fully-amortized intangibles. (2) Intangible assets have estimated useful lives of between one and twenty-five years . Amortization expense for acquired intangibles was $366 million , $475 million , and $565 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Expected future amortization expense of acquired intangible assets as of December 31, 2019 is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2020 $ 486 2021 424 2022 391 2023 334 2024 270 Thereafter 2,116 $ 4,021

Debt

Debt	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Debt Disclosure [Abstract]
Debt	DEBT As of December 31, 2019 , we had $23.3 billion of unsecured senior notes outstanding (the “Notes”). As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , the net unamortized discount and debt issuance costs on the Notes was $101 million . We also have other long-term debt with a carrying amount, including the current portion and borrowings under our credit facility, of $715 million and $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . The face value of our total long-term debt obligations is as follows (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 2.600% Notes due on December 5, 2019 1,000 — 1.900% Notes due on August 21, 2020 (3) 1,000 1,000 3.300% Notes due on December 5, 2021 (2) 1,000 1,000 2.500% Notes due on November 29, 2022 (1) 1,250 1,250 2.400% Notes due on February 22, 2023 (3) 1,000 1,000 2.800% Notes due on August 22, 2024 (3) 2,000 2,000 3.800% Notes due on December 5, 2024 (2) 1,250 1,250 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025 (4) 1,000 1,000 3.150% Notes due on August 22, 2027 (3) 3,500 3,500 4.800% Notes due on December 5, 2034 (2) 1,250 1,250 3.875% Notes due on August 22, 2037 (3) 2,750 2,750 4.950% Notes due on December 5, 2044 (2) 1,500 1,500 4.050% Notes due on August 22, 2047 (3) 3,500 3,500 4.250% Notes due on August 22, 2057 (3) 2,250 2,250 Credit Facility 594 740 Other long-term debt 121 830 Total debt 24,965 24,820 Less current portion of long-term debt (1,371 ) (1,307 ) Face value of long-term debt $ 23,594 $ 23,513 _____________________________ (1) Issued in November 2012, effective interest rate of the 2022 Notes was 2.66% . (2) Issued in December 2014, effective interest rates of the 2021, 2024, 2034, and 2044 Notes were 3.43% , 3.90% , 4.92% , and 5.11% . (3) Issued in August 2017, effective interest rates of the 2020, 2023, 2024, 2027, 2037, 2047, and 2057 Notes were 2.16% , 2.56% , 2.95% , 3.25% , 3.94% , 4.13% , and 4.33% . (4) Consists of $872 million of 2025 Notes issued in December 2017 in exchange for notes assumed in connection with the acquisition of Whole Foods Market and $128 million of 2025 Notes issued by Whole Foods Market that did not participate in our December 2017 exchange offer. The effective interest rate of the 2025 Notes was 3.02% . Interest on the Notes issued in 2012 is payable semi-annually in arrears in May and November . Interest on the Notes issued in 2014 is payable semi-annually in arrears in June and December . Interest on the Notes issued in 2017 is payable semi-annually in arrears in February and August. Interest on the 2025 Notes is payable semi-annually in arrears in June and December. We may redeem the Notes at any time in whole, or from time to time, in part at specified redemption prices. We are not subject to any financial covenants under the Notes. The proceeds from the November 2012 and the December 2014 Notes were used for general corporate purposes. The proceeds from the August 2017 Notes were used to fund the consideration for the acquisition of Whole Foods Market, to repay notes due in 2017, and for general corporate purposes. The estimated fair value of the Notes was approximately $24.3 billion and $26.2 billion as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , which is based on quoted prices for our debt as of those dates. In October 2016, we entered into a $500 million secured revolving credit facility with a lender that is secured by certain seller receivables , which we subsequently increased to $740 million and may from time to time increase in the future subject to lender approval (the “Credit Facility”). The Credit Facility is available until October 2022, bears interest at the London interbank offered rate (“ LIBOR ”) plus 1.40% , and has a commitment fee of 0.50% on the undrawn portion. There were $594 million and $740 million of borrowings outstanding under the Credit Facility as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , which had a weighted-average interest rate of 3.2% and 3.4% as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , we have pledged $686 million and $852 million of our cash and seller receivables as collateral for debt related to our Credit Facility. The estimated fair value of the Credit Facility, which is based on Level 2 inputs, approximated its carrying value as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . The other debt, including the current portion, had a weighted-average interest rate of 6.0% and 4.1% as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . We used the net proceeds from the issuance of this debt primarily to fund certain business operations. The estimated fair value of the other long-term debt, which is based on Level 2 inputs, approximated its carrying value as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . As of December 31, 2019 , future principal payments for our total debt were as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2020 $ 1,307 2021 1,141 2022 1,773 2023 1,510 2024 3,339 Thereafter 15,750 $ 24,820 In April 2018, we established a commercial paper program (the “Commercial Paper Program”) under which we may from time to time issue unsecured commercial paper up to a total of $7.0 billion at any time, with individual maturities that may vary but will not exceed 397 days from the date of issue. There were no borrowings outstanding under the Commercial Paper Program as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . In April 2018, in connection with our Commercial Paper Program, we amended and restated our unsecured revolving credit facility (the “Credit Agreement”) with a syndicate of lenders to increase our borrowing capacity thereunder to $7.0 billion . As amended and restated, the Credit Agreement has a term of three years , but it may be extended for up to three additional one -year terms if approved by the lenders. The interest rate applicable to outstanding balances under the amended and restated Credit Agreement is LIBOR plus 0.50% , with a commitment fee of 0.04% on the undrawn portion of the credit facility. There were no borrowings outstanding under the Credit Agreement as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 .

Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments and Contingencies	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]
Commitments and Contingencies	COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Commitments We have entered into non-cancellable operating and finance leases and financing obligations for equipment and office, fulfillment, sortation, delivery, data center, physical store, and renewable energy facilities. The following summarizes our principal contractual commitments, excluding open orders for purchases that support normal operations and are generally cancellable, as of December 31, 2019 (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Thereafter Total Debt principal and interest $ 2,202 $ 2,009 $ 2,603 $ 2,273 $ 4,084 $ 26,019 $ 39,190 Operating lease liabilities 3,757 3,630 3,226 2,900 2,605 15,845 31,963 Finance lease liabilities, including interest 9,878 7,655 4,060 1,332 989 4,961 28,875 Financing obligations, including interest 142 146 148 150 152 2,452 3,190 Unconditional purchase obligations (1) 4,593 3,641 3,293 3,103 3,000 2,358 19,988 Other commitments (2)(3) 3,837 2,274 1,770 1,439 1,389 12,186 22,895 Total commitments $ 24,409 $ 19,355 $ 15,100 $ 11,197 $ 12,219 $ 63,821 $ 146,101 ___________________ (1) Includes unconditional purchase obligations related to certain products offered in our Whole Foods Market stores and long-term agreements to acquire and license digital media content that are not reflected on the consolidated balance sheets. For those digital media content agreements with variable terms, we do not estimate the total obligation beyond any minimum quantities and/or pricing as of the reporting date. Purchase obligations associated with renewal provisions solely at the option of the content provider are included to the extent such commitments are fixed or a minimum amount is specified. (2) Includes the estimated timing and amounts of payments for rent and tenant improvements associated with build-to-suit lease arrangements and lease arrangements prior to the lease commencement date and digital media content liabilities associated with long-term digital media content assets with initial terms greater than one year. (3) Excludes approximately $3.9 billion of accrued tax contingencies for which we cannot make a reasonably reliable estimate of the amount and period of payment, if any. Pledged Assets As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , we have pledged or otherwise restricted $575 million and $994 million of our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and certain property and equipment as collateral for real estate leases, amounts due to third-party sellers in certain jurisdictions, debt, and standby and trade letters of credit. Additionally, we have pledged our cash and seller receivables for debt related to our Credit Facility. See “Note 6 — Debt.” Suppliers During 2019 , no vendor accounted for 10% or more of our purchases. We generally do not have long-term contracts or arrangements with our vendors to guarantee the availability of merchandise, particular payment terms, or the extension of credit limits. Other Contingencies In 2016, we determined that we processed and delivered orders of consumer products for certain individuals and entities located outside Iran covered by the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act or other United States sanctions and export control laws. The consumer products included books, music, other media, apparel, home and kitchen, health and beauty, jewelry, office, consumer electronics, software, lawn and patio, grocery, and automotive products. Our review is ongoing and we have voluntarily reported these orders to the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. We intend to cooperate fully with OFAC and BIS with respect to their review, which may result in the imposition of penalties. For additional information, see Item 9B of Part II, “Other Information — Disclosure Pursuant to Section 13(r) of the Exchange Act.” We are subject to claims related to various indirect taxes (such as sales, value added, consumption, service, and similar taxes), including in jurisdictions in which we already collect and remit such taxes. If the relevant taxing authorities were successfully to pursue these claims, we could be subject to significant additional tax liabilities. For example, in June 2017, the State of South Carolina issued an assessment for uncollected sales and use taxes for the period from January 2016 to March 2016, including interest and penalties. South Carolina is alleging that we should have collected sales and use taxes on transactions by our third-party sellers. In September 2019, the South Carolina Administrative Law Court ruled in favor of the Department of Revenue and we have appealed the decision to the state Court of Appeals. We believe the assessment is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. If other tax authorities were successfully to seek additional adjustments of a similar nature, we could be subject to significant additional tax liabilities. Legal Proceedings The Company is involved from time to time in claims, proceedings, and litigation, including the following: Beginning in August 2013, a number of complaints were filed alleging, among other things, that Amazon.com, Inc. and several of its subsidiaries failed to compensate hourly workers for time spent waiting in security lines and otherwise violated federal and state wage and hour statutes and common law. In August 2013, Busk v. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, and Vance v. Amazon.com, Inc., Zappos.com Inc., another affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc., and Kelly Services, Inc. was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. In September 2013, Allison v. Amazon.com, Inc. and Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, and Johnson v. Amazon.com, Inc. and an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. In October 2013, Davis v. Amazon.com, Inc., an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc., and Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The plaintiffs variously purport to represent a nationwide class of certain current and former employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act and/or state-law-based subclasses for certain current and former employees in states including Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Kentucky, Washington, and Nevada, and one complaint asserts nationwide breach of contract and unjust enrichment claims. The complaints seek an unspecified amount of damages, interest, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees. We have been named in several other similar cases. In December 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Busk that time spent waiting for and undergoing security screening is not compensable working time under the federal wage and hour statute. In February 2015, the courts in those actions alleging only federal law claims entered stipulated orders dismissing those actions without prejudice. In March 2016, the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky dismissed the Vance case with prejudice. In April 2016, the plaintiffs appealed the district court’s judgment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In March 2017, the court of appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. In June 2017, the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky dismissed the Busk and Saldana cases with prejudice. We dispute any remaining allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in these matters. In March 2015, Zitovault, LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon.com, LLC, Amazon Web Services, Inc., and Amazon Web Services, LLC for patent infringement in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges that Elastic Compute Cloud, Virtual Private Cloud, Elastic Load Balancing, Auto-Scaling, and Elastic Beanstalk infringe U.S. Patent No. 6,484,257, entitled “System and Method for Maintaining N Number of Simultaneous Cryptographic Sessions Using a Distributed Computing Environment.” The complaint seeks injunctive relief, an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and interest. In January 2016, the case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. In June 2016, the case was stayed pending resolution of a review petition we filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In January 2019, the stay of the case was lifted following resolution of the review petition. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In November 2015, Eolas Technologies, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that the use of “interactive features” on www.amazon.com, including “search suggestions and search results,” infringes U.S. Patent No. 9,195,507, entitled “Distributed Hypermedia Method and System for Automatically Invoking External Application Providing Interaction and Display of Embedded Objects Within A Hypermedia Document.” The complaint sought a judgment of infringement together with costs and attorneys’ fees. In February 2016, Eolas filed an amended complaint seeking, among other things, an unspecified amount of damages. In February 2017, Eolas alleged in its damages report that in the event of a finding of liability Amazon could be subject to $130 - $250 million in damages. In April 2017, the case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In October 2017, SRC Labs, LLC and Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe filed a complaint for patent infringement against Amazon Web Services, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., and VADATA, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint alleges, among other things, that certain AWS EC2 Instances infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 6,434,687, entitled “System and method for accelerating web site access and processing utilizing a computer system incorporating reconfigurable processors operating under a single operating system image”; 7,149,867, entitled “System and method of enhancing efficiency and utilization of memory bandwidth in reconfigurable hardware”; 7,225,324 and 7,620,800, both entitled “Multi-adaptive processing systems and techniques for enhancing parallelism and performance of computational functions”; and 9,153,311, entitled “System and method for retaining DRAM data when reprogramming reconfigurable devices with DRAM memory controllers.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, interest, and a compulsory on-going royalty. In February 2018, the Virginia district court transferred the case to the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. In November 2018, the case was stayed pending resolution of eight review petitions filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office relating to the ‘324, ‘867, and ‘311 patents. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In May 2018, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and CF Dynamic Advances LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. The complaint alleges, among other things, that “Alexa Voice Software and Alexa enabled devices” infringe U.S. Patent No. 7,177,798, entitled “Natural Language Interface Using Constrained Intermediate Dictionary of Results.” The complaint seeks an injunction, an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, an ongoing royalty, pre- and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In June 2018, VoIP-Pal.com, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon Technologies, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. The complaint alleges, among other things, that the Alexa calling and messaging system, the Alexa app, and Echo, Tap, and Fire devices with Alexa support infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 9,537,762; 9,813,330; 9,826,002; and 9,948,549, all entitled “Producing Routing Messages For Voice Over IP Communications.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and interest. In November 2018, the case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In November 2019, the District Court entered judgment invalidating all asserted claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,537,762; 9,813,330; 9,826,002; and 9,948,549. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In December 2018, Kove IO, Inc. filed a complaint against Amazon Web Services, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon S3 and DynamoDB infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 7,814,170 and 7,103,640, both entitled “Network Distributed Tracking Wire Transfer Protocol,” and 7,233,978, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Managing Location Information In A Network Separate From The Data To Which The Location Information Pertains.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and injunctive relief. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In January 2019, Saint Lawrence Communications, LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. and Amazon.com LLC in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that voice encoding functionality in Amazon devices infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 6,795,805, entitled “Periodicity Enhancement In Decoding Wideband Signals”; 6,807,524, entitled “Perceptual Weighting Device And Method For Efficient Coding Of Wideband Signals”; 7,151,802, entitled “High Frequency Content Recovering Method And Device For Over-Sampled Synthesized Wideband Signal”; 7,191,123, entitled “Gain-Smoothing In Wideband Speech And Audio Signal Decoder”; and 7,260,521, entitled “Method And Device For Adaptive Bandwidth Pitch Search In Coding Wideband Signals.” The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages, enhanced damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and interest. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In April 2019, Vocalife LLC filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. and Amazon.com LLC in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon Echo devices infringe U.S. Patent No. RE47,049, entitled “Microphone Array System.” The complaint seeks injunctive relief, an unspecified amount of damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and interest. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. In May 2019, Neodron Ltd. filed a petition with the United States International Trade Commission requesting that the International Trade Commission commence an investigation into the sale of Amazon Fire HD 10 tablets and certain Dell, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, and Samsung devices (the “accused devices”). Neodron’s petition alleges that the accused devices infringe at least one of U.S. Patent Nos. 8,422,173, entitled “Capacitive Position Sensor”; 8,791,910, entitled “Capacitive Keyboard With Position-Dependent Reduced Keying Ambiguity”; 9,024,790, entitled “Capacitive Keyboard With Non-Locking Reduced Keying Ambiguity”; and 9,372,580, entitled “Enhanced Touch Detection Methods.” Neodron is seeking a limited exclusion order preventing the importation of the accused devices into the United States. In December 2019, Neodron withdrew its infringement allegations against Amazon with regard to U.S. Patent No. 9,372,580. In May 2019, Neodron also filed a complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon’s Fire HD 10 tablet infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 8,422,173, entitled “Capacitive Position Sensor,” and 9,372,580, entitled “Enhanced Touch Detection Methods.” The May 2019 complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages and interest, a permanent injunction, and enhanced damages. In June 2019, Neodron filed a second complaint against Amazon.com, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Amazon’s Fire HD 10 tablet infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 9,823,784, entitled “Capacitive Touch Screen With Noise Suppression”; 9,489,072, entitled “Noise Reduction In Capacitive Touch Sensors”; and 8,502,547, entitled “Capacitive Sensor.” The June 2019 complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages and interest, a permanent injunction, and enhanced damages. We dispute the allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in these matters. The outcomes of our legal proceedings and other contingencies are inherently unpredictable, subject to significant uncertainties, and could be material to our operating results and cash flows for a particular period. In addition, for the matters disclosed above that do not include an estimate of the amount of loss or range of losses, such an estimate is not possible or is immaterial, and we may be unable to estimate the possible loss or range of losses that could potentially result from the application of non-monetary remedies. See also “Note 9 — Income Taxes.”

