Use this when you're about to open a self-serve affiliate program and need terms affiliates accept at signup. It's written for a SaaS product that pays a percentage of subscription revenue, and every clause is short enough that an affiliate will actually read it. Fill in the braces, delete the clauses that don't apply, and have a lawyer in your jurisdiction review it before it goes live.
Most of the disputes we see in affiliate programs trace back to four gaps: no rule on who gets credit when two affiliates touch a customer, no hold period before commission pays, no written ban on brand bidding, and no clawback rule for refunds. The template covers all four explicitly.
The template
{Company} Affiliate Program Terms
Last updated: {date}
1. The program
1.1 These terms govern {Company}'s affiliate program ("Program"). By applying, you
("Affiliate") agree to them. They sit alongside {Company}'s general Terms of
Service and Privacy Policy at {links}.
1.2 {Company} may accept or decline any application, without giving a reason.
1.3 You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding contract. You may join as
an individual or on behalf of a business.
2. Commission
2.1 You earn {rate}% of the net amount a Referred Customer pays {Company} for
{eligible plans}, for {duration: the first 12 months / the life of the account}.
2.2 "Net amount" means the amount actually collected, excluding taxes, refunds,
chargebacks, credits and discounts.
2.3 A "Referred Customer" is a new customer, not already a paying {Company}
customer or in an active sales conversation with us, who signs up within the
attribution window in section 3.
2.4 Commission is not paid on your own account, on accounts you control, or on
accounts of your employer or employees (see section 6).
2.5 {Company} may change commission rates with {30} days' email notice. Changes
apply to new Referred Customers only; existing ones keep the rate in force
when they signed up.
3. Attribution
3.1 A referral is credited when a visitor clicks your link and creates an account
within {90} days of that click.
3.2 If more than one affiliate referred the same customer, the {last / first}
affiliate link clicked before signup gets the credit.
3.3 A {Company} coupon code issued to you counts as a referral even without a
click, and overrides any link click.
3.4 {Company}'s tracking records are the basis for crediting referrals. If you
believe a referral is missing, tell us within {60} days of the customer's
signup and we will investigate in good faith.
4. Payment
4.1 Commission is held for {30} days after the customer's payment to cover
refunds and chargebacks, then becomes payable.
4.2 Payable commission is paid {monthly} by {method(s)} once your balance reaches
{threshold}. Balances below the threshold roll over.
4.3 If a payment is refunded or charged back after we've paid you, we will deduct
the commission on it from your next payout.
4.4 You must provide accurate payout and tax information before we can pay you,
including a W-9 (US persons) or W-8BEN / W-8BEN-E (non-US persons) where
required. You are responsible for your own taxes.
4.5 Unpaid commission below the threshold is forfeited if your account is closed
for breach, or if you are inactive for {12} months after we email you.
5. How you may promote {Company}
5.1 You may promote {Company} on sites, newsletters, videos, social accounts and
communities that you own or have permission to post in.
5.2 You may not:
(a) bid on "{Company}", misspellings or variations of it, or any {Company}
trademark in paid search or paid social, or use them in ad copy or
display URLs;
(b) list {Company} codes or links on coupon, voucher, deal or cashback sites
{unless approved in writing};
(c) send unsolicited email or messages, or buy email lists;
(d) offer cash, gifts or rebates to people for signing up through your link;
(e) drop cookies without a genuine click (cookie stuffing), use pop-unders,
or hide links;
(f) register domains or social handles containing {Company} trademarks;
(g) present yourself as {Company} or imply an endorsement we haven't given;
(h) make claims about {Company} that are false, out of date or not in our
published materials.
5.3 {Company} may ask you to remove or change any content that mentions us.
You agree to do so within {5} business days.
6. Self-referrals
6.1 You may not earn commission on purchases by you, your household, your
business or anyone acting for you.
6.2 We may reverse commission on referrals that share payment details, IP
addresses or devices with your account, after asking you about them.
7. Disclosure
7.1 You must clearly and conspicuously disclose that you earn a commission
wherever you link to {Company}, close to the link or recommendation, in
words your audience will understand (for example: "I earn a commission if
you buy through this link").
7.2 You must follow the advertising and endorsement rules that apply to you,
including the US FTC Endorsement Guides and any local equivalent.
8. Brand assets
8.1 We grant you a limited, revocable licence to use the logos, screenshots and
copy in our affiliate kit, only to promote {Company} under these terms.
