There is no fee associated with Alexa. If you have an Amazon account you can use her for ordering. If you have an Amazon Prime account, she is even better, but that type of account isn’t necessary. The fee for a Prime account is either monthly...$10.99/month or you can pay a yearly fee at a reduced rate...$99./year plus tax in either case. You do not need a prime acccount, but I use Amazon a lot and have had an account with them for eons...
....so I opted for A Prime account sine I am a frequent shopper on that site.
I love my Alexas....have one in every room....she is a great alarm clock, timer, you can tell her what to put on your shopping list as you think of things you need and when you open the Alexa app on your smart phone, there is your list. You can make phone calls using Alexa, the are routed through your cell pnone, but in mid December another small device attached to Alexa, will connect her to you home land line. This will allow you to call 911 through Alexa using your voice and the 911 “switchboard” will show your home phone number an all the info associated with it to emergency services.
There’s music, audible books and so much more. It’s a gift she’ll enjoy I’m sure....and so will you!