Stockholders' Equity

Stockholders' Equity	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]
Stockholders' Equity	STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY Preferred Stock We have authorized 500 million shares of $0.01 par value preferred stock. No preferred stock was outstanding for any year presented. Common Stock Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying outstanding stock awards totaled 504 million , 507 million , and 512 million , as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . These totals include all vested and unvested stock awards outstanding, including those awards we estimate will be forfeited. Stock Repurchase Activity In February 2016, the Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $5.0 billion of our common stock, with no fixed expiration. There were no repurchases of common stock in 2017 , 2018 , or 2019 . Stock Award Plans Employees vest in restricted stock unit awards and stock options over the corresponding service term, generally between two and five years . Stock Award Activity Stock-based compensation expense is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Cost of sales $ 47 $ 73 $ 149 Fulfillment 911 1,121 1,182 Technology and content 2,305 2,888 3,725 Marketing 511 769 1,135 General and administrative 441 567 673 Total stock-based compensation expense (1) $ 4,215 $ 5,418 $ 6,864 ___________________ (1) The related tax benefits were $860 million , $1.1 billion , and $1.4 billion for 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . The following table summarizes our restricted stock unit activity (in millions): Number of Units Weighted Average Grant-Date Fair Value Outstanding as of January 1, 2017 19.8 $ 506 Units granted 8.9 946 Units vested (6.8 ) 400 Units forfeited (1.8 ) 649 Outstanding as of December 31, 2017 20.1 725 Units granted 5.0 1,522 Units vested (7.1 ) 578 Units forfeited (2.1 ) 862 Outstanding as of December 31, 2018 15.9 1,024 Units granted 6.7 1,808 Units vested (6.6 ) 827 Units forfeited (1.7 ) 1,223 Outstanding as of December 31, 2019 14.3 1,458 Scheduled vesting for outstanding restricted stock units as of December 31, 2019 , is as follows (in millions): Year Ended 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Thereafter Total Scheduled vesting — restricted stock units 6.0 5.1 2.1 1.0 — 0.1 14.3 As of December 31, 2019 , there was $8.8 billion of net unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock-based compensation arrangements. This compensation is recognized on an accelerated basis with approximately half of the compensation expected to be expensed in the next twelve months, and has a weighted-average recognition period of 1.1 years. The estimated forfeiture rate as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 was 28% , 27% , and 27% . Changes in our estimates and assumptions relating to forfeitures may cause us to realize material changes in stock-based compensation expense in the future. During 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , the fair value of restricted stock units that vested was $6.8 billion , $11.4 billion , and $11.7 billion . Common Stock Available for Future Issuance As of December 31, 2019 , common stock available for future issuance to employees is 108 million shares.

Income Taxes

Income Taxes	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Income Taxes	INCOME TAXES In 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , we recorded net tax provisions of $769 million , $1.2 billion , and $2.4 billion . Tax benefits relating to excess stock-based compensation deductions and accelerated depreciation deductions are reducing our U.S. taxable income. Cash taxes paid, net of refunds, were $957 million , $1.2 billion , and $881 million for 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . The U.S. Tax Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The U.S. Tax Act significantly revised the U.S. corporate income tax by, among other things, lowering the statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, eliminating certain deductions, imposing a mandatory one-time tax on accumulated earnings of foreign subsidiaries, introducing new tax regimes, and changing how foreign earnings are subject to U.S. tax. The U.S. Tax Act also enhanced and extended accelerated depreciation deductions by allowing full expensing of qualified property, primarily equipment, through 2022. We reasonably estimated the effects of the U.S. Tax Act and recorded provisional amounts in our financial statements as of December 31, 2017. We recorded a provisional tax benefit for the impact of the U.S. Tax Act of approximately $789 million . This amount was primarily comprised of the remeasurement of federal net deferred tax liabilities resulting from the permanent reduction in the U.S. statutory corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, after taking into account the mandatory one-time tax on the accumulated earnings of our foreign subsidiaries. The amount of this one-time tax was not material. In 2018, we completed our determination of the accounting implications of the U.S. Tax Act. The components of the provision for income taxes, net are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 U.S. Federal: Current $ (137 ) $ (129 ) $ 162 Deferred (202 ) 565 914 Total (339 ) 436 1,076 U.S. State: Current 211 322 276 Deferred (26 ) 5 8 Total 185 327 284 International: Current 724 563 1,140 Deferred 199 (129 ) (126 ) Total 923 434 1,014 Provision for income taxes, net $ 769 $ 1,197 $ 2,374 U.S. and international components of income before income taxes are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 U.S. $ 5,630 $ 11,157 $ 13,285 International (1,824 ) 104 691 Income before income taxes $ 3,806 $ 11,261 $ 13,976 The items accounting for differences between income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate and the provision recorded for income taxes are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate (1) $ 1,332 $ 2,365 $ 2,935 Effect of: Tax impact of foreign earnings 1,178 119 381 State taxes, net of federal benefits 114 263 221 Tax credits (220 ) (419 ) (466 ) Stock-based compensation (2) (917 ) (1,086 ) (850 ) 2017 Impact of U.S. Tax Act (789 ) (157 ) — Other, net 71 112 153 Total $ 769 $ 1,197 $ 2,374 ___________________ (1) The U.S. Tax Act reduced the U.S. federal statutory rate from 35% to 21% beginning in 2018. (2) Includes non-deductible stock-based compensation and excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation. Our tax provision includes $1.3 billion , $1.6 billion , and $1.4 billion of excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation for 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Our provision for income taxes in 2018 was higher than in 2017 primarily due to an increase in U.S. pre-tax income and the one-time provisional tax benefit of the U.S. Tax Act recognized in 2017. This was partially offset by the reduction to the U.S. federal statutory tax rate in 2018, a decline in the proportion of foreign losses for which we may not realize a tax benefit and an increase in excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation. We regularly assess whether it is more likely than not that we will realize our deferred tax assets in each taxing jurisdiction in which we operate. In performing this assessment with respect to each jurisdiction, we review all available evidence, including recent cumulative loss experience and expectations of future earnings, capital gains, and investment in such jurisdiction, the carry-forward periods available to us for tax reporting purposes, and other relevant factors. In Q2 2017, we recognized an estimated charge to tax expense of $600 million to record a valuation allowance against the net deferred tax assets in Luxembourg. Our provision for income taxes in 2019 was higher than in 2018 primarily due to an increase in U.S. pre-tax income, a decline in excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation, and the one-time provisional tax benefit of the U.S. Tax Act recognized in 2018. Certain foreign subsidiary earnings are subject to U.S. taxation under the U.S. Tax Act, which also repeals U.S. taxation on the subsequent repatriation of those earnings. We intend to invest substantially all of our foreign subsidiary earnings, as well as our capital in our foreign subsidiaries, indefinitely outside of the U.S. in those jurisdictions in which we would incur significant, additional costs upon repatriation of such amounts. Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are as follows (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 Deferred tax assets (1): Loss carryforwards U.S. - Federal/States 222 188 Loss carryforwards - Foreign 2,551 3,232 Accrued liabilities, reserves, and other expenses 1,064 1,373 Stock-based compensation 1,293 1,585 Depreciation and amortization 2,386 2,385 Operating lease liabilities — 6,648 Other items 484 728 Tax credits 734 772 Total gross deferred tax assets 8,734 16,911 Less valuation allowances (2) (4,950 ) (5,754 ) Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowances 3,784 11,157 Deferred tax liabilities: Depreciation and amortization (3,579 ) (5,507 ) Operating lease assets — (6,331 ) Other items (749 ) (640 ) Net deferred tax assets (liabilities), net of valuation allowances $ (544 ) $ (1,321 ) ___________________ (1) Deferred tax assets are presented after tax effects and net of tax contingencies. (2) Relates primarily to deferred tax assets that would only be realizable upon the generation of net income in certain foreign taxing jurisdictions. Our valuation allowances primarily relate to foreign deferred tax assets, including substantially all of our foreign net operating loss carryforwards as of December 31, 2019 . Our foreign net operating loss carryforwards for income tax purposes as of December 31, 2019 were approximately $8.6 billion before tax effects and certain of these amounts are subject to annual limitations under applicable tax law. If not utilized, a portion of these losses will begin to expire in 2020 . As of December 31, 2019 , our federal tax credit carryforwards for income tax purposes were approximately $1.7 billion . If not utilized, a portion of the tax credit carryforwards will begin to expire in 2027 . Tax Contingencies We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. (federal and state) and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes. During the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We establish reserves for tax-related uncertainties based on estimates of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. These reserves are established when we believe that certain positions might be challenged despite our belief that our tax return positions are fully supportable. We adjust these reserves in light of changing facts and circumstances, such as the outcome of tax audits. The provision for income taxes includes the impact of reserve provisions and changes to reserves that are considered appropriate. The reconciliation of our tax contingencies is as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Gross tax contingencies – January 1 $ 1,710 $ 2,309 $ 3,414 Gross increases to tax positions in prior periods 223 164 216 Gross decreases to tax positions in prior periods (139 ) (90 ) (181 ) Gross increases to current period tax positions 518 1,088 707 Settlements with tax authorities — (36 ) (207 ) Lapse of statute of limitations (3 ) (21 ) (26 ) Gross tax contingencies – December 31 (1) $ 2,309 $ 3,414 $ 3,923 ___________________ (1) As of December 31, 2019 , we had approximately $3.9 billion of accrued tax contingencies of which $2.1 billion , if fully recognized, would decrease our effective tax rate. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , we had accrued interest and penalties, net of federal income tax benefit, related to tax contingencies of $127 million and $131 million . Interest and penalties, net of federal income tax benefit, recognized for the years ended December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 was $40 million , $20 million , and $4 million . We are under examination, or may be subject to examination, by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) for the calendar year 2007 and thereafter. These examinations may lead to ordinary course adjustments or proposed adjustments to our taxes or our net operating losses with respect to years under examination as well as subsequent periods. In October 2014, the European Commission opened a formal investigation to examine whether decisions by the tax authorities in Luxembourg with regard to the corporate income tax paid by certain of our subsidiaries comply with European Union rules on state aid. On October 4, 2017, the European Commission announced its decision that determinations by the tax authorities in Luxembourg did not comply with European Union rules on state aid. Based on that decision the European Commission announced an estimated recovery amount of approximately €250 million , plus interest, for the period May 2006 through June 2014, and ordered Luxembourg tax authorities to calculate the actual amount of additional taxes subject to recovery. Luxembourg computed an initial recovery amount, consistent with the European Commission’s decision, that we deposited into escrow in March 2018, subject to adjustment pending conclusion of all appeals. In December 2017, Luxembourg appealed the European Commission’s decision. In May 2018, we appealed. We believe the European Commission’s decision to be without merit and will continue to defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. We are also subject to taxation in various states and other foreign jurisdictions including China, Germany, India, Japan, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. We are under, or may be subject to, audit or examination and additional assessments by the relevant authorities in respect of these particular jurisdictions primarily for 2009 and thereafter. Changes in state, federal, and foreign tax laws may increase our tax contingencies. The timing of the resolution of income tax examinations is highly uncertain, and the amounts ultimately paid, if any, upon resolution of the issues raised by the taxing authorities may differ from the amounts accrued. It is reasonably possible that within the next twelve months we will receive additional assessments by various tax authorities or possibly reach resolution of income tax examinations in one or more jurisdictions. These assessments or settlements could result in changes to our contingencies related to positions on tax filings in years through 2019 . The actual amount of any change could vary significantly depending on the ultimate timing and nature of any settlements. We cannot currently provide an estimate of the range of possible outcomes.

Segment Information

Segment Information	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Segment Reporting [Abstract]
Segment Information	SEGMENT INFORMATION We have organized our operations into three segments: North America, International, and AWS. We allocate to segment results the operating expenses “Fulfillment,” “Technology and content,” “Marketing,” and “General and administrative” based on usage, which is generally reflected in the segment in which the costs are incurred. The majority of technology infrastructure costs are allocated to the AWS segment based on usage. The majority of the remaining non-infrastructure technology costs are incurred in the U.S. and are allocated to our North America segment. There are no internal revenue transactions between our reportable segments. These segments reflect the way our chief operating decision maker evaluates the Company’s business performance and manages its operations. North America The North America segment primarily consists of amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through North America-focused online and physical stores. This segment includes export sales from these online stores. International The International segment primarily consists of amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through internationally-focused online stores. This segment includes export sales from these internationally-focused online stores (including export sales from these online stores to customers in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada), but excludes export sales from our North America-focused online stores. AWS The AWS segment consists of amounts earned from global sales of compute, storage, database, and other service offerings for start-ups, enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions. Information on reportable segments and reconciliation to consolidated net income (loss) is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America Net sales $ 106,110 $ 141,366 $ 170,773 Operating expenses 103,273 134,099 163,740 Operating income $ 2,837 $ 7,267 $ 7,033 International Net sales $ 54,297 $ 65,866 $ 74,723 Operating expenses 57,359 68,008 76,416 Operating income (loss) $ (3,062 ) $ (2,142 ) $ (1,693 ) AWS Net sales $ 17,459 $ 25,655 $ 35,026 Operating expenses 13,128 18,359 25,825 Operating income $ 4,331 $ 7,296 $ 9,201 Consolidated Net sales $ 177,866 $ 232,887 $ 280,522 Operating expenses 173,760 220,466 265,981 Operating income 4,106 12,421 14,541 Total non-operating income (expense) (300 ) (1,160 ) (565 ) Provision for income taxes (769 ) (1,197 ) (2,374 ) Equity-method investment activity, net of tax (4 ) 9 (14 ) Net income $ 3,033 $ 10,073 $ 11,588 Net sales by groups of similar products and services, which also have similar economic characteristics, is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Net Sales: Online stores (1) $ 108,354 $ 122,987 $ 141,247 Physical stores (2) 5,798 17,224 17,192 Third-party seller services (3) 31,881 42,745 53,762 Subscription services (4) 9,721 14,168 19,210 AWS 17,459 25,655 35,026 Other (5) 4,653 10,108 14,085 Consolidated $ 177,866 $ 232,887 $ 280,522 ___________________ (1) Includes product sales and digital media content where we record revenue gross. We leverage our retail infrastructure to offer a wide selection of consumable and durable goods that includes media products available in both a physical and digital format, such as books, music, videos, games, and software. These product sales include digital products sold on a transactional basis. Digital product subscriptions that provide unlimited viewing or usage rights are included in “Subscription services.” (2) Includes product sales where our customers physically select items in a store. Sales from customers who order goods online for delivery or pickup at our physical stores are included in “Online stores.” (3) Includes commissions and any related fulfillment and shipping fees, and other third-party seller services. (4) Includes annual and monthly fees associated with Amazon Prime memberships, as well as audiobook, digital video, digital music, e-book, and other non-AWS subscription services. (5) Primarily includes sales of advertising services, as well as sales related to our other service offerings. Net sales generated from our internationally-focused online stores are denominated in local functional currencies. Revenues are translated at average rates prevailing throughout the period. Net sales attributed to countries that represent a significant portion of consolidated net sales are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 United States $ 120,486 $ 160,146 $ 193,636 Germany 16,951 19,881 22,232 United Kingdom 11,372 14,524 17,527 Japan 11,907 13,829 16,002 Rest of world 17,150 24,507 31,125 Consolidated $ 177,866 $ 232,887 $ 280,522 Total segment assets exclude corporate assets, such as cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, other long-term investments, corporate facilities, goodwill and other acquired intangible assets, and tax assets. Technology infrastructure assets are allocated among the segments based on usage, with the majority allocated to the AWS segment. Total segment assets reconciled to consolidated amounts are as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America (1) $ 35,844 $ 47,251 $ 72,277 International (1) 18,014 19,923 30,709 AWS (2) 18,660 26,340 36,500 Corporate 58,792 69,134 85,762 Consolidated $ 131,310 $ 162,648 $ 225,248 ___________________ (1) North America and International segment assets primarily consist of property and equipment, inventory, and accounts receivable. (2) AWS segment assets primarily consist of property and equipment and accounts receivable. Property and equipment, net by segment is as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America $ 20,401 $ 27,052 $ 31,719 International 7,425 8,552 9,566 AWS 14,885 18,851 23,481 Corporate 6,155 7,342 7,939 Consolidated $ 48,866 $ 61,797 $ 72,705 Total net additions to property and equipment by segment are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America (1) $ 13,200 $ 10,749 $ 11,752 International (1) 5,196 2,476 3,298 AWS (2) 9,190 9,783 13,058 Corporate 2,197 2,060 1,910 Consolidated $ 29,783 $ 25,068 $ 30,018 ___________________ (1) Includes property and equipment added under finance leases of $2.9 billion , $2.0 billion , and $3.8 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , and under financing obligations of $2.9 billion , $3.0 billion , and $1.3 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . (2) Includes property and equipment added under finance leases of $7.3 billion , $8.4 billion , and $10.6 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , and under financing obligations of $134 million , $245 million , and $0 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . U.S. property and equipment, net was $35.5 billion , $45.1 billion , and $53.0 billion , in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , and non-U.S. property and equipment, net was $13.4 billion , $16.7 billion , and $19.7 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Except for the U.S., property and equipment, net, in any single country was less than 10% of consolidated property and equipment, net. Depreciation and amortization expense, including other corporate property and equipment depreciation and amortization expense, are allocated to all segments based on usage. Total depreciation and amortization expense, by segment, is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America $ 3,029 $ 4,415 $ 5,106 International 1,278 1,628 1,886 AWS 4,524 6,095 8,158 Consolidated $ 8,831 $ 12,138 $ 15,150

