There is no single normal affiliate commission rate: published rates run from low single digits on physical goods to a much larger share on digital products, because the right number depends on how much of each sale you keep. The reliable way to choose yours is to work back from your own margin, set one default rate you can afford on every sale, then offer different rates to specific affiliates, products or campaigns where the extra spend earns its place.
This guide covers what rates look like in practice, how to calculate one for your business, what changes for mobile apps, and how and when to vary rates between affiliates.
What are typical affiliate commission rates?
Typical rates depend almost entirely on the margin of what is being sold, so a figure that is generous in one category is unaffordable in another. Many articles quote neat industry averages, but most give no source for them, so treat any single "average rate" with caution.
What published rate cards show
The most useful benchmarks are the rates that programmes publish themselves. Amazon's affiliate programme is a good example of a low-margin retail rate card: its standard commission rate table runs from 0% on some categories to 10% on luxury beauty, with 4% for categories not listed separately. The same table pays 1% on groceries and 2% on televisions.
Digital products and subscriptions can pay a far larger share, because serving one more customer costs very little. That is why a subscription app and a retailer can both run healthy programmes at very different rates.
How to benchmark your own category
Instead of relying on an average, look up three or four programmes that your likely affiliates already promote and note what each one pays, on what (first sale or every renewal) and for how long. Affiliates compare offers on earnings per customer, so a lower percentage on a higher price or a longer earning period can beat a higher headline rate. For app-specific benchmarks and structures, see our guide to affiliate commission rates for mobile apps.
How do you set an affiliate commission rate?
Set your rate by working out what a referred customer is worth to you after costs, deciding what share of that you are willing to give up to win the customer, and converting that share into a percentage or fixed amount per sale.
Start from what you keep, not what you charge
A commission is paid out of the money left after your costs of sale. The steps are:
- Take the price the customer pays.
- Subtract the fees and direct costs that come out of every sale (store or payment fees, and any cost of serving the customer).
- Decide the most you would pay to acquire that customer. A useful check is what you already pay per customer through paid adverts.
- Express that amount as a percentage of the sale, or keep it as a fixed amount.
A worked example
Say your app sells an annual subscription for $60, and the store keeps 15% of each sale.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Price paid by the customer | $60.00 |
| Store fee at 15% | $9.00 |
| What you receive | $51.00 |
| Most you are willing to pay to win this customer (say one third of what you receive) | $17.00 |
| That amount as a percentage of the $60 price | About 28% |
In this hypothetical case, a default rate of 20% leaves room to raise selected affiliates to 25% or a little more without going past your limit. If the store kept 30% instead, you would receive $42, and the same one-third share would be $14, or about 23% of the price. The numbers are invented for illustration; the method is what carries over.
Affiliate commission rate best practices
- Start at the lower end of what you can afford. Raising a rate is welcomed, while cutting one damages trust.
- Combine a solid base rate with performance incentives. Awin, one of the large affiliate networks, recommends this in its guidance on setting commission rates, along with treating lower-margin products differently and being open with partners about how commission is calculated.
- Keep commission inside your overall acquisition budget. A rate is only sustainable if the cost per customer is one you would accept from any other channel.
- Write the rules down. State what counts as a sale, whether renewals earn commission, and when affiliates are paid.
- Review on a schedule. Check sign-ups, sales per affiliate and cost per customer every quarter and after each campaign.
How do app store fees change what you can pay?
App store fees come out of every in-app purchase before you receive anything, so they reduce the amount available for commission. Work out your rate from what you receive, even if you choose to express it as a percentage of the full price.
Apple's commission
Apple's subscriptions page says developers receive 70% of the subscription price during a subscriber's first year, rising to 85% once that subscriber has built up one year of paid service. Under the App Store Small Business Program, developers who earned up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year, and developers new to the App Store, qualify for a reduced 15% commission on paid apps and in-app purchases.
Google Play's service fee
Google's fee depends on where the customer is, what they buy and which programmes you are enrolled in. Its service fee page lists 15% on automatically renewing subscriptions and on the first 1 million USD a developer earns each year, and 30% above that, for markets on its original fee structure. The same page sets out a separate structure for customers in the United States, United Kingdom, European Economic Area, Australia and Japan. Check that page for the terms that apply to your account before fixing a rate.
Gross or net: which amount should commission be based on?
You can pay commission on the full price (gross) or on what is left after the store fee (net). Using the $60 example with a 20% commission:
| Basis | Store fee | Commission at 20% | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross, 15% store fee | $9.00 | $12.00 | $39.00 |
| Net, 15% store fee | $9.00 | $10.20 | $40.80 |
| Gross, 30% store fee | $18.00 | $12.00 | $30.00 |
| Net, 30% store fee | $18.00 | $8.40 | $33.60 |
Gross is simpler for affiliates to understand, because their commission is a clean share of the price they can see. Net protects your margin automatically if your store fee changes. In Insert Affiliate, this is a setting: commission is calculated on the full transaction amount by default, and you can switch on platform fee deduction so it is calculated after the store's fee, using fee percentages you can edit to match your own terms. The commission guide in our docs shows both calculations.
Should you pay a percentage or a fixed amount per sale?
Pay a percentage when your prices vary and you want commission to scale with the sale; pay a fixed amount when you want a predictable cost per customer and a simple message for affiliates.
| Percentage of sale | Fixed amount per sale | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to you | Rises and falls with price | The same on every sale |
| Message to affiliates | "Earn 25% of every sale" | "Earn $10 per subscriber" |
| Works well for | Several price points, annual and monthly plans together | One main product, or cheap first purchases |
| Watch out for | Discounts and intro prices shrink the payout | A fixed amount can exceed your margin on a low-priced plan |
If you sell in several currencies, a fixed amount needs a little more care, because one converted figure rarely looks right everywhere. Insert Affiliate lets you set a fixed commission per currency (for example a separate amount for USD and GBP), with a default amount for any currency you have not set.