8.2 The licence ends when your participation ends.
9. Data
9.1 Each party is responsible for its own compliance with privacy laws for the
personal data it collects.
9.2 We do not share Referred Customers' personal data with you beyond what you
need to confirm a referral (for example, a masked email or company name).
10. Termination
10.1 Either party may end participation at any time by email.
10.2 We may suspend or end your participation immediately for breach of
section 5, 6 or 7. Commission on referrals that breached those sections
is forfeited.
10.3 If you leave in good standing, commission already earned and later
payments from existing Referred Customers continue to be paid for
{duration in 2.1 / 90 days / none}.
11. Liability and general
11.1 You are an independent contractor, not an employee, agent or partner.
11.2 {Company}'s total liability to you is limited to the commission paid or
payable to you in the {12} months before the claim.
11.3 We may update these terms with {30} days' email notice. Continuing in the
Program after that date means you accept the update.
11.4 These terms are governed by the laws of {jurisdiction}.
Questions: {affiliate contact email}How to fill in each part
Commission (section 2). Pick the number before the wording. In our directory, the median top rate among the 155 software programs that publish a percentage is 30%, and of the 135 recurring programs that say how long pay lasts, 42 stop at 12 months and 36 pay for life. If you're unsure, a 12-month cap is easier to fund and easier to explain. Our guide to recurring vs one-time commission works through the trade-off with numbers, and the ROI calculator shows what a rate costs you per customer.
Clause 2.5 matters more than it looks. Affiliates who wrote a review two years ago will be furious if a rate cut applies to customers they already sent. Grandfathering existing referrals costs you little and stops most of the anger.
Attribution (section 3). The window most often stated in our directory is 90 days: 34 of the 82 programs that publish one use it, and 20 use 30 days. Last-click is the default for most tools. If your buyers take months to decide, say so and consider first-click instead. How affiliate tracking works explains what actually survives in Safari and why billing-linked attribution is more reliable than a cookie alone.
Payment (section 4). Set the hold period to at least your refund window plus a few days. If you offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, a 30-day hold after payment covers it. On thresholds, 14 of the 31 programs in our directory that state one say there's no minimum, and the median among the 17 that give a dollar figure is 50 dollars. How partner payouts work covers schedules and payout rails. For US programs, the IRS pages on Form W-9 and Form W-8BEN say who fills in which form.
Promotion rules (section 5). Keep the list, but edit 5.2(b) on purpose. Some programs want coupon sites; most SaaS programs don't, because coupon sites mostly catch customers who were buying anyway. Several programs in our directory reject them in writing, including Semrush, Kinsta and Surfer. On paid search, there's a real split: Surfer bans branded paid ads, while Grammarly lists a keyword-bidding friendly policy as a perk. Our brand bidding guide covers the variations.
Disclosure (section 7). The FTC's own Q&A on its Endorsement Guides says a disclosure should sit close to the recommendation, and that a bare "affiliate link" label may not be understood by readers, while "paid link" next to the link is adequate. Point affiliates at that FTC page in your welcome email rather than paraphrasing it.
Termination (section 10.3). This is the clause affiliates read first. Paying on existing customers after a good-standing exit is generous and uncommon; paying nothing after exit is common but can feel like a trap if the commission is "lifetime". Whatever you choose, write it down.
Mistakes to avoid
- Copying a network's terms wholesale. Network templates assume the network handles payouts and disputes. If you pay affiliates yourself, the payment clauses need your schedule and your methods.
- Writing "commission at our sole discretion". It reads as "we might not pay you", and good affiliates will skip the program. Keep discretion for fraud and breach, and spell those out.
- Leaving out a definition of a new customer. Without 2.3, you'll pay for existing customers who happened to click a review before upgrading.
- Setting a hold period shorter than the refund window, so you end up chasing money you've already paid out.
- Banning things you never check. If you ban brand bidding, search your brand terms once a month. A rule you ignored for a year is hard to enforce on the affiliate who finally annoys you.
- Hiding the terms behind the login. Publish them on a public page and link it from the signup form. In our directory, 302 of 412 programs publish commission or cost terms, and affiliates compare programs before they apply.
If you run the program on PartnersWatch (our product), the attribution window, first- or last-touch, payout threshold and self-referral guard in this template map to program settings, so what the terms say and what the software does can match. You can compare your draft against similar programs in the Network directory.