Quarterly Results (Unaudited)

Quarterly Results (Unaudited)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Quarterly Financial Information Disclosure [Abstract]
Quarterly Results (Unaudited)	QUARTERLY RESULTS (UNAUDITED) The following tables contain selected unaudited statement of operations information for each quarter of 2018 and 2019 . The following information reflects all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the information for the periods presented. The operating results for any quarter are not necessarily indicative of results for any future period. Our business is affected by seasonality, which historically has resulted in higher sales volume during our fourth quarter. Unaudited quarterly results are as follows (in millions, except per share data): Year Ended December 31, 2018 (1) First Second Third Fourth Net sales $ 51,042 $ 52,886 $ 56,576 $ 72,383 Operating income 1,927 2,983 3,724 3,786 Income before income taxes 1,916 2,605 3,390 3,350 Provision for income taxes (287 ) (74 ) (508 ) (327 ) Net income 1,629 2,534 2,883 3,027 Basic earnings per share 3.36 5.21 5.91 6.18 Diluted earnings per share 3.27 5.07 5.75 6.04 Shares used in computation of earnings per share: Basic 484 486 488 490 Diluted 498 500 501 501 Year Ended December 31, 2019 (1) First Second Third Fourth Net sales $ 59,700 $ 63,404 $ 69,981 $ 87,437 Operating income 4,420 3,084 3,157 3,879 Income before income taxes 4,401 2,889 2,632 4,053 Provision for income taxes (836 ) (257 ) (494 ) (786 ) Net income 3,561 2,625 2,134 3,268 Basic earnings per share 7.24 5.32 4.31 6.58 Diluted earnings per share 7.09 5.22 4.23 6.47 Shares used in computation of earnings per share: Basic 491 493 495 496 Diluted 502 503 504 505 ___________________ (1) The sum of quarterly amounts, including per share amounts, may not equal amounts reported for year-to-date periods. This is due to the effects of rounding and changes in the number of weighted-average shares outstanding for each period.