Should affiliates earn commission on renewals or only the first purchase?
Pay on renewals when long-term subscribers are where your revenue comes from and you want affiliates to send customers who stay; pay on the first purchase only when you need a fixed, known cost per customer.
The difference is large for monthly plans. Say a plan costs $10 a month and a referred subscriber stays for six months. At 20% of the full price:
| Structure | Commission paid |
|---|---|
| First purchase only | $2.00 |
| First purchase plus every renewal | $12.00 |
| First purchase plus the next two renewals | $6.00 |
First purchase only is cheap, but $2 will not interest many creators, so it generally needs a higher rate or a fixed amount to be attractive. Renewals for a limited period is a middle ground: the affiliate shares in retention, and your cost has an end date.
In Insert Affiliate, each affiliate has a payout cadence of either "Initial Purchase + Renewals" or "Initial Purchase Only", so you can pay renewals to proven partners and first purchases only to new ones. A renewal attribution window sets how long renewals keep earning commission, as a company default or per affiliate.
How do you offer different commission rates to different affiliates?
Keep one default rate for everyone, then override it for the partners, products or periods where a different rate is justified. The override should always have a reason you could explain to any other affiliate who asked.
Different rates per affiliate
A custom rate suits a partner whose audience converts unusually well, a creator you are recruiting away from another programme, or an agency that manages several affiliates.
Rates that rise with sales
A tiered structure raises the rate automatically once an affiliate passes a sales target, which rewards your best performers without negotiating each deal by hand. A simple ladder might pay the default rate, then 10% after 5 sales in a month and 15% after 10. In our product these are called advanced commission rules (a premium feature on select plans): each rule has a rate, a sales target, an "until" or "after" trigger, and a time frame of monthly or ever. You can set them once as company defaults or give one affiliate their own ladder, which replaces the defaults for that affiliate. Our guide to tiered commission structures covers how to choose the thresholds.
Different rates per product
If an annual plan is worth more to you than a monthly one, pay more for it. Advanced rules can be limited to specific in-app purchases, for example 15% on the annual subscription and 8% on the monthly one, and the most beneficial matching rule is applied to each purchase.
Different rates for a limited time
A temporary increase works for a launch, a seasonal push or a new affiliate's first weeks. Two things make it work: announce the start and end dates before it begins, and return to the normal rate on the day you said you would. In practice you raise the affiliate's rate for the campaign and change it back afterwards, or use a monthly rule, since monthly sales targets reset at the start of each month.
Which rate wins when several apply?
Decide the order in advance so nobody is surprised. In Insert Affiliate the order is: advanced rules set on the individual affiliate, then company-wide advanced rules, then the affiliate's individual rate, then the company default.
When should you change your commission rates?
Change rates when the evidence says the current ones are not doing their job, and avoid changing them often, because affiliates plan content around what they expect to earn.
Good reasons to raise a rate:
- An affiliate consistently sends customers who stay subscribed.
- You have changed pricing or your store fee has dropped, so there is more margin to share.
- Sign-ups are healthy but few affiliates are actively promoting.
Good reasons to lower one, or to move from renewals to first purchase only:
- Your cost per customer through affiliates is higher than through other channels.
- A product's margin has fallen.
If you do reduce a rate, give written notice with a clear effective date, apply it to future sales only, and explain why. Small, well-explained changes keep more partners than a sudden large cut.
Next step
Write down your price, what you receive after store fees and the most you would pay for a customer, then turn that into one default rate. Once you have a few weeks of sales, add a higher rate for your strongest affiliates. Insert Affiliate is free to start if you want to set this up for an iOS or Android app, and the step-by-step setup is in our guide to launching an affiliate programme for an iOS and Android app.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good affiliate commission rate?
A good rate is one that is worth an affiliate's effort and still leaves you a profit on every referred sale. There is no universal figure, because margins differ so much: Amazon's published table tops out at 10%, while digital products can afford a much larger share. Work it out from what you keep after fees and what you would pay for a customer elsewhere.
What is the average affiliate marketing commission rate?
There is no reliable single average, and most figures quoted online come without a source. Published rate cards show the spread instead, from 0% to 10% across Amazon's categories to far higher shares for software and subscriptions. Compare yourself with programmes in your own category, not with an all-industry number.
Should I pay affiliates a percentage or a flat fee?
Use a percentage if your prices vary or you sell both monthly and annual plans, since the payout scales with the sale. Use a flat fee if you want a fixed cost per customer and a simple offer to explain. Check a flat fee against your cheapest plan so it never exceeds what you receive from that sale.
Should affiliates earn commission on subscription renewals?
Pay on renewals if retention drives your revenue, because it rewards affiliates for sending customers who stay. You can limit renewals to a set period so the cost has an end date. If you pay on the first purchase only, expect to need a higher rate or a fixed amount to make the offer attractive.
Can I give one affiliate a higher rate than the others?
Yes. Keep a default rate for everyone and give higher rates to partners who have earned them through volume, retention or audience fit. Tiered rules that raise the rate after a sales target are a fair way to do this, because every affiliate can see how to reach the higher rate.
How often should I review commission rates?
Review them every quarter and after each campaign, looking at sales per affiliate, how long referred customers stay and your cost per customer. Raise rates freely when the numbers support it. Lower them rarely, with notice, and only for future sales.