Affiliate Commission Calculator
What a commission rate actually costs you
Enter your average order value and a commission rate, and see what you pay per sale, what the affiliate earns, and what you keep. Switch to recurring and the same 20% costs several times more over a subscription’s life. The formula is published below so you can check it.
- Commission per sale
$9.80$9.80 - Commission per customer
$117.60$117.60 - What you keep per customer
$352.80$352.80 - New revenue per month
$1,225.00$1,225.00 - Commissions per month
$2,940.00$2,940.00 - Effective commission rate
- 20.0%
first payment
over 12 payments
after commission and 80% margin
at 25 sales
at steady state
commissions ÷ revenue, both at steady state
View as a table
| Month | New customers | Earlier customers | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $245 | $0 | $245 |
| 4 | $245 | $735 | $980 |
| 7 | $245 | $1,470 | $1,715 |
| 10 | $245 | $2,205 | $2,450 |
| 13 | $245 | $2,695 | $2,940 |
| 16 | $245 | $2,695 | $2,940 |
| 19 | $245 | $2,695 | $2,940 |
| 22 | $245 | $2,695 | $2,940 |
| 24 | $245 | $2,695 | $2,940 |
$49/month subscription · 20% recurring · 12-month lifetime · capped at 12 payments · 25 sales/month · 80% margin
- Commission per sale, first payment
- $9.80
- Commission per customer, lifetime
- $117.60
- New affiliate revenue per month
- $1,225
- Commissions paid per month, month 12 onward
- $2,940
- What you keep per customer
- $352.80
- Effective commission rate
- 20.0%
Check our maths
The formula, with the numbers in it
No affiliate vendor publishes theirs.
One payment
- Monthly price
- $49.00
- Rate
- 20%
- Per payment
- $9.80
Whole customer
- Per payment
- $9.80
- Payments
- 12
- Per customer
- $117.60
Capped at 12 payments. Uncapped over 36 months it is $352.80 for the same customer.
What you keep
- Revenue
- $588.00
- Margin
- 80%
- Commission
- $117.60
- You keep
- $352.80
Refunds reverse
A refunded sale claws its commission back automatically.
Step-downs change it
A rate that drops after 12 payments moves the lifetime figure. Business plan.
Processor fees come first
Stripe and Shopify fees come off before your margin, and are not modelled.
Worked examples
Three programs, priced
Same calculator, three shapes of business.
SaaS subscription
$49/mo · 20% recurring · capped at 12
$117.60
per customer
Uncapped, the same customer costs $352.80 over three years. The cap is doing the work, not the rate.
Ecommerce store
$85 order · 15% one-time · 45% margin
$12.75
per order
A 12% return rate takes it to $22.44 kept per order. Commission reverses with the refund, so it comes off both sides.
Course or community
$299 one-time · $90 flat · 90% margin
$90
per sale
Flat wins here for a non-maths reason. “$90 a sale” is a sentence an affiliate can say in a video. “30.1%” is not.
Setting the number
How to pick a rate you can keep paying
Four decisions, in the order that matters.
Start from margin
30% on a 40% margin leaves you ten points. On 85% it leaves fifty-five. Different businesses.
Shape before number
20% recurring over twelve months is twelve times 20% one-time. Pick the basis first.
Cap, don't cut
25% for twelve payments recruits better than 10% forever, and usually costs less.
Schedule the step-down
Published at signup it is the deal. Introduced later it is a problem.
Honest limits
What this number leaves out
Three real costs the commission figure cannot see.
The software fee
A fixed line this model ignores, plus the revenue cap on whichever plan you are on.
See pricingWhat rivals charge
Subscriptions, percentage fees and click overage vary wildly across the category.
Price every platformWhether it pays off
Commission is one line. Margin, payout fees and your time are the rest.
Model the returnFree tools
The other free tools
Set the rate? These answer what happens next.
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Start nowNeed a tool we don’t have?
Tell us what you keep working out in a spreadsheet and we’ll look at building it.
Suggest oneFAQ
Before you publish a rate
The questions founders ask the week before they launch.
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We will not quote an industry average, because we have not measured one. What matters is whether the rate survives your margin, and whether it is one-time or recurring. The basis moves the total far more than the percentage.
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