Description of Business and A_2

Description of Business and Accounting Policies (Policies)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Segment Information	We have organized our operations into three
Prior Period Reclassifications	Prior Period Reclassifications Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation, including the addition of restricted cash to cash and cash equivalents on our consolidated statements of cash flows and the reclassification of long-term capital lease obligations that existed at December 31, 2018
Principles of Consolidation	Principles of Consolidation The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Amazon.com, Inc. and its consolidated entities (collectively, the “Company”), consisting of its wholly-owned subsidiaries and those entities in which we have a variable interest and of which we are the primary beneficiary, including certain entities in India and certain entities that support our seller lending financing activities. Intercompany balances and transactions between consolidated entities are eliminated. The financial results of Whole Foods Market, Inc. (“Whole Foods Market”) have been included in our consolidated financial statements from the date of acquisition on August 28, 2017.
Use of Estimates	Use of Estimates
Earnings per Share	Earnings per Share Basic earnings per share is calculated using our weighted-average outstanding common shares. Diluted earnings per share is calculated using our weighted-average outstanding common shares including the dilutive effect of stock awards as determined under the treasury stock method. In periods when we have a net loss, stock awards are excluded from our calculation of earnings per share as their inclusion would have an antidilutive effect.
Revenue	Revenue Revenue is measured based on the amount of consideration that we expect to receive, reduced by estimates for return allowances, promotional discounts, and rebates. Revenue also excludes any amounts collected on behalf of third parties, including sales and indirect taxes. In arrangements where we have multiple performance obligations, the transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation using the relative stand-alone selling price. We generally determine stand-alone selling prices based on the prices charged to customers or using expected cost plus a margin. A description of our principal revenue generating activities is as follows: Retail sales - We offer consumer products through our online and physical stores. Revenue is recognized when control of the goods is transferred to the customer, which generally occurs upon our delivery to a third-party carrier or, in the case of an Amazon delivery, to the customer. Third-party seller services - We offer programs that enable sellers to sell their products in our stores, and fulfill orders through us. We are not the seller of record in these transactions. The commissions and any related fulfillment and shipping fees we earn from these arrangements are recognized when the services are rendered, which generally occurs upon delivery of the related products to a third-party carrier or, in the case of an Amazon delivery, to the customer. Subscription services - Our subscription sales include fees associated with Amazon Prime memberships and access to content including audiobooks, digital video, digital music, e-books, and other non-AWS subscription services. Prime memberships provide our customers with access to an evolving suite of benefits that represent a single stand-ready obligation. Subscriptions are paid for at the time of or in advance of delivering the services. Revenue from such arrangements is recognized over the subscription period. AWS - Our AWS arrangements include global sales of compute, storage, database, and other services. Revenue is allocated to services using stand-alone selling prices and is primarily recognized when the customer uses these services, based on the quantity of services rendered, such as compute or storage capacity delivered on-demand. Certain services, including compute and database, are also offered as a fixed quantity over a specified term, for which revenue is recognized ratably. Sales commissions we pay in connection with contracts that exceed one year are capitalized and amortized over the contract term. Other - Other revenue primarily includes sales of advertising services, which are recognized as ads are delivered based on the number of clicks or impressions. Return Allowances Return allowances, which reduce revenue and cost of sales, are estimated using historical experience. Liabilities for return allowances are included in “Accrued expenses and other” and were $468 million , $623 million , and $712 million as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Additions to the allowance were $1.8 billion , $2.3 billion , and $2.5 billion and deductions from the allowance were $1.9 billion , $2.3 billion , and $2.5 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . Included in “Inventories” on our consolidated balance sheets are assets totaling $406 million , $519 million , and $629 million as of December 31, 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , for the rights to recover products from customers associated with our liabilities for return allowances. Cost of Sales Cost of sales primarily consists of the purchase price of consumer products, inbound and outbound shipping costs, including costs related to sortation and delivery centers and where we are the transportation service provider, and digital media content costs where we record revenue gross, including video and music. Shipping costs to receive products from our suppliers are included in our inventory, and recognized as cost of sales upon sale of products to our customers. Payment processing and related transaction costs, including those associated with seller transactions, are classified in “Fulfillment” on our consolidated statements of operations. Vendor Agreements We have agreements with our vendors to receive funds primarily for cooperative marketing efforts, promotions, incentives, and volume rebates. We generally consider these amounts received from vendors to be a reduction of the prices we pay for their goods, including property and equipment, or services, and are recorded as a reduction of the cost of inventory, cost of services, or cost of property and equipment. Volume rebates typically depend on reaching minimum purchase thresholds. We evaluate the likelihood of reaching purchase thresholds using past experience and current year forecasts. When volume rebates can be reasonably estimated, we record a portion of the rebate as we make progress towards the purchase threshold.
Fulfillment	Fulfillment Fulfillment costs primarily consist of those costs incurred in operating and staffing our North America and International segments’ fulfillment centers, physical stores, and customer service centers, including costs attributable to buying, receiving, inspecting, and warehousing inventories; picking, packaging, and preparing customer orders for shipment; payment processing and related transaction costs, including costs associated with our guarantee for certain seller transactions; responding to inquiries from customers; and supply chain management for our manufactured electronic devices. Fulfillment costs also include amounts paid to third parties that assist us in fulfillment and customer service operations.
Technology and Content	Technology and Content Technology and content costs include payroll and related expenses for employees involved in the research and development of new and existing products and services, development, design, and maintenance of our stores, curation and display of products and services made available in our online stores, and infrastructure costs. Infrastructure costs include servers, networking equipment, and data center related depreciation and amortization, rent, utilities, and other expenses necessary to support AWS and other Amazon businesses. Collectively, these costs reflect the investments we make in order to offer a wide variety of products and services to our customers. Technology and content costs are generally expensed as incurred.
Marketing	Marketing Marketing costs primarily consist of advertising and payroll and related expenses for personnel engaged in marketing and selling activities, including sales commissions related to AWS. We pay commissions to third parties when their customer referrals result in sales. We also participate in cooperative advertising arrangements with certain of our vendors, and other third parties.
General and Administrative	General and Administrative General and administrative expenses primarily consist of costs for corporate functions, including payroll and related expenses; facilities and equipment expenses, such as depreciation and amortization expense and rent; and professional fees and litigation costs.
Stock-Based Compensation	Stock-Based Compensation Compensation cost for all stock awards expected to vest is measured at fair value on the date of grant and recognized over the service period. The fair value of restricted stock units is determined based on the number of shares granted and the quoted price of our common stock. Such value is recognized as expense over the service period, net of estimated forfeitures, using the accelerated method. The estimated number of stock awards that will ultimately vest requires judgment, and to the extent actual results or updated estimates differ from our current estimates, such amounts will be recorded as a cumulative adjustment in the period estimates are revised. We consider many factors when estimating expected forfeitures, including historical forfeiture experience and employee level.
Other Operating Expense, Net	Other Operating Expense (Income), Net Other operating expense (income), net, consists primarily of marketing-related, contract-based, and customer-related intangible asset amortization expense, and expenses related to legal settlements.
Other Income (Expense), Net	Other Income (Expense), Net Other income (expense), net, consists primarily of adjustments to and gains on equity securities of $18 million , $145 million , and $231 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , equity warrant valuation gains (losses) of $109 million , $(131) million , and $11 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019
Income Taxes	Income Taxes Income tax expense includes U.S. (federal and state) and foreign income taxes. Certain foreign subsidiary earnings are subject to U.S. taxation under the U.S. Tax Act, which also repeals U.S. taxation on the subsequent repatriation of those earnings. We intend to invest substantially all of our foreign subsidiary earnings, as well as our capital in our foreign subsidiaries, indefinitely outside of the U.S. in those jurisdictions in which we would incur significant, additional costs upon repatriation of such amounts. Deferred income tax balances reflect the effects of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities and their tax bases and are stated at enacted tax rates expected to be in effect when taxes are actually paid or recovered. Deferred tax assets are evaluated for future realization and reduced by a valuation allowance to the extent we believe they will not be realized. We consider many factors when assessing the likelihood of future realization of our deferred tax assets, including our recent cumulative loss experience and expectations of future earnings, capital gains and investment in such jurisdiction, the carry-forward periods available to us for tax reporting purposes, and other relevant factors. We utilize a two-step approach to recognizing and measuring uncertain income tax positions (tax contingencies). The first step is to evaluate the tax position for recognition by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates it is more likely than not the position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of related appeals or litigation processes. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount which is more than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement. We consider many factors when evaluating our tax positions and estimating our tax benefits, which may require periodic adjustments and which may not accurately forecast actual outcomes. We include interest and penalties related to our tax contingencies in income tax expense.
Fair Value of Financial Instruments	Fair Value of Financial Instruments Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. To increase the comparability of fair value measures, the following hierarchy prioritizes the inputs to valuation methodologies used to measure fair value: Level 1 — Valuations based on quoted prices for identical assets and liabilities in active markets. Level 2 — Valuations based on observable inputs other than quoted prices included in Level 1, such as quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets and liabilities in markets that are not active, or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data. Level 3 — Valuations based on unobservable inputs reflecting our own assumptions, consistent with reasonably available assumptions made by other market participants. These valuations require significant judgment. For our cash, cash equivalents, or marketable securities, we measure the fair value of money market funds and certain marketable equity securities based on quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. Other marketable securities were valued either based on recent trades of securities in inactive markets or based on quoted market prices of similar instruments and other significant inputs derived from or corroborated by observable market data. We did not hold significant amounts of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, or marketable securities categorized as Level 3 assets as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . We hold equity warrants giving us the right to acquire stock of other companies. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , these warrants had a fair value of $440 million and $669 million , and are recorded within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets. These assets are primarily classified as Level 2 assets.
Cash and Cash Equivalents	Cash and Cash Equivalents We classify all highly liquid instruments with an original maturity of three months or less as cash equivalents.
Inventories	Inventories Inventories, consisting of products available for sale, are primarily accounted for using the first-in, first-out method, and are valued at the lower of cost and net realizable value. This valuation requires us to make judgments, based on currently available information, about the likely method of disposition, such as through sales to individual customers, returns to product vendors, or liquidations, and expected recoverable values of each disposition category. We provide Fulfillment by Amazon services in connection with certain of our sellers’ programs. Third-party sellers maintain ownership of their inventory, regardless of whether fulfillment is provided by us or the third-party sellers, and therefore these products are not included in our inventories. We also purchase electronic device components from a variety of suppliers and use several contract manufacturers to provide manufacturing services for our products. During the normal course of business, in order to manage manufacturing lead times and help ensure adequate supply, we enter into agreements with contract manufacturers and suppliers for certain electronic device components. A portion of our reported purchase commitments arising from these agreements consists of firm, non-cancellable commitments. These commitments are based on forecasted customer demand. If we reduce these commitments, we may incur additional costs. We also have firm, non-cancellable commitments for certain products offered in our Whole Foods Market stores.
Accounts Receivable, Net and Other	Accounts Receivable, Net and Other Included in “Accounts receivable, net and other” on our consolidated balance sheets are amounts primarily related to customers, vendors, and sellers. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , customer receivables, net, were $9.4 billion and $12.6 billion , vendor receivables, net, were $3.2 billion and $4.2 billion , and seller receivables, net, were $710 million and $863 million . Seller receivables are amounts due from sellers related to our seller lending program, which provides funding to sellers primarily to procure inventory.
Software Development Costs	Software Development Costs We incur software development costs related to products to be sold, leased, or marketed to external users, internal-use software, and our websites. Software development costs capitalized were not significant for the years presented. All other costs, including those related to design or maintenance, are expensed as incurred.
Property and Equipment, Net	Property and Equipment, Net Property and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Incentives that we receive from property and equipment vendors are recorded as a reduction in our costs. Property includes buildings and land that we own, along with property we have acquired under build-to-suit lease arrangements when we have control over the building during the construction period and finance lease arrangements. Equipment includes assets such as servers and networking equipment, heavy equipment, and other fulfillment equipment. Depreciation and amortization is recorded on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets (generally the lesser of 40 years or the remaining life of the underlying building, three years for our servers, five years for networking equipment, ten years for heavy equipment, and three to seven years
Leases	Leases We categorize leases with contractual terms longer than twelve months as either operating or finance. Finance leases are generally those leases that allow us to substantially utilize or pay for the entire asset over its estimated life. Assets acquired under finance leases are recorded in property and equipment, net. All other leases are categorized as operating leases. Our leases generally have terms that range from one to ten years for equipment and one to twenty years for property. Certain lease contracts include obligations to pay for other services, such as operations and maintenance. For leases of property, we account for these other services as a component of the lease. For substantially all other leases, the services are accounted for separately and we allocate payments to the lease and other services components based on estimated stand-alone prices. Lease liabilities are recognized at the present value of the fixed lease payments, reduced by landlord incentives using a discount rate based on similarly secured borrowings available to us. Lease assets are recognized based on the initial present value of the fixed lease payments, reduced by landlord incentives, plus any direct costs from executing the leases or lease prepayments reclassified from “Other assets” upon lease commencement. Leasehold improvements are capitalized at cost and amortized over the lesser of their expected useful life or the lease term. When we have the option to extend the lease term, terminate the lease before the contractual expiration date, or purchase the leased asset, and it is reasonably certain that we will exercise the option, we consider these options in determining the classification and measurement of the lease. Our leases may include variable payments based on measures that include changes in price indices, market interest rates, or the level of sales at a physical store, which are expensed as incurred. Costs associated with operating lease assets are recognized on a straight-line basis within operating expenses over the term of the lease. Finance lease assets are amortized within operating expenses on a straight-line basis over the shorter of the estimated useful lives of the assets or, in the instance where title does not transfer at the end of the lease term, the lease term. The interest component of a finance lease is included in interest expense and recognized using the effective interest method over the lease term. We establish assets and liabilities for the present value of estimated future costs to retire long-lived assets at the termination or expiration of a lease. Such assets are depreciated over the lease period into operating expense, and the recorded liabilities are accreted to the future value of the estimated retirement costs.
Financing Obligations	Financing Obligations We record assets and liabilities for estimated construction costs under build-to-suit lease arrangements when we have control over the building during the construction period. If we continue to control the building after the construction period, the arrangement is classified as a financing obligation instead of a lease. The building is depreciated over the shorter of its useful life or the term of the obligation. If we do not control the building after the construction period ends, the assets and liabilities for construction costs are derecognized, and we classify the lease as either operating or finance.
Goodwill	Goodwill We evaluate goodwill for impairment annually or more frequently when an event occurs or circumstances change that indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. In testing goodwill for impairment, we may elect to utilize a qualitative assessment to evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If our qualitative assessment indicates that goodwill impairment is more likely than not, we perform a two-step impairment test. We test goodwill for impairment under the two-step impairment test by first comparing the book value of net assets to the fair value of the reporting units. If the fair value is determined to be less than the book value or qualitative factors indicate that it is more likely than not that goodwill is impaired, a second step is performed to compute the amount of impairment as the difference between the estimated fair value of goodwill and the carrying value. We estimate the fair value of the reporting units using discounted cash flows. Forecasts of future cash flows are based on our best estimate of future net sales and operating expenses, based primarily on expected category expansion, pricing, market segment share, and general economic conditions. We completed the required annual testing of goodwill for impairment for all reporting units as of April 1, 2019 , and determined that goodwill is no
Other Assets	Other Assets Included in “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets are amounts primarily related to acquired intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization; video and music content, net of accumulated amortization; long-term deferred tax assets; certain equity investments; marketable securities restricted for longer than one year, the majority of which are attributable to collateralization of bank guarantees and debt related to our international operations; lease prepayments made prior to lease commencement; and equity warrant assets.
Video and Music Content	Digital Video and Music Content We obtain video content, inclusive of episodic television and movies, and music content for customers through licensing agreements that have a wide range of licensing provisions including both fixed and variable payment schedules. When the license fee for a specific video or music title is determinable or reasonably estimable and the content is available to us, we recognize an asset and a corresponding liability for the amounts owed. We reduce the liability as payments are made and we amortize the asset to “Cost of sales” on an accelerated basis, based on estimated usage or viewing patterns, or on a straight-line basis. If the licensing fee is not determinable or reasonably estimable, no asset or liability is recorded and licensing costs are expensed as incurred. We also develop original video content for which the production costs are capitalized and amortized to “Cost of sales” predominantly on an accelerated basis that follows the viewing patterns associated with the content. The weighted average remaining life of our capitalized video content is 2.7 years . Our produced and licensed video content is primarily monetized together as a unit, referred to as a film group, in each major geography where we offer Amazon Prime memberships. These film groups are evaluated for impairment whenever an event occurs or circumstances change indicating the fair value is less than the carrying value. The total capitalized costs of video, which is primarily released content, and music as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 were $3.8 billion and $5.8 billion . Total video and music expense was $6.7 billion and $7.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2019 . Total video and music expense includes licensing and production costs associated with content offered within Amazon Prime memberships, and costs associated with digital subscriptions and sold or rented content.
Investments	Investments We generally invest our excess cash in AAA-rated money market funds and investment grade short- to intermediate-term fixed income securities. Such investments are included in “Cash and cash equivalents” or “Marketable securities” on the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Marketable debt securities are classified as available-for-sale and reported at fair value with unrealized gains and losses included in “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss).” Equity investments are accounted for using the equity method of accounting if the investment gives us the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control, over an investee. Equity-method investments are included within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets. Our share of the earnings or losses as reported by equity-method investees, amortization of basis differences, and related gains or losses, if any, are classified as “Equity - method investment activity, net of tax” on our consolidated statements of operations. Equity investments without readily determinable fair values and for which we do not have the ability to exercise significant influence are accounted for at cost with adjustments for observable changes in prices or impairments and are classified as “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets with adjustments recognized in “Other income (expense), net” on our consolidated statements of operations. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019, these investments had a carrying value of $282 million and $1.5 billion . Equity investments that have readily determinable fair values are included in “Marketable securities” on our consolidated balance sheets and measured at fair value with changes recognized in “Other income (expense), net” on our consolidated statement of operations. We periodically evaluate whether declines in fair values of our investments indicate impairment. For debt securities and equity-method investments, we also evaluate whether declines in fair value of our investments below their book value are other-than-temporary. This evaluation consists of several qualitative and quantitative factors regarding the severity and duration of the unrealized loss as well as our ability and intent to hold the investment until a forecasted recovery occurs. Additionally, we assess whether we have plans to sell the security or it is more likely than not we will be required to sell any investment before recovery of its amortized cost basis. Factors considered include: quoted market prices; recent financial results and operating trends; implied values from any recent transactions or offers of investee securities; credit quality of debt instrument issuers; other publicly available information that may affect the value of our investments; duration and severity of the decline in value; and our strategy and intentions for holding the investment.
Long-Lived Assets	Long-Lived Assets Long-lived assets, other than goodwill, are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the assets might not be recoverable. Conditions that would necessitate an impairment assessment include a significant decline in the observable market value of an asset, a significant change in the extent or manner in which an asset is used, or any other significant adverse change that would indicate that the carrying amount of an asset or group of assets may not be recoverable.
Accrued Expenses and Other	Accrued Expenses and Other Included in “Accrued expenses and other” on our consolidated balance sheets are liabilities primarily related to leases and asset retirement obligations, payroll and related expenses, unredeemed gift cards, customer liabilities, current debt, acquired digital media content, and other operating expenses. As of December 31, 2018 and 2019 , our liabilities for payroll related expenses were $3.4 billion and $4.3 billion and our liabilities for unredeemed gift cards were $2.8 billion and $3.3 billion . We reduce the liability for a gift card when redeemed by a customer. The portion of gift cards that we do not expect to be redeemed is recognized based on customer usage patterns.
Unearned Revenue	Unearned Revenue Unearned revenue is recorded when payments are received or due in advance of performing our service obligations and is recognized over the service period. Unearned revenue primarily relates to prepayments of AWS services and Amazon Prime memberships. Our total unearned revenue as of December 31, 2018 was $7.9 billion , of which $6.3 billion was recognized as revenue during the year ended December 31, 2019 and our total unearned revenue as of December 31, 2019 was $10.2 billion . Included in “Other long-term liabilities” on our consolidated balance sheets was $1.4 billion and $2.0 billion of unearned revenue as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 . Additionally, we have performance obligations, primarily related to AWS, associated with commitments in customer contracts for future services that have not yet been recognized in our financial statements. For contracts with original terms that exceed one year, those commitments not yet recognized were $29.8 billion as of December 31, 2019 . The weighted average remaining life of our long-term contracts is 3.3 years . However, the amount and timing of revenue recognition is largely driven by customer usage, which can extend beyond the original contractual term.
Other Long-Term Liabilities	Other Long-Term Liabilities Included in “Other long-term liabilities” on our consolidated balance sheets are liabilities primarily related to deferred tax liabilities, financing obligations, asset retirement obligations, tax contingencies, and digital video and music content.
Foreign Currency	Foreign Currency
Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted and Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted	Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued an Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) amending revenue recognition guidance and requiring more detailed disclosures to enable users of financial statements to understand the nature, amount, timing, and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from contracts with customers. We adopted this ASU on January 1, 2018 for all revenue contracts with our customers using the modified retrospective approach and increased retained earnings by approximately $650 million . The adjustment primarily relates to the unredeemed portion of our gift cards, which are now recognized over the expected customer usage period rather than waiting until gift cards expire or when the likelihood of redemption becomes remote. We changed the recognition and classification of Amazon Prime memberships, which are now accounted for as a single performance obligation and recognized ratably over the membership period as service sales. Previously, Prime memberships were considered to be arrangements with multiple deliverables and were allocated among product sales and service sales. Other changes relate primarily to the presentation of revenue. Certain advertising services are now classified as revenue rather than a reduction in cost of sales, and sales of apps, in-app content, and certain digital media content are presented on a net basis. Prior year amounts have not been adjusted and continue to be reported in accordance with our historic accounting policy. The impact of applying this ASU for the year ended December 31, 2018 primarily resulted in a decrease in product sales and an increase in service sales driven by the reclassification of Prime membership fees of approximately $3.8 billion . Service sales also increased by approximately $3.0 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018 due to the reclassification of certain advertising services. In January 2016, the FASB issued an ASU that updates certain aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure of financial instruments. Under this ASU, certain equity investments are measured at fair value with changes recognized in net income. We adopted this ASU in Q1 2018 with no material impact to our consolidated financial statements. In February 2016, the FASB issued an ASU amending the accounting for leases, primarily requiring the recognition of lease assets and liabilities for operating leases with terms of more than twelve months on our consolidated balance sheets. Under the new guidance, leases previously described as capital lease obligations and finance lease obligations are now referred to as finance leases and financing obligations, respectively. We adopted this ASU on January 1, 2019 by recording an immaterial cumulative adjustment to retained earnings rather than retrospectively adjusting prior periods. Prior period amounts were not adjusted and continue to be reported in accordance with our historic accounting policies resulting in a balance sheet presentation that is not comparable to the prior period in the first year of adoption. The adoption of this ASU resulted in the recognition of operating lease assets and liabilities of approximately $21 billion , which included the reclassification of finance lease obligations to operating leases of $1.2 billion . As of December 31, 2018, amounts related to finance lease obligations and construction liabilities totaled $9.6 billion , of which $1.5 billion was derecognized for buildings that we do not control during the construction period and $5.4 billion and $1.5 billion were reclassified to finance leases and operating leases, respectively. In October 2016, the FASB issued an ASU amending the accounting for income taxes. The new guidance requires the recognition of the income tax consequences of an intercompany asset transfer, other than transfers of inventory, when the transfer occurs. For intercompany transfers of inventory, the income tax effects will continue to be deferred until the inventory has been sold to a third party. We adopted this ASU in Q1 2018 with an increase of approximately $250 million to retained earnings and deferred tax assets net of valuation allowances. In November 2016, the FASB issued an ASU amending the presentation of restricted cash within the consolidated statements of cash flows. The new guidance requires that restricted cash be added to cash and cash equivalents on the consolidated statements of cash flows. We adopted this ASU in Q1 2018 on a retrospective basis with the following impacts to our consolidated statements of cash flows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 Previously Reported Adjustments As Revised Operating activities $ 18,434 $ (69 ) $ 18,365 Investing activities (27,819 ) 735 (27,084 ) Financing activities 9,860 68 9,928 Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash $ 475 $ 734 $ 1,209 In March 2019, the FASB issued an ASU amending the accounting for film costs, inclusive of episodic television and movie costs. The new guidance aligns the accounting for production costs of episodic television with that of movies by requiring production costs to be capitalized. Previously, we only capitalized a portion of the production costs related to our produced episodic television content. We adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2019 and began capitalizing substantially all of our production costs. Adoption of this ASU resulted in approximately $1.0 billion of incremental capitalized film costs classified in “Other Assets” as of December 31, 2019 .

Description of Business and A_3

Description of Business and Accounting Policies (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Schedule of Calculation of Diluted Shares	The following table shows the calculation of diluted shares (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Shares used in computation of basic earnings per share 480 487 494 Total dilutive effect of outstanding stock awards 13 13 10 Shares used in computation of diluted earnings per share 493 500 504
Schedule of New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles	We adopted this ASU in Q1 2018 on a retrospective basis with the following impacts to our consolidated statements of cash flows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 Previously Reported Adjustments As Revised Operating activities $ 18,434 $ (69 ) $ 18,365 Investing activities (27,819 ) 735 (27,084 ) Financing activities 9,860 68 9,928 Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash $ 475 $ 734 $ 1,209 In March 2019, the FASB issued an ASU amending the accounting for film costs, inclusive of episodic television and movie costs. The new guidance aligns the accounting for production costs of episodic television with that of movies by requiring production costs to be capitalized. Previously, we only capitalized a portion of the production costs related to our produced episodic television content. We adopted this ASU as of January 1, 2019 and began capitalizing substantially all of our production costs. Adoption of this ASU resulted in approximately $1.0 billion of incremental capitalized film costs classified in “Other Assets” as of December 31, 2019 .

Financial Instruments (Tables)

Financial Instruments (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Investments, Debt and Equity Securities [Abstract]
Summary of Fair Value by Major Security Type	The following table summarizes, by major security type, our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis and are categorized using the fair value hierarchy (in millions): December 31, 2018 Cost or Amortized Cost Gross Unrealized Gains Gross Unrealized Losses Total Estimated Fair Value Cash $ 10,406 $ — $ — $ 10,406 Level 1 securities: Money market funds 12,515 — — 12,515 Equity securities 170 Level 2 securities: Foreign government and agency securities 815 — — 815 U.S. government and agency securities 11,686 1 (20 ) 11,667 Corporate debt securities 5,008 1 (19 ) 4,990 Asset-backed securities 896 — (4 ) 892 Other fixed income securities 190 — (2 ) 188 Equity securities 33 $ 41,516 $ 2 $ (45 ) $ 41,676 Less: Restricted cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities (2) (426 ) Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities $ 41,250 December 31, 2019 Cost or Amortized Cost Gross Unrealized Gains Gross Unrealized Losses Total Estimated Fair Value Cash $ 9,776 $ — $ — $ 9,776 Level 1 securities: Money market funds 18,850 — — 18,850 Equity securities (1) 202 Level 2 securities: Foreign government and agency securities 4,794 — — 4,794 U.S. government and agency securities 7,070 11 (1 ) 7,080 Corporate debt securities 11,845 37 (1 ) 11,881 Asset-backed securities 2,355 6 (1 ) 2,360 Other fixed income securities 393 1 — 394 Equity securities (1) 5 $ 55,083 $ 55 $ (3 ) $ 55,342 Less: Restricted cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities (2) (321 ) Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities $ 55,021 ___________________ (1) The related unrealized gain (loss) recorded in “Other income (expense), net” was $4 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 . (2) We are required to pledge or otherwise restrict a portion of our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as collateral for real estate leases, amounts due to third-party sellers in certain jurisdictions, debt, and standby and trade letters of credit. We classify cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities with use restrictions of less than twelve months as “Accounts receivable, net and other” and of twelve months or longer as non-current “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets. See “Note 7 — Commitments and Contingencies.”
Summary of Gross Realized Gains (Losses) on Investments	The following table summarizes gross gains and gross losses realized on sales of available-for-sale fixed income marketable securities (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Realized gains $ 5 $ 2 $ 11 Realized losses 11 9 7
Summary of Contractual Maturities of Investments	The following table summarizes the remaining contractual maturities of our cash equivalents and marketable fixed income securities as of December 31, 2019 (in millions): Amortized Cost Estimated Fair Value Due within one year $ 35,064 $ 35,071 Due after one year through five years 9,262 9,304 Due after five years through ten years 301 302 Due after ten years 680 682 Total $ 45,307 $ 45,359 Actual maturities may differ from the contractual maturities because borrowers may have certain prepayment conditions.

Financial Instruments Reconcili

Financial Instruments Reconciliation to Cash Flow (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Cash and Cash Equivalents [Abstract]
Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash	The following table provides a reconciliation of the amount of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash reported within the consolidated balance sheets to the total of the same such amounts shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows (in millions): December 31, 2018 December 31, 2019 Cash and cash equivalents $ 31,750 $ 36,092 Restricted cash included in accounts receivable, net and other 418 276 Restricted cash included in other assets 5 42 Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows $ 32,173 $ 36,410

Property and Equipment (Tables)

Property and Equipment (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]
Property and Equipment, at Cost	Property and equipment, at cost, consisted of the following (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 Gross property and equipment (1): Land and buildings $ 31,741 $ 39,223 Equipment 54,591 71,310 Other assets 2,577 3,111 Construction in progress 6,861 6,036 Gross property and equipment 95,770 119,680 Total accumulated depreciation and amortization (1) 33,973 46,975 Total property and equipment, net $ 61,797 $ 72,705 __________________ (1) Includes the original cost and accumulated depreciation of fully-depreciated assets.

Leases Leases (Tables)

Leases Leases (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Leases [Abstract]
Lease, Cost	Lease cost recognized in our consolidated statements of operations is summarized as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2019 Operating lease cost (1) $ 3,669 Finance lease cost: Amortization of lease assets 10,094 Interest on lease liabilities 695 Finance lease cost 10,789 Variable lease cost 966 Total lease cost $ 15,424 __________________ (1) Rental expense under operating lease agreements was $2.2 billion and $3.4 billion for 2017 and 2018 .
Other Operating and Finance Lease Information	Other information about lease amounts recognized in our consolidated financial statements is summarized as follows: December 31, 2019 Weighted-average remaining lease term – operating leases 11.5 Weighted-average remaining lease term – finance leases 5.5 Weighted-average discount rate – operating leases 3.1 % Weighted-average discount rate – finance leases 2.7 %
Operating and Finance Lease Liability Reconciliation	As of December 31, 2019 , our lease liabilities were as follows (in millions): Operating Leases Finance Leases Total Gross lease liabilities $ 31,963 $ 28,875 $ 60,838 Less: imputed interest (6,128 ) (1,896 ) (8,024 ) Present value of lease liabilities 25,835 26,979 52,814 Less: current portion of lease liabilities (3,139 ) (9,884 ) (13,023 ) Total long-term lease liabilities $ 22,696 $ 17,095 $ 39,791

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and A_2

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Business Combinations [Abstract]
Allocation of Aggregate Purchase Price of Acquisitions	The aggregate purchase price of these acquisitions was allocated as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Purchase Price Cash paid, net of cash acquired $ 13,859 $ 1,618 $ 276 Indemnification holdback 104 31 39 $ 13,963 $ 1,649 $ 315 Allocation Goodwill $ 9,501 $ 1,228 $ 189 Intangible assets (1): Marketing-related 1,987 186 8 Contract-based 440 13 — Technology-based 166 285 139 Customer-related 54 193 14 2,647 677 161 Property and equipment 3,810 11 3 Deferred tax assets 117 174 29 Other assets acquired 1,858 282 41 Long-term debt (1,165 ) (176 ) (31 ) Deferred tax liabilities (961 ) (159 ) (34 ) Other liabilities assumed (1,844 ) (388 ) (43 ) $ 13,963 $ 1,649 $ 315 ___________________ (1) Intangible assets acquired in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 have estimated useful lives of between one and twenty-five years , two and seven years , and two and seven years , with weighted-average amortization periods of twenty-one years , six years , and five years .
Summary of Goodwill Activity	The following summarizes our goodwill activity in 2018 and 2019 by segment (in millions): North America International AWS Consolidated Goodwill - January 1, 2018 $ 11,165 $ 1,108 $ 1,077 $ 13,350 New acquisitions (1) 1,031 177 20 1,228 Other adjustments (2) (5 ) (15 ) (10 ) (30 ) Goodwill - December 31, 2018 12,191 1,270 1,087 14,548 New acquisitions 71 29 89 189 Other adjustments (2) 2 1 14 17 Goodwill - December 31, 2019 $ 12,264 $ 1,300 $ 1,190 $ 14,754 ___________________ (1) Primarily includes the acquisitions of Ring and PillPack in the North America segment. (2) Primarily includes changes in foreign exchange rates.
Schedule of Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets by Major Class	Acquired intangible assets, included within “Other assets” on our consolidated balance sheets, consist of the following (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 Acquired Intangibles, Gross (1) Accumulated Amortization (1) Acquired Intangibles, Net Acquired Intangibles, Gross (1) Accumulated Amortization (1) Acquired Intangibles, Net Weighted Average Life Remaining Marketing-related $ 2,542 $ (431 ) $ 2,111 $ 2,303 $ (340 ) $ 1,963 20.7 Contract-based 1,430 (224 ) 1,206 1,702 (302 ) 1,400 10.5 Technology- and content-based 941 (377 ) 564 1,011 (477 ) 534 3.6 Customer-related 437 (208 ) 229 282 (130 ) 152 4.3 Acquired intangibles (2) $ 5,350 $ (1,240 ) $ 4,110 $ 5,298 $ (1,249 ) $ 4,049 14.3 ___________________ (1) Excludes the original cost and accumulated amortization of fully-amortized intangibles. (2) Intangible assets have estimated useful lives of between one and twenty-five years .
Schedule of Finite-Lived Intangible Assets, Future Amortization Expense	Expected future amortization expense of acquired intangible assets as of December 31, 2019 is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2020 $ 486 2021 424 2022 391 2023 334 2024 270 Thereafter 2,116 $ 4,021

Debt (Tables)

Debt (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Debt Disclosure [Abstract]
Debt Obligations	The face value of our total long-term debt obligations is as follows (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 2.600% Notes due on December 5, 2019 1,000 — 1.900% Notes due on August 21, 2020 (3) 1,000 1,000 3.300% Notes due on December 5, 2021 (2) 1,000 1,000 2.500% Notes due on November 29, 2022 (1) 1,250 1,250 2.400% Notes due on February 22, 2023 (3) 1,000 1,000 2.800% Notes due on August 22, 2024 (3) 2,000 2,000 3.800% Notes due on December 5, 2024 (2) 1,250 1,250 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025 (4) 1,000 1,000 3.150% Notes due on August 22, 2027 (3) 3,500 3,500 4.800% Notes due on December 5, 2034 (2) 1,250 1,250 3.875% Notes due on August 22, 2037 (3) 2,750 2,750 4.950% Notes due on December 5, 2044 (2) 1,500 1,500 4.050% Notes due on August 22, 2047 (3) 3,500 3,500 4.250% Notes due on August 22, 2057 (3) 2,250 2,250 Credit Facility 594 740 Other long-term debt 121 830 Total debt 24,965 24,820 Less current portion of long-term debt (1,371 ) (1,307 ) Face value of long-term debt $ 23,594 $ 23,513 _____________________________ (1) Issued in November 2012, effective interest rate of the 2022 Notes was 2.66% . (2) Issued in December 2014, effective interest rates of the 2021, 2024, 2034, and 2044 Notes were 3.43% , 3.90% , 4.92% , and 5.11% . (3) Issued in August 2017, effective interest rates of the 2020, 2023, 2024, 2027, 2037, 2047, and 2057 Notes were 2.16% , 2.56% , 2.95% , 3.25% , 3.94% , 4.13% , and 4.33% . (4) Consists of $872 million of 2025 Notes issued in December 2017 in exchange for notes assumed in connection with the acquisition of Whole Foods Market and $128 million of 2025 Notes issued by Whole Foods Market that did not participate in our December 2017 exchange offer. The effective interest rate of the 2025 Notes was 3.02% .
Future Principal Payments for Debt	As of December 31, 2019 , future principal payments for our total debt were as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2020 $ 1,307 2021 1,141 2022 1,773 2023 1,510 2024 3,339 Thereafter 15,750 $ 24,820

Commitments and Contingencies (

Commitments and Contingencies (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]
Principal Contractual Commitments, Excluding Open Orders for Purchases	The following summarizes our principal contractual commitments, excluding open orders for purchases that support normal operations and are generally cancellable, as of December 31, 2019 (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Thereafter Total Debt principal and interest $ 2,202 $ 2,009 $ 2,603 $ 2,273 $ 4,084 $ 26,019 $ 39,190 Operating lease liabilities 3,757 3,630 3,226 2,900 2,605 15,845 31,963 Finance lease liabilities, including interest 9,878 7,655 4,060 1,332 989 4,961 28,875 Financing obligations, including interest 142 146 148 150 152 2,452 3,190 Unconditional purchase obligations (1) 4,593 3,641 3,293 3,103 3,000 2,358 19,988 Other commitments (2)(3) 3,837 2,274 1,770 1,439 1,389 12,186 22,895 Total commitments $ 24,409 $ 19,355 $ 15,100 $ 11,197 $ 12,219 $ 63,821 $ 146,101 ___________________ (1) Includes unconditional purchase obligations related to certain products offered in our Whole Foods Market stores and long-term agreements to acquire and license digital media content that are not reflected on the consolidated balance sheets. For those digital media content agreements with variable terms, we do not estimate the total obligation beyond any minimum quantities and/or pricing as of the reporting date. Purchase obligations associated with renewal provisions solely at the option of the content provider are included to the extent such commitments are fixed or a minimum amount is specified. (2) Includes the estimated timing and amounts of payments for rent and tenant improvements associated with build-to-suit lease arrangements and lease arrangements prior to the lease commencement date and digital media content liabilities associated with long-term digital media content assets with initial terms greater than one year. (3) Excludes approximately $3.9 billion of accrued tax contingencies for which we cannot make a reasonably reliable estimate of the amount and period of payment, if any.

Stockholders' Equity (Tables)

Stockholders' Equity (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]
Stock-Based Compensation Expense	Stock-based compensation expense is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Cost of sales $ 47 $ 73 $ 149 Fulfillment 911 1,121 1,182 Technology and content 2,305 2,888 3,725 Marketing 511 769 1,135 General and administrative 441 567 673 Total stock-based compensation expense (1) $ 4,215 $ 5,418 $ 6,864 ___________________ (1) The related tax benefits were $860 million , $1.1 billion , and $1.4 billion for 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 .
Summary of Restricted Stock Unit Activity	The following table summarizes our restricted stock unit activity (in millions): Number of Units Weighted Average Grant-Date Fair Value Outstanding as of January 1, 2017 19.8 $ 506 Units granted 8.9 946 Units vested (6.8 ) 400 Units forfeited (1.8 ) 649 Outstanding as of December 31, 2017 20.1 725 Units granted 5.0 1,522 Units vested (7.1 ) 578 Units forfeited (2.1 ) 862 Outstanding as of December 31, 2018 15.9 1,024 Units granted 6.7 1,808 Units vested (6.6 ) 827 Units forfeited (1.7 ) 1,223 Outstanding as of December 31, 2019 14.3 1,458
Scheduled Vesting of Outstanding Restricted Stock Units	Scheduled vesting for outstanding restricted stock units as of December 31, 2019 , is as follows (in millions): Year Ended 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Thereafter Total Scheduled vesting — restricted stock units 6.0 5.1 2.1 1.0 — 0.1 14.3

Income Taxes (Tables)

Income Taxes (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Components of Provision for Income Taxes, Net	The components of the provision for income taxes, net are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 U.S. Federal: Current $ (137 ) $ (129 ) $ 162 Deferred (202 ) 565 914 Total (339 ) 436 1,076 U.S. State: Current 211 322 276 Deferred (26 ) 5 8 Total 185 327 284 International: Current 724 563 1,140 Deferred 199 (129 ) (126 ) Total 923 434 1,014 Provision for income taxes, net $ 769 $ 1,197 $ 2,374
Components of Income Before Income Taxes, Domestic and Foreign	U.S. and international components of income before income taxes are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 U.S. $ 5,630 $ 11,157 $ 13,285 International (1,824 ) 104 691 Income before income taxes $ 3,806 $ 11,261 $ 13,976
Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation	The items accounting for differences between income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate and the provision recorded for income taxes are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate (1) $ 1,332 $ 2,365 $ 2,935 Effect of: Tax impact of foreign earnings 1,178 119 381 State taxes, net of federal benefits 114 263 221 Tax credits (220 ) (419 ) (466 ) Stock-based compensation (2) (917 ) (1,086 ) (850 ) 2017 Impact of U.S. Tax Act (789 ) (157 ) — Other, net 71 112 153 Total $ 769 $ 1,197 $ 2,374 ___________________ (1) The U.S. Tax Act reduced the U.S. federal statutory rate from 35% to 21% beginning in 2018. (2) Includes non-deductible stock-based compensation and excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation. Our tax provision includes $1.3 billion , $1.6 billion , and $1.4 billion of excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation for 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 .
Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities	Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are as follows (in millions): December 31, 2018 2019 Deferred tax assets (1): Loss carryforwards U.S. - Federal/States 222 188 Loss carryforwards - Foreign 2,551 3,232 Accrued liabilities, reserves, and other expenses 1,064 1,373 Stock-based compensation 1,293 1,585 Depreciation and amortization 2,386 2,385 Operating lease liabilities — 6,648 Other items 484 728 Tax credits 734 772 Total gross deferred tax assets 8,734 16,911 Less valuation allowances (2) (4,950 ) (5,754 ) Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowances 3,784 11,157 Deferred tax liabilities: Depreciation and amortization (3,579 ) (5,507 ) Operating lease assets — (6,331 ) Other items (749 ) (640 ) Net deferred tax assets (liabilities), net of valuation allowances $ (544 ) $ (1,321 ) ___________________ (1) Deferred tax assets are presented after tax effects and net of tax contingencies. (2) Relates primarily to deferred tax assets that would only be realizable upon the generation of net income in certain foreign taxing jurisdictions.
Reconciliation of Tax Contingencies	The reconciliation of our tax contingencies is as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Gross tax contingencies – January 1 $ 1,710 $ 2,309 $ 3,414 Gross increases to tax positions in prior periods 223 164 216 Gross decreases to tax positions in prior periods (139 ) (90 ) (181 ) Gross increases to current period tax positions 518 1,088 707 Settlements with tax authorities — (36 ) (207 ) Lapse of statute of limitations (3 ) (21 ) (26 ) Gross tax contingencies – December 31 (1) $ 2,309 $ 3,414 $ 3,923 ___________________ (1) As of December 31, 2019 , we had approximately $3.9 billion of accrued tax contingencies of which $2.1 billion , if fully recognized, would decrease our effective tax rate.

Segment Information (Tables)

Segment Information (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Segment Reporting [Abstract]
Information on Reportable Segments and Reconciliation to Consolidated Net Income (Loss)	Information on reportable segments and reconciliation to consolidated net income (loss) is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America Net sales $ 106,110 $ 141,366 $ 170,773 Operating expenses 103,273 134,099 163,740 Operating income $ 2,837 $ 7,267 $ 7,033 International Net sales $ 54,297 $ 65,866 $ 74,723 Operating expenses 57,359 68,008 76,416 Operating income (loss) $ (3,062 ) $ (2,142 ) $ (1,693 ) AWS Net sales $ 17,459 $ 25,655 $ 35,026 Operating expenses 13,128 18,359 25,825 Operating income $ 4,331 $ 7,296 $ 9,201 Consolidated Net sales $ 177,866 $ 232,887 $ 280,522 Operating expenses 173,760 220,466 265,981 Operating income 4,106 12,421 14,541 Total non-operating income (expense) (300 ) (1,160 ) (565 ) Provision for income taxes (769 ) (1,197 ) (2,374 ) Equity-method investment activity, net of tax (4 ) 9 (14 ) Net income $ 3,033 $ 10,073 $ 11,588
Disaggregation of Revenue	Net sales by groups of similar products and services, which also have similar economic characteristics, is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 Net Sales: Online stores (1) $ 108,354 $ 122,987 $ 141,247 Physical stores (2) 5,798 17,224 17,192 Third-party seller services (3) 31,881 42,745 53,762 Subscription services (4) 9,721 14,168 19,210 AWS 17,459 25,655 35,026 Other (5) 4,653 10,108 14,085 Consolidated $ 177,866 $ 232,887 $ 280,522 ___________________ (1) Includes product sales and digital media content where we record revenue gross. We leverage our retail infrastructure to offer a wide selection of consumable and durable goods that includes media products available in both a physical and digital format, such as books, music, videos, games, and software. These product sales include digital products sold on a transactional basis. Digital product subscriptions that provide unlimited viewing or usage rights are included in “Subscription services.” (2) Includes product sales where our customers physically select items in a store. Sales from customers who order goods online for delivery or pickup at our physical stores are included in “Online stores.” (3) Includes commissions and any related fulfillment and shipping fees, and other third-party seller services. (4) Includes annual and monthly fees associated with Amazon Prime memberships, as well as audiobook, digital video, digital music, e-book, and other non-AWS subscription services. (5) Primarily includes sales of advertising services, as well as sales related to our other service offerings.
Net Sales Attributed to Countries that Represent a Significant Portion of Consolidated Net Sales	Net sales attributed to countries that represent a significant portion of consolidated net sales are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 United States $ 120,486 $ 160,146 $ 193,636 Germany 16,951 19,881 22,232 United Kingdom 11,372 14,524 17,527 Japan 11,907 13,829 16,002 Rest of world 17,150 24,507 31,125 Consolidated $ 177,866 $ 232,887 $ 280,522
Reconciliation of Assets from Segment to Consolidated	Total segment assets reconciled to consolidated amounts are as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America (1) $ 35,844 $ 47,251 $ 72,277 International (1) 18,014 19,923 30,709 AWS (2) 18,660 26,340 36,500 Corporate 58,792 69,134 85,762 Consolidated $ 131,310 $ 162,648 $ 225,248 ___________________ (1) North America and International segment assets primarily consist of property and equipment, inventory, and accounts receivable. (2) AWS segment assets primarily consist of property and equipment and accounts receivable.
Reconciliation of Property and Equipment from Segments to Consolidated	Property and equipment, net by segment is as follows (in millions): December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America $ 20,401 $ 27,052 $ 31,719 International 7,425 8,552 9,566 AWS 14,885 18,851 23,481 Corporate 6,155 7,342 7,939 Consolidated $ 48,866 $ 61,797 $ 72,705
Reconciliation of Property and Equipment Additions and Depreciation from Segments to Consolidated	Total depreciation and amortization expense, by segment, is as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America $ 3,029 $ 4,415 $ 5,106 International 1,278 1,628 1,886 AWS 4,524 6,095 8,158 Consolidated $ 8,831 $ 12,138 $ 15,150 Total net additions to property and equipment by segment are as follows (in millions): Year Ended December 31, 2017 2018 2019 North America (1) $ 13,200 $ 10,749 $ 11,752 International (1) 5,196 2,476 3,298 AWS (2) 9,190 9,783 13,058 Corporate 2,197 2,060 1,910 Consolidated $ 29,783 $ 25,068 $ 30,018 ___________________ (1) Includes property and equipment added under finance leases of $2.9 billion , $2.0 billion , and $3.8 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , and under financing obligations of $2.9 billion , $3.0 billion , and $1.3 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 . (2) Includes property and equipment added under finance leases of $7.3 billion , $8.4 billion , and $10.6 billion in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 , and under financing obligations of $134 million , $245 million , and $0 million in 2017 , 2018 , and 2019 .

Quarterly Results (Unaudited) (

Quarterly Results (Unaudited) (Tables)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Quarterly Financial Information Disclosure [Abstract]
Quarterly Financial Information	Unaudited quarterly results are as follows (in millions, except per share data): Year Ended December 31, 2018 (1) First Second Third Fourth Net sales $ 51,042 $ 52,886 $ 56,576 $ 72,383 Operating income 1,927 2,983 3,724 3,786 Income before income taxes 1,916 2,605 3,390 3,350 Provision for income taxes (287 ) (74 ) (508 ) (327 ) Net income 1,629 2,534 2,883 3,027 Basic earnings per share 3.36 5.21 5.91 6.18 Diluted earnings per share 3.27 5.07 5.75 6.04 Shares used in computation of earnings per share: Basic 484 486 488 490 Diluted 498 500 501 501 Year Ended December 31, 2019 (1) First Second Third Fourth Net sales $ 59,700 $ 63,404 $ 69,981 $ 87,437 Operating income 4,420 3,084 3,157 3,879 Income before income taxes 4,401 2,889 2,632 4,053 Provision for income taxes (836 ) (257 ) (494 ) (786 ) Net income 3,561 2,625 2,134 3,268 Basic earnings per share 7.24 5.32 4.31 6.58 Diluted earnings per share 7.09 5.22 4.23 6.47 Shares used in computation of earnings per share: Basic 491 493 495 496 Diluted 502 503 504 505 ___________________ (1) The sum of quarterly amounts, including per share amounts, may not equal amounts reported for year-to-date periods. This is due to the effects of rounding and changes in the number of weighted-average shares outstanding for each period.

Description of Business and A_4

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Description of Business (Details)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019segment
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Number of operating segments	3

Description of Business and A_5

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Use of Estimates (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions

1 Months Ended

3 Months Ended

12 Months Ended

Jan. 31, 2020

Dec. 31, 2019

Sep. 30, 2019

Jun. 30, 2019

Mar. 31, 2019

Dec. 31, 2018

Sep. 30, 2018

Jun. 30, 2018

Mar. 31, 2018

Dec. 31, 2019

Dec. 31, 2018

Dec. 31, 2017

Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]

Operating income

$ 3,879

$ 3,157

$ 3,084

$ 4,420

$ 3,786

$ 3,724

$ 2,983

$ 1,927

$ 14,541

$ 12,421

$ 4,106

Servers

Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]

Estimated useful lives of assets

3 years

Subsequent Event | Servers

Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]

Estimated useful lives of assets

4 years

Forecast

Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]

Operating income

$ 2,300

Description of Business and A_6

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Calculation of Diluted Shares (Details) - shares shares in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Shares used in computation of basic earnings per share	496	495	493	491	490	488	486	484	494	487	480
Total dilutive effect of outstanding stock awards									10	13	13
Shares used in computation of diluted earnings per share	505	504	503	502	501	501	500	498	504	500	493

Description of Business and A_7

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Revenue (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Contract with Customer, Refund Liability	$ 712	$ 623	$ 468
SEC Schedule, 12-09, Valuation and Qualifying Accounts Disclosure [Line Items]
Contract with Customer, Right to Recover Product	629	519	406
Sales Returns and Allowances
SEC Schedule, 12-09, Valuation and Qualifying Accounts Disclosure [Line Items]
Additions to allowance for returns	2,500	2,300	1,800
Deductions to allowance for returns	$ 2,500	$ 2,300	$ 1,900

Description of Business and A_8

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Marketing (Details) - USD ($) $ in Billions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Advertising Expense	$ 11	$ 8.2	$ 6.3

Description of Business and A_9

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Other Income (Expense), Net (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Foreign currency gains (losses)	$ (20)	$ (206)	$ 247
Derivative [Line Items]
Equity Securities Gains	231	145	18
Equity Warrant
Derivative [Line Items]
Derivative gains (losses)	$ 11	$ (131)	$ 109

Description of Business and _10

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Fair Value of Financial Instruments (Details) - Equity Warrant - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Fair Value, Balance Sheet Grouping, Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]
Derivative gains (losses)	$ 11	$ (131)	$ 109
Fair Value, Inputs, Level 2
Fair Value, Balance Sheet Grouping, Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]
Fair value of warrants	$ 669	$ 440

Description of Business and _11

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Accounts Receivable, Net and Other (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Accounts, Notes, Loans and Financing Receivable [Line Items]
Accounts receivable, net and other	$ 20,816	$ 16,677
Allowance for doubtful accounts	718	495	$ 348
Additions to allowance for doubtful accounts	1,000	878	626
Deductions to allowance for doubtful accounts	793	731	$ 515
Customer receivables
Accounts, Notes, Loans and Financing Receivable [Line Items]
Accounts receivable, net and other	12,600	9,400
Vendor receivables
Accounts, Notes, Loans and Financing Receivable [Line Items]
Accounts receivable, net and other	4,200	3,200
Loans Receivable
Accounts, Notes, Loans and Financing Receivable [Line Items]
Accounts receivable, net and other	$ 863	$ 710

Description of Business and _12

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Property and Equipment, Net (Details)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Building
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated useful lives of assets	40 years
Servers
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated useful lives of assets	3 years
Networking Equipment
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated useful lives of assets	5 years
Heavy Equipment
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated useful lives of assets	10 years
Minimum | Other Fulfillment Equipment
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated useful lives of assets	3 years
Maximum | Other Fulfillment Equipment
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated useful lives of assets	7 years

Description of Business and _13

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Leases (Details)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019
Equipment | Minimum
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Lessee, operating and finance lease, term of contract	1 year
Equipment | Maximum
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Lessee, operating and finance lease, term of contract	10 years
Property | Minimum
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Lessee, operating and finance lease, term of contract	1 year
Property | Maximum
Lessee, Lease, Description [Line Items]
Lessee, operating and finance lease, term of contract	20 years

Description of Business and _14

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Goodwill (Details)	Apr. 01, 2019USD ($)
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Goodwill impairment	$ 0

Description of Business and _15

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Video and Music Content (Details) - USD ($) $ in Billions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Weighted Average Life, Capitalized Video Content	2 years 8 months 12 days
Video and Music Content, Capitalized Costs	$ 5.8	$ 3.8
Video and Music Content, Expense	$ 7.8	$ 6.7

Description of Business and _16

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Investments (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Equity Securities without Readily Determinable Fair Value, Amount	$ 1,500	$ 282

Description of Business and _17

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Accrued Expenses and Other (Details) - USD ($) $ in Billions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Payroll-related liabilities	$ 4.3	$ 3.4
Unredeemed gift certificates	$ 3.3	$ 2.8

Description of Business and _18

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Unearned Revenue (Details) - USD ($) $ in Billions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Contract with Customer, Liability	$ 10.2	$ 7.9
Contract with Customer, Liability, Revenue Recognized	6.3
Contract with Customer, Liability, Noncurrent	2	$ 1.4
Revenue, Remaining Performance Obligation, Amount	$ 29.8
Revenue, Remaining Performance Obligation, Expected Timing of Satisfaction, Period	3 years 3 months 18 days

Description of Business and _19

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Foreign Currency (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Transaction gain (loss) arising from intercompany foreign currency transactions	$ 95	$ (186)	$ 202

Description of Business and _20

Description of Business and Accounting Policies - Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017	Jan. 01, 2019	Mar. 31, 2018	Jan. 01, 2018
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Operating leases	$ 25,141	$ 0
Operating Lease, Liability	25,835
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities	38,514	30,723	$ 18,365
Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Investing Activities	(24,281)	(12,369)	(27,084)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities	(10,066)	(7,686)	9,928
Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash			1,209
Accounting Standards Update 2014-09
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Change to retained earnings and deferred tax assets net of valuation allowances						$ 650
Accounting Standards Update 2016-02
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Operating leases				$ 21,000
Operating Lease, Liability				(21,000)
Financing Obligations Reclassified to Operating Leases		1,500		$ 1,200
Financing Obligations and Construction Liabilities		9,600
Build-to-suit liabilities derecognized		(1,500)
Financing Obligations Reclassified to Finance Leases		5,400
Accounting Standards Update 2016-16
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Change to retained earnings and deferred tax assets net of valuation allowances					$ 250
Accounting Standards Update 2019-02
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Capitalized Film Costs	$ 1,000
Previously Reported
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities			18,434
Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Investing Activities			(27,819)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities			9,860
Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash			475
Restatement Adjustment | Accounting Standards Update 2016-18
New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities			(69)
Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Investing Activities			735
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities			68
Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash			$ 734
Difference between Revenue Guidance in Effect before and after Topic 606 | Service, Subscription
Revenue, Initial Application Period Cumulative Effect Transition [Line Items]
Net Sales		3,800
Difference between Revenue Guidance in Effect before and after Topic 606 | Product, Subscription
Revenue, Initial Application Period Cumulative Effect Transition [Line Items]
Net Sales		(3,800)
Difference between Revenue Guidance in Effect before and after Topic 606 | Service, Other
Revenue, Initial Application Period Cumulative Effect Transition [Line Items]
Net Sales		$ 3,000

Financial Instruments - Fair Va

Financial Instruments - Fair Values on Recurring Basis (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Schedule of Investments [Line Items]
Equity Securities Gains	$ 4
Recurring
Schedule of Investments [Line Items]
Cash	9,776	$ 10,406
Cost or Amortized Cost
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments	55,083	41,516
Gross Unrealized Gains
Short-term investments	55	2
Gross Unrealized Losses
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	(3)	(45)
Total Estimated Fair Value
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments	55,342	41,676
Less: Restricted cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities	(321)	(426)
Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities	55,021	41,250
Recurring | Level 1 securities
Total Estimated Fair Value
Equity securities	202	170
Recurring | Level 1 securities | Money market funds
Schedule of Investments [Line Items]
Money market funds	18,850	12,515
Recurring | Level 1 securities | Money market funds | Money market funds
Schedule of Investments [Line Items]
Money market funds	18,850
Recurring | Level 2 securities
Total Estimated Fair Value
Equity securities	5	33
Recurring | Level 2 securities | Foreign government and agency securities
Cost or Amortized Cost
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	4,794	815
Gross Unrealized Gains
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	0	0
Gross Unrealized Losses
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	0	0
Total Estimated Fair Value
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	4,794	815
Recurring | Level 2 securities | U.S. government and agency securities
Cost or Amortized Cost
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	7,070	11,686
Gross Unrealized Gains
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	11	1
Gross Unrealized Losses
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	(1)	(20)
Total Estimated Fair Value
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	7,080	11,667
Recurring | Level 2 securities | Corporate debt securities
Cost or Amortized Cost
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	11,845	5,008
Gross Unrealized Gains
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	37	1
Gross Unrealized Losses
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	(1)	(19)
Total Estimated Fair Value
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	11,881	4,990
Recurring | Level 2 securities | Asset-backed securities
Cost or Amortized Cost
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	2,355	896
Gross Unrealized Gains
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	6	0
Gross Unrealized Losses
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	(1)	(4)
Total Estimated Fair Value
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	2,360	892
Recurring | Level 2 securities | Other fixed income securities
Cost or Amortized Cost
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	393	190
Gross Unrealized Gains
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	1	0
Gross Unrealized Losses
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	0	(2)
Total Estimated Fair Value
Cash equivalents and marketable securities	$ 394	$ 188

Financial Instruments - Gross G

Financial Instruments - Gross Gains and Gross Losses Realized on Sales of Available-For-Sale Marketable Securities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Debt Securities, Available-for-sale, Realized Gain (Loss) [Abstract]
Realized gains	$ 11	$ 2	$ 5
Realized losses	$ 7	$ 9	$ 11

Financial Instruments - Contrac

Financial Instruments - Contractual Maturities (Details) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019USD ($)
Amortized Cost
Due within one year	$ 35,064
Due after one year through five years	9,262
Due after five years through ten years	301
Due after ten years	680
Total	45,307
Estimated Fair Value
Due within one year	35,071
Due after one year through five years	9,304
Due after five years through ten years	302
Due after ten years	682
Total	$ 45,359

Financial Instruments - Reconci

Financial Instruments - Reconciliation to Cash Flow (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Reconciliation to Cash Flow [Abstract]
Cash and Cash Equivalents	$ 36,092	$ 31,750
Restricted cash included in accounts receivable, net and other	276	418
Restricted cash included in other assets	42	5
Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows	$ 36,410	$ 32,173	$ 21,856	$ 19,934

Property and Equipment - Compon

Property and Equipment - Components (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Gross property and equipment	$ 119,680	$ 95,770
Total accumulated depreciation	46,975	33,973
Total property and equipment, net	72,705	61,797	$ 48,866
Land and buildings
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Gross property and equipment	39,223	31,741
Equipment
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Gross property and equipment	71,310	54,591
Other assets
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Gross property and equipment	3,111	2,577
Construction in progress
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Gross property and equipment	$ 6,036	$ 6,861

Property and Equipment - Additi

Property and Equipment - Additional Information (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]
Depreciation expense	$ 15,150	$ 12,138	$ 8,831
Amortization of capital lease assets		$ 7,300	$ 5,400
Amortization of lease assets	$ 10,094

Leases Additional Information (

Leases Additional Information (Details) - USD ($) $ in Billions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Leases [Abstract]
Capital Leased Assets, Gross		$ 36.1
Finance Lease, Right-of-Use Asset	$ 57.4
Capital Leases, Accumulated Depreciation		$ 19.8
Finance Lease, Right-of-Use-Asset, Accumulated Amortization	$ 30

Leases Lease Costs (Details)

Leases Lease Costs (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Lease, Cost [Abstract]
Operating Lease Cost	$ 3,669
Finance lease cost:
Amortization of lease assets	10,094
Interest on lease liabilities	695
Finance lease cost	10,789
Variable lease cost	966
Total lease cost	$ 15,424
Rental expense under operating lease agreements		$ 3,400	$ 2,200

Leases Other Operating and Fina

Leases Other Operating and Finance Lease Information (Details)	Dec. 31, 2019
Leases [Abstract]
Operating Lease, Weighted Average Remaining Lease Term	11 years 6 months
Finance Lease, Weighted Average Remaining Lease Term	5 years 6 months
Operating Lease, Weighted Average Discount Rate, Percent	3.10%
Finance Lease, Weighted Average Discount Rate, Percent	2.70%

Leases Operating and Finance Le

Leases Operating and Finance Lease Reconciliation (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Leases [Abstract]
Gross lease liabilities - operating leases	$ 31,963
Gross lease liabilities - finance leases	28,875
Gross lease liabilities	60,838
Impute interest - operating leases	6,128
Imputed interest - finance leases	1,896
Imputed interest	(8,024)
Present value of operating leases	25,835
Present value of finance leases	26,979
Present value of lease liabilities	52,814
Current portion of operating leases	3,139
Current portion of finance leases	9,884
Current portion of lease liabilities	(13,023)
Total long-term operating lease liabilities	22,696
Total long-term finance lease liabilities	17,095
Long-term lease liabilities	$ 39,791	$ 9,650

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and A_3

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets - Additional Information (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Sep. 11, 2018	Apr. 12, 2018	Aug. 28, 2017	May 12, 2017	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired					$ 2,461	$ 2,186	$ 13,972
Other Acquisitions
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Aggregate purchase price					$ 315	$ 57	$ 204
Souq
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired				$ 583
Whole Foods Market
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired			$ 13,200
Ring Inc.
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired		$ 839
PillPack, Inc.
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired	$ 753

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and A_4

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets - Allocation of Aggregate Purchase Price of Acquisitions (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Purchase Price
Cash paid, net of cash acquired	$ 2,461	$ 2,186	$ 13,972
Allocation
Goodwill	$ 14,754	$ 14,548	13,350
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period	14 years 3 months 18 days
Minimum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life		1 year
Maximum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life		25 years
Marketing-related
Allocation
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period	20 years 8 months 12 days
Contract-based
Allocation
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period	10 years 6 months
Technology-based
Allocation
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period	3 years 7 months 6 days
Customer-related
Allocation
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period	4 years 3 months 18 days
2017 Acquisitions
Purchase Price
Cash paid, net of cash acquired			13,859
Indemnification holdback			104
Aggregate purchase price			13,963
Allocation
Goodwill			9,501
Intangible assets			2,647
Property and equipment			3,810
Deferred tax assets			117
Other assets acquired			1,858
Long-term debt			(1,165)
Deferred tax liabilities			(961)
Other liabilities assumed			(1,844)
Allocated purchase price			$ 13,963
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period			21 years
2017 Acquisitions | Minimum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life			1 year
2017 Acquisitions | Maximum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life			25 years
2017 Acquisitions | Marketing-related
Allocation
Intangible assets			$ 1,987
2017 Acquisitions | Contract-based
Allocation
Intangible assets			440
2017 Acquisitions | Technology-based
Allocation
Intangible assets			166
2017 Acquisitions | Customer-related
Allocation
Intangible assets			$ 54
2018 Acquisitions
Purchase Price
Cash paid, net of cash acquired		$ 1,618
Indemnification holdback		31
Aggregate purchase price		1,649
Allocation
Goodwill		1,228
Intangible assets		677
Property and equipment		11
Deferred tax assets		174
Other assets acquired		282
Long-term debt		(176)
Deferred tax liabilities		(159)
Other liabilities assumed		(388)
Allocated purchase price		$ 1,649
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period		6 years
2018 Acquisitions | Minimum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life		2 years
2018 Acquisitions | Maximum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life		7 years
2018 Acquisitions | Marketing-related
Allocation
Intangible assets		$ 186
2018 Acquisitions | Contract-based
Allocation
Intangible assets		13
2018 Acquisitions | Technology-based
Allocation
Intangible assets		285
2018 Acquisitions | Customer-related
Allocation
Intangible assets		$ 193
2019 Acquisitions
Purchase Price
Cash paid, net of cash acquired	$ 276
Indemnification holdback	39
Aggregate purchase price	315
Allocation
Goodwill	189
Intangible assets	161
Property and equipment	3
Deferred tax assets	29
Other assets acquired	41
Long-term debt	(31)
Deferred tax liabilities	(34)
Other liabilities assumed	(43)
Allocated purchase price	$ 315
Acquired intangibles weighted average amortization period	5 years
2019 Acquisitions | Minimum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life	2 years
2019 Acquisitions | Maximum
Allocation
Intangible assets, estimated useful life	7 years
2019 Acquisitions | Marketing-related
Allocation
Intangible assets	$ 8
2019 Acquisitions | Contract-based
Allocation
Intangible assets	0
2019 Acquisitions | Technology-based
Allocation
Intangible assets	139
2019 Acquisitions | Customer-related
Allocation
Intangible assets	$ 14

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and A_5

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets - Summary of Goodwill Activity by Segment (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Goodwill [Roll Forward]
Goodwill, balance at beginning of period	$ 14,548	$ 13,350
New acquisitions	189	1,228
Other adjustments	17	(30)
Goodwill, balance at end of period	14,754	14,548
North America
Goodwill [Roll Forward]
Goodwill, balance at beginning of period	12,191	11,165
New acquisitions	71	1,031
Other adjustments	2	(5)
Goodwill, balance at end of period	12,264	12,191
International
Goodwill [Roll Forward]
Goodwill, balance at beginning of period	1,270	1,108
New acquisitions	29	177
Other adjustments	1	(15)
Goodwill, balance at end of period	1,300	1,270
AWS
Goodwill [Roll Forward]
Goodwill, balance at beginning of period	1,087	1,077
New acquisitions	89	20
Other adjustments	14	(10)
Goodwill, balance at end of period	$ 1,190	$ 1,087

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and A_6

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets - Acquired Intangible Assets (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Acquired Intangibles, Gross	$ 5,298	$ 5,350
Accumulated Amortization	(1,249)	(1,240)
Acquired Intangibles, Net	$ 4,049	4,110
Weighted Average Life Remaining	14 years 3 months 18 days
Amortization expense for acquired intangibles	$ 565	$ 475	$ 366
Minimum
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Intangible assets, estimated useful life		1 year
Maximum
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Intangible assets, estimated useful life		25 years
Marketing-related
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Acquired Intangibles, Gross	2,303	$ 2,542
Accumulated Amortization	(340)	(431)
Acquired Intangibles, Net	$ 1,963	2,111
Weighted Average Life Remaining	20 years 8 months 12 days
Contract-based
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Acquired Intangibles, Gross	$ 1,702	1,430
Accumulated Amortization	(302)	(224)
Acquired Intangibles, Net	$ 1,400	1,206
Weighted Average Life Remaining	10 years 6 months
Technology- and content-based
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Acquired Intangibles, Gross	$ 1,011	941
Accumulated Amortization	(477)	(377)
Acquired Intangibles, Net	$ 534	564
Weighted Average Life Remaining	3 years 7 months 6 days
Customer-related
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Acquired Intangibles, Gross	$ 282	437
Accumulated Amortization	(130)	(208)
Acquired Intangibles, Net	$ 152	$ 229
Weighted Average Life Remaining	4 years 3 months 18 days

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and A_7

Acquisitions, Goodwill, and Acquired Intangible Assets - Expected Future Amortization Expense of Acquired Intangible Assets (Details) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019USD ($)
Year Ended December 31,
2020	$ 486
2021	424
2022	391
2023	334
2024	270
Thereafter	2,116
Acquired intangibles	$ 4,021

Debt - Additional Information (

Debt - Additional Information (Details)	1 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
	Apr. 30, 2018USD ($)extension	Oct. 31, 2016USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2019USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2018USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2017USD ($)
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding			$ 24,820,000,000	$ 24,965,000,000
Credit Agreement, additional term			1 year
Commercial Paper
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Credit term	397 days
Commercial Paper, Maximum Borrowing Capacity	$ 7,000,000,000
Commercial Paper Borrowings			$ 0
Senior Notes
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding			23,300,000,000
Unamortized discount			101,000,000	101,000,000
Estimated fair value of notes			26,200,000,000	24,300,000,000
Senior Notes | 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding			1,000,000,000	1,000,000,000
Line of Credit and Other Long-term Debt
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding			1,600,000,000	715,000,000
Credit Facility | Revolving Credit Facility
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding			740,000,000	594,000,000
Credit Facility | October 2016 Revolving Credit Facility | Revolving Credit Facility
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Maximum borrowing capacity		$ 500,000,000	740,000,000
Commitment fee percentage		0.50%
Borrowings outstanding			$ 740,000,000	$ 594,000,000
Weighted average interest rate			3.40%	3.20%
Collateral amount			$ 852,000,000	$ 686,000,000
Credit Facility | October 2016 Revolving Credit Facility | Revolving Credit Facility | LIBOR
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Basis spread on variable rate (as a percent)			1.40%
Credit Facility | April 2018 Revolving Credit Facility | Revolving Credit Facility
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Maximum borrowing capacity	$ 7,000,000,000
Credit term	3 years
Commitment fee percentage	0.04%
Borrowings outstanding			$ 0	0
Credit Agreement, number of extensions | extension	3
Credit Facility | April 2018 Revolving Credit Facility | Revolving Credit Facility | LIBOR
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Basis spread on variable rate (as a percent)	0.50%
Other Long-term Debt
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding			$ 830,000,000	$ 121,000,000
Weighted average interest rate			4.10%	6.00%
Amazon.com, Inc. | 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding					$ 872,000,000
Whole Foods Market, Inc. | 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Borrowings outstanding					$ 128,000,000

Debt - Long-Term Debt Obligatio

Debt - Long-Term Debt Obligations (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Total debt	$ 24,820	$ 24,965
Less current portion of long-term debt	(1,307)	(1,371)
Face value of long-term debt	23,513	$ 23,594
Senior Notes
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Total debt	23,300
Senior Notes | 2.600% Notes due on December 5, 2019
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage		2.60%
Total debt	$ 0	$ 1,000
Senior Notes | 1.900% Notes due on August 21, 2020
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	1.90%
Total debt	$ 1,000	1,000
Effective interest rate	2.16%
Senior Notes | 3.300% Notes due on December 5, 2021
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	3.30%
Total debt	$ 1,000	1,000
Effective interest rate	3.43%
Senior Notes | 2.500% Notes due on November 29, 2022
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	2.50%
Total debt	$ 1,250	1,250
Effective interest rate	2.66%
Senior Notes | 2.400% Notes due on February 22, 2023
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	2.40%
Total debt	$ 1,000	1,000
Effective interest rate	2.56%
Senior Notes | 2.800% Notes due on August 22, 2024
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	2.80%
Total debt	$ 2,000	2,000
Effective interest rate	2.95%
Senior Notes | 3.800% Notes due on December 5, 2024
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	3.80%
Total debt	$ 1,250	1,250
Effective interest rate	3.90%
Senior Notes | 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	5.20%
Total debt	$ 1,000	1,000
Effective interest rate	3.02%
Senior Notes | 3.150% Notes due on August 22, 2027
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	3.15%
Total debt	$ 3,500	3,500
Effective interest rate	3.25%
Senior Notes | 4.800% Notes due on December 5, 2034
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	4.80%
Total debt	$ 1,250	1,250
Effective interest rate	4.92%
Senior Notes | 3.875% Notes due on August 22, 2037
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	3.875%
Total debt	$ 2,750	2,750
Effective interest rate	3.94%
Senior Notes | 4.950% Notes due on December 5, 2044
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	4.95%
Total debt	$ 1,500	1,500
Effective interest rate	5.11%
Senior Notes | 4.050% Notes due on August 22, 2047
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	4.05%
Total debt	$ 3,500	3,500
Effective interest rate	4.13%
Senior Notes | 4.250% Notes due on August 22, 2057
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	4.25%
Total debt	$ 2,250	2,250
Effective interest rate	4.33%
Credit Facility | Revolving Credit Facility
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Total debt	$ 740	594
Other long-term debt
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Total debt	$ 830	$ 121
Amazon.com, Inc. | 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Total debt			$ 872
Whole Foods Market, Inc. | 5.200% Notes due on December 3, 2025
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Total debt			$ 128

Debt - Future Principal Payment

Debt - Future Principal Payment for Debt (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Year Ended December 31,
2020	$ 1,307
2021	1,141
2022	1,773
2023	1,510
2024	3,339
Thereafter	15,750
Total debt	$ 24,820	$ 24,965

Commitments and Contingencies -

Commitments and Contingencies - Principal Contractual Commitments Excluding Open Orders (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Debt principal and interest
Year Ended December 31, 2020	$ 2,202
Year Ended December 31, 2021	2,009
Year Ended December 31, 2022	2,603
Year Ended December 31, 2023	2,273
Year Ended December 31, 2024	4,084
Thereafter	26,019
Total	39,190
Operating lease liabilities
Year Ended December 31, 2020	3,757
Year Ended December 31, 2021	3,630
Year Ended December 31, 2022	3,226
Year Ended December 31, 2023	2,900
Year Ended December 31, 2024	2,605
Thereafter	15,845
Gross lease liabilities - operating leases	31,963
Finance lease liabilities, including interest
Year Ended December 31, 2020	9,878
Year Ended December 31, 2021	7,655
Year Ended December 31, 2022	4,060
Year Ended December 31, 2023	1,332
Year Ended December 31, 2024	989
Thereafter	4,961
Gross lease liabilities - finance leases	28,875
Financing obligations, including interest
Year Ended December 31, 2020	142
Year Ended December 31, 2021	146
Year Ended December 31, 2022	148
Year Ended December 31, 2023	150
Year Ended December 31, 2024	152
Thereafter	2,452
Total	3,190
Unconditional purchase obligations
Year Ended December 31, 2020	4,593
Year Ended December 31, 2021	3,641
Year Ended December 31, 2022	3,293
Year Ended December 31, 2023	3,103
Year Ended December 31, 2024	3,000
Thereafter	2,358
Total	19,988
Other commitments
Year Ended December 31, 2020	3,837
Year Ended December 31, 2021	2,274
Year Ended December 31, 2022	1,770
Year Ended December 31, 2023	1,439
Year Ended December 31, 2024	1,389
Thereafter	12,186
Total	22,895
Total commitments
Year Ended December 31, 2020	24,409
Year Ended December 31, 2021	19,355
Year Ended December 31, 2022	15,100
Year Ended December 31, 2023	11,197
Year Ended December 31, 2024	12,219
Thereafter	63,821
Total	146,101
Accrued tax contingencies	$ 3,923	$ 3,414	$ 2,309	$ 1,710

Commitments and Contingencies_2

Commitments and Contingencies - Pledged Assets (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]
Pledged or restricted cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, and other assets	$ 994	$ 575

Commitments and Contingencies_3

Commitments and Contingencies - Legal Proceedings (Details) - Pending Litigation $ in Millions	1 Months Ended
	Oct. 31, 2013claim	Feb. 28, 2017USD ($)
Nationwide Breach of Contract and Unjust Enrichment Claims
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of claims filed | claim	1
Legal Proceedings with Eolas Technologies, Inc. | Minimum
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Estimate of possible loss		$ 130
Legal Proceedings with Eolas Technologies, Inc. | Maximum
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Estimate of possible loss		$ 250

Stockholders' Equity - Addition

Stockholders' Equity - Additional Information (Details) - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017	Feb. 29, 2016
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Preferred stock, authorized shares	500,000,000	500,000,000
Preferred stock, par value (in usd per share)	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Preferred stock, outstanding shares	0	0
Common shares outstanding plus underlying outstanding stock awards	512,000,000	507,000,000	504,000,000
Stock Repurchased During Period, Value	$ 0	$ 0	$ 0
Net unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock-based compensation arrangements	$ 8,800,000,000
Compensation cost expected to be expensed in next twelve months, percentage	50.00%
Net unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock-based compensation arrangements, weighted average recognition period (in years)	1 year 1 month 6 days
Estimated forfeiture rate	27.00%	27.00%	28.00%
Common stock available for future issuance to employees (in shares)	108,000,000
Restricted Stock Units
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Fair value of units vested	$ 11,700,000,000	$ 11,400,000,000	$ 6,800,000,000
Minimum
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Award vesting period	2 years
Maximum
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Award vesting period	5 years
February 2016 Program
Class of Stock [Line Items]
Stock repurchase, authorized amount				$ 5,000,000,000

Stockholders' Equity - Stock-ba

Stockholders' Equity - Stock-based Compensation Expense (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Share-based Payment Arrangement, Expensed and Capitalized, Amount [Line Items]
Total stock-based compensation expense	$ 6,864	$ 5,418	$ 4,215
Tax benefits from stock-based compensation expense	1,400	1,100	860
Cost of sales
Share-based Payment Arrangement, Expensed and Capitalized, Amount [Line Items]
Total stock-based compensation expense	149	73	47
Fulfillment
Share-based Payment Arrangement, Expensed and Capitalized, Amount [Line Items]
Total stock-based compensation expense	1,182	1,121	911
Technology and content
Share-based Payment Arrangement, Expensed and Capitalized, Amount [Line Items]
Total stock-based compensation expense	3,725	2,888	2,305
Marketing
Share-based Payment Arrangement, Expensed and Capitalized, Amount [Line Items]
Total stock-based compensation expense	1,135	769	511
General and administrative
Share-based Payment Arrangement, Expensed and Capitalized, Amount [Line Items]
Total stock-based compensation expense	$ 673	$ 567	$ 441

Stockholders' Equity - Restrict

Stockholders' Equity - Restricted Stock Unit Activity (Details) - Restricted Stock Units - $ / shares shares in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Number of Units
Beginning balance (in shares)	15.9	20.1	19.8
Units granted (in shares)	6.7	5	8.9
Units vested (in shares)	(6.6)	(7.1)	(6.8)
Units forfeited (in shares)	(1.7)	(2.1)	(1.8)
Ending balance (in shares)	14.3	15.9	20.1
Weighted Average Grant-Date Fair Value
Beginning Balance	$ 1,024	$ 725	$ 506
Units granted	1,808	1,522	946
Units vested	827	578	400
Units forfeited	1,223	862	649
Ending Balance	$ 1,458	$ 1,024	$ 725

Stockholders' Equity - Schedule

Stockholders' Equity - Scheduled Vesting for Outstanding Restricted Stock Units (Details) - Restricted Stock Units - shares shares in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Scheduled vesting — restricted stock units
Year Ended December 31, 2020	6
Year Ended December 31, 2021	5.1
Year Ended December 31, 2022	2.1
Year Ended December 31, 2023	1
Year Ended December 31, 2024	0
Thereafter	0.1
Total	14.3	15.9	20.1	19.8

Income Taxes - Additional Infor

Income Taxes - Additional Information (Details) € in Millions, $ in Millions	Oct. 04, 2017EUR (€)	Dec. 31, 2019USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2019USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2019USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2019USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2018USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2018USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2018USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2018USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2017USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2019USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2018USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2017USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2016USD ($)
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Provision for income taxes, net		$ 786	$ 494	$ 257	$ 836	$ 327	$ 508	$ 74	$ 287		$ 2,374	$ 1,197	$ 769
Cash taxes paid, net of refunds											(881)	1,184	957
Provisional tax benefit for impact of the Act													(789)
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Unrecognized Tax Benefits		3,923				3,414					3,923	3,414	2,309	$ 1,710
Valuation allowance against the net deferred tax assets										$ 600
Tax credit carryforwards		1,700									1,700
Accrued interest and penalties, net of federal income tax benefit, related to tax contingencies		131				$ 127					131	127
Interest and penalties, net of federal income tax benefit											4	20	40
International
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Provision for income taxes, net											1,014	$ 434	$ 923
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Net operating loss carryforwards		$ 8,600									$ 8,600
International | Luxembourg Tax Administration
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Tax examination, estimate of additional tax expense | €	€ 250

Income Taxes - Components of Pr

Income Taxes - Components of Provision for Income Taxes, Net (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
International:
Provision for income taxes, net	$ 786	$ 494	$ 257	$ 836	$ 327	$ 508	$ 74	$ 287	$ 2,374	$ 1,197	$ 769
U.S. Federal
U.S. Federal:
Current									162	(129)	(137)
Deferred									914	565	(202)
International:
Provision for income taxes, net									1,076	436	(339)
U.S. State
U.S. State:
Current									276	322	211
Deferred									8	5	(26)
International:
Provision for income taxes, net									284	327	185
International
International:
Current									1,140	563	724
Deferred									(126)	(129)	199
Provision for income taxes, net									$ 1,014	$ 434	$ 923

Income Taxes - U.S. and Interna

Income Taxes - U.S. and International Components of Income Before Income Taxes (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
U.S.									$ 13,285	$ 11,157	$ 5,630
International									691	104	(1,824)
Income before income taxes	$ 4,053	$ 2,632	$ 2,889	$ 4,401	$ 3,350	$ 3,390	$ 2,605	$ 1,916	$ 13,976	$ 11,261	$ 3,806

Income Taxes - Items Accounting

Income Taxes - Items Accounting for Differences Between Income Taxes Computed at Federal Statutory Rate and Provision Recorded for Income Taxes (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate									$ 2,935	$ 2,365	$ 1,332
Effect of:
Tax impact of foreign earnings									381	119	1,178
State taxes, net of federal benefits									221	263	114
Tax credits									(466)	(419)	(220)
Stock-based compensation									(850)	(1,086)	(917)
2017 Impact of U.S. Tax Act									0	(157)	(789)
Other, net									153	112	71
Provision for income taxes, net	$ 786	$ 494	$ 257	$ 836	$ 327	$ 508	$ 74	$ 287	2,374	1,197	769
Excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation									$ 1,400	$ 1,600	$ 1,300

Income Taxes - Deferred Income

Income Taxes - Deferred Income Tax Assets and Liabilities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Deferred tax assets:
Loss carryforwards U.S. - Federal/States	$ 188	$ 222
Loss carryforwards - Foreign	3,232	2,551
Accrued liabilities, reserves, and other expenses	1,373	1,064
Stock-based compensation	1,585	1,293
Depreciation and amortization	2,385	2,386
Operating lease liabilities	6,648	0
Other items	728	484
Tax credits	772	734
Total gross deferred tax assets	16,911	8,734
Less valuation allowance	(5,754)	(4,950)
Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowances	11,157	3,784
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation and amortization	(5,507)	(3,579)
Operating lease assets	(6,331)	0
Other items	(640)	(749)
Net deferred tax liabilities, net of valuation allowance	$ (1,321)	$ (544)

Income Taxes - Reconciliation o

Income Taxes - Reconciliation of Tax Contingencies (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Reconciliation of Unrecognized Tax Benefits, Excluding Amounts Pertaining to Examined Tax Returns [Roll Forward]
Gross tax contingencies – beginning of period	$ 3,414	$ 2,309	$ 1,710
Gross increases to tax positions in prior periods	216	164	223
Gross decreases to tax positions in prior periods	(181)	(90)	(139)
Gross increases to current period tax positions	707	1,088	518
Settlements with tax authorities	(207)	(36)	0
Lapse of statute of limitations	(26)	(21)	(3)
Gross tax contingencies - end of period	3,923	$ 3,414	$ 2,309
Tax contingencies, that if fully recognized, would decrease our effective tax rate	$ 2,100

Segment Information - Additiona

Segment Information - Additional Information (Details) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019USD ($)segment	Dec. 31, 2018USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2017USD ($)
Segment Reporting [Abstract]
Number of operating segments | segment	3
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	$ 72,705	$ 61,797	$ 48,866
United States
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	53,000	45,100	35,500
Rest of world
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	$ 19,700	$ 16,700	$ 13,400

Segment Information - Reportabl

Segment Information - Reportable Segments and Reconciliation to Consolidated Net Income (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Total net sales	$ 87,437	$ 69,981	$ 63,404	$ 59,700	$ 72,383	$ 56,576	$ 52,886	$ 51,042	$ 280,522	$ 232,887	$ 177,866
Operating expenses									265,981	220,466	173,760
Operating income (loss)	3,879	3,157	3,084	4,420	3,786	3,724	2,983	1,927	14,541	12,421	4,106
Total non-operating income (expense)									(565)	(1,160)	(300)
Provision for income taxes	(786)	(494)	(257)	(836)	(327)	(508)	(74)	(287)	(2,374)	(1,197)	(769)
Equity-method investment activity, net of tax									(14)	9	(4)
Net income	$ 3,268	$ 2,134	$ 2,625	$ 3,561	$ 3,027	$ 2,883	$ 2,534	$ 1,629	11,588	10,073	3,033
North America
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Total net sales									170,773	141,366	106,110
Operating expenses									163,740	134,099	103,273
Operating income (loss)									7,033	7,267	2,837
International
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Total net sales									74,723	65,866	54,297
Operating expenses									76,416	68,008	57,359
Operating income (loss)									(1,693)	(2,142)	(3,062)
AWS
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Total net sales									35,026	25,655	17,459
Operating expenses									25,825	18,359	13,128
Operating income (loss)									$ 9,201	$ 7,296	$ 4,331

Segment Information - Disaggreg

Segment Information - Disaggregation of Revenue (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales	$ 87,437	$ 69,981	$ 63,404	$ 59,700	$ 72,383	$ 56,576	$ 52,886	$ 51,042	$ 280,522	$ 232,887	$ 177,866
Online stores
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales									141,247	122,987	108,354
Physical stores
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales									17,192	17,224	5,798
Third-party seller services
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales									53,762	42,745	31,881
Subscription services
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales									19,210	14,168	9,721
AWS
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales									35,026	25,655	17,459
Other
Disaggregation of Revenue [Line Items]
Total net sales									$ 14,085	$ 10,108	$ 4,653

Segment Information Net Sales A

Segment Information Net Sales Attributed to Countries Representing Portion of Consolidated Net Sales (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item
Total net sales	$ 87,437	$ 69,981	$ 63,404	$ 59,700	$ 72,383	$ 56,576	$ 52,886	$ 51,042	$ 280,522	$ 232,887	$ 177,866
United States
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item
Total net sales									193,636	160,146	120,486
Germany
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item
Total net sales									22,232	19,881	16,951
United Kingdom
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item
Total net sales									17,527	14,524	11,372
Japan
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item
Total net sales									16,002	13,829	11,907
Rest of world
Segment Reporting, Revenue Reconciling Item
Total net sales									$ 31,125	$ 24,507	$ 17,150

Segment Information - Reconcili

Segment Information - Reconciliation of Assets from Segment to Consolidated (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Segment Reporting, Asset Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Total assets	$ 225,248	$ 162,648	$ 131,310
Operating Segments | North America
Segment Reporting, Asset Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Total assets	72,277	47,251	35,844
Operating Segments | International
Segment Reporting, Asset Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Total assets	30,709	19,923	18,014
Operating Segments | AWS
Segment Reporting, Asset Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Total assets	36,500	26,340	18,660
Corporate
Segment Reporting, Asset Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Total assets	$ 85,762	$ 69,134	$ 58,792

Segment Information - Reconci_2

Segment Information - Reconciliation of Property and Equipment from Segments to Consolidated (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Segment Reporting, Other Significant Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	$ 72,705	$ 61,797	$ 48,866
Operating Segments | North America
Segment Reporting, Other Significant Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	31,719	27,052	20,401
Operating Segments | International
Segment Reporting, Other Significant Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	9,566	8,552	7,425
Operating Segments | AWS
Segment Reporting, Other Significant Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	23,481	18,851	14,885
Corporate
Segment Reporting, Other Significant Reconciling Item [Line Items]
Property and equipment, net	$ 7,939	$ 7,342	$ 6,155

Segment Information - Reconci_3

Segment Information - Reconciliation of Property and Equipment Additions from Segments to Consolidated (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	$ 30,018	$ 25,068	$ 29,783
Operating Segments | North America
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	11,752	10,749	13,200
Operating Segments | International
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	3,298	2,476	5,196
Operating Segments | AWS
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	13,058	9,783	9,190
Operating Segments | AWS | Assets Held Under Finance Leases
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	10,600
Operating Segments | AWS | Assets held under capital leases
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions		8,400	7,300
Operating Segments | AWS | Assets under finance leases
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	0	245	134
Operating Segments | North America and International | Assets Held Under Finance Leases
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	3,800
Operating Segments | North America and International | Assets held under capital leases
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions		2,000	2,900
Operating Segments | North America and International | Assets under finance leases
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	1,300	3,000	2,900
Corporate
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Property and equipment additions	$ 1,910	$ 2,060	$ 2,197

Segment Information - Depreciat

Segment Information - Depreciation Expense, by Segment (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Depreciation expense	$ 15,150	$ 12,138	$ 8,831
North America
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Depreciation expense	5,106	4,415	3,029
International
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Depreciation expense	1,886	1,628	1,278
AWS
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Depreciation expense	$ 8,158	$ 6,095	$ 4,524

Quarterly Results (Unaudited)_2

Quarterly Results (Unaudited) (Details) - USD ($) $ / shares in Units, shares in Millions, $ in Millions	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2019	Mar. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Sep. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2018	Mar. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Quarterly Financial Information Disclosure [Abstract]
Total net sales	$ 87,437	$ 69,981	$ 63,404	$ 59,700	$ 72,383	$ 56,576	$ 52,886	$ 51,042	$ 280,522	$ 232,887	$ 177,866
Operating income	3,879	3,157	3,084	4,420	3,786	3,724	2,983	1,927	14,541	12,421	4,106
Income before income taxes	4,053	2,632	2,889	4,401	3,350	3,390	2,605	1,916	13,976	11,261	3,806
Provision for income taxes	(786)	(494)	(257)	(836)	(327)	(508)	(74)	(287)	(2,374)	(1,197)	(769)
Net income	$ 3,268	$ 2,134	$ 2,625	$ 3,561	$ 3,027	$ 2,883	$ 2,534	$ 1,629	$ 11,588	$ 10,073	$ 3,033
Basic earnings per share	$ 6.58	$ 4.31	$ 5.32	$ 7.24	$ 6.18	$ 5.91	$ 5.21	$ 3.36	$ 23.46	$ 20.68	$ 6.32
Diluted earnings per share	$ 6.47	$ 4.23	$ 5.22	$ 7.09	$ 6.04	$ 5.75	$ 5.07	$ 3.27	$ 23.01	$ 20.14	$ 6.15
Shares used in computation of earnings per share:
Basic (in shares)	496	495	493	491	490	488	486	484	494	487	480
Diluted (in shares)	505	504	503	502	501	501	500	498	504	500	493