Affiliate marketing pays you a commission when someone buys through your link or product tag, at a rate the merchant sets, and you earn nothing from clicks that do not turn into sales. As of October 2026, Amazon Associates pays 0% to 10% of the sale depending on the product category, TikTok Shop sellers set commissions from 1% to 80% of each order, and YouTube Shopping passes 100% of merchant commissions to creators as a temporary incentive.
Affiliate income suits creators who already recommend products, because it adds money to videos and posts you would make anyway. It also pays slowly. Amazon pays about 60 days after the end of the month in which you earned the commission, and YouTube pays 60 to 120 days after the purchase.
How does affiliate marketing work for creators?
An affiliate program gives you a tracked link or product tag, records purchases made through it within a set window, and pays you a share of those sales once the return period passes. The merchant sets the rate and the window, not you.
A sale goes through five steps:
- You share a tracked link, code or in-app product tag.
- A viewer clicks or taps, and the program starts tracking them.
- The viewer buys within the program’s attribution window, often called the cookie window.
- The sale clears the return period. Returns and refunds cancel or shrink the commission.
- The program pays you on its own schedule.
Returns cost more than people expect. YouTube reverses commissions on returned products, and TikTok Shop cuts the commission to zero on a full refund and reduces it on a partial one.
How much do affiliate programs pay creators?
Affiliate rates run from 0% to 80% of the order, depending on the program and the product. The big programs differ more on who sets the rate and how fast they pay than on the headline number.
| Program | Who sets the rate | Published rate | Attribution window | When you get paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Associates | Amazon, by category | 0% to 10% | 24 hours from the click, or 89 days for items added to the cart | About 60 days after the end of the month |
| YouTube Shopping | Each seller, per product | Seller’s rate, with 100% passed to creators for now | Set by the brand for each product | Through AdSense, 60 to 120 days after purchase |
| TikTok Shop | Each seller | 1% to 80% of the order on open collaborations | Not stated in the seller guides we checked | Usually 15 days after delivery |
| Instagram affiliate partnerships | Each partner | Set by the partner | Not published by Instagram | Paid by the partner directly |
What are Amazon Associates commission rates?
Amazon Associates pays a fixed percentage of each qualifying sale by product category, from 10% on luxury beauty down to 0% on gift cards and a few other categories. Anything Amazon does not list earns 4%.
| Category on Amazon US | Commission |
|---|---|
| Luxury Beauty, Luxury Stores Beauty, Amazon Explore | 10% |
| Digital and physical music, Handmade, Digital Videos | 5% |
| Physical books, Kitchen, Automotive | 4.5% |
| Apparel, shoes, jewelry, watches, luggage, and Amazon devices such as Kindle, Echo and Fire TV | 4% |
| Toys, furniture, home, home improvement, beauty, pets, sports, tools, baby products, headphones | 3% |
| PC and PC components, DVD and Blu-ray | 2.5% |
| Televisions, digital video games | 2% |
| Grocery, Amazon Fresh, health and personal care, physical video games and consoles | 1% |
| Gift cards, alcohol, wireless service plans, restaurant delivery and some others | 0% |
| All other categories | 4% |
These are the rates on Amazon’s Standard Commission Income page as of October 2026. Adweek reported in 2026 that Amazon had cut commissions by up to 50% for some publishers, reaching the US around March 9, without a public announcement, so check the rate card in your own Associates account before you plan around a number.
Amazon’s cookie is short. A purchase counts if it happens within 24 hours of the click, and items the shopper added to their cart during that visit count if they are ordered within 89 days of the click.
Amazon’s operating agreement also requires one exact sentence wherever you use its links, “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”
As arithmetic on Amazon’s published rates, 40 sales of a $50 kitchen item earn 4.5%, or $90. The same $2,000 in grocery sales earns $20.
How do YouTube Shopping affiliate commissions work?
YouTube Shopping lets Partner Program channels tag other brands’ products in their videos and earn the commission each seller sets. YouTube opened the program in March 2026 to channels with at least 500 subscribers, and it runs in 14 countries, including the US, Brazil, India, Japan and Mexico.
Sellers set the rate per product and can offer custom rates to particular creators. YouTube pays the rate in force on the day of the purchase, so a rate can change between tagging and the sale. You can also earn on other items a viewer buys from the same seller after tapping your tag. Each brand sets its own attribution window for each product, and YouTube publishes no default.
YouTube currently passes 100% of merchant commissions to creators as a temporary incentive and says it will give at least 30 days’ notice before that ends. Payment arrives through AdSense 60 to 120 days after the purchase. Since August 27, 2026, eligible US creators can also tag Amazon products. Music channels, Official Artist Channels and made-for-kids channels cannot join. Our guide to making money on YouTube covers Shopping alongside ads and memberships.
How does TikTok Shop affiliate pay creators?
TikTok Shop pays affiliate creators a commission on products sold through their videos and LIVE sessions. In the US you need 1,000 followers and must be 18 or older, and creators under 5,000 followers join a pilot program for at least 30 days, according to TikTok’s eligibility policy updated September 25, 2026.
Sellers choose the rate. On open collaborations, which any eligible creator can join, a seller picks between 1% and 80% of the order value. A target collaboration rate offered to you directly replaces the open rate on the same product. TikTok works out the final commission as revenue minus refunds, multiplied by the rate.
Rate changes follow set rules. If a seller lowers the standard rate on a product you already promote, you keep the old rate for 30 days and get notice 2 days before the cut applies, while increases apply at once.
TikTok typically pays the commission 15 days after the order is delivered. A seller with a longer settlement period, such as delivery plus 31 days, pays later, and nothing pays out while a dispute, refund or return is open. Our guide to making money on TikTok puts Shop next to TikTok’s other programs.
How do Instagram affiliate links work?
Instagram lets creators with more than 1,000 followers add affiliate product links to reels and feed posts, but Meta does not process the commission. The partner sets the rate and pays you directly, so the partner’s own terms decide the rate, the window and the payout date. Our guide to making money on Instagram covers the app’s other income tools.
What does the FTC require for affiliate links?
In the US, the FTC expects you to disclose that you earn from a link, clearly and close to the link itself. Its own example is a plain sentence saying you get commissions on purchases made through links in the post.
The FTC’s Endorsement Guides FAQ and its Disclosures 101 guide set out the details:
- “Paid link” right next to the link should be adequate. “Affiliate link” alone may not be, because shoppers might not know it means you are paid, and “commissionable link” is probably unclear too.
- Put the disclosure near the recommendation. A note at the bottom of a page can be missed, and one disclosure on your home page is not enough.
- A button labeled DISCLOSURE or LEGAL that people must click is not adequate.
- On YouTube, disclose in the video and in the description near the links. A disclosure only in the description is easy to miss.
- On Instagram, the disclosure must show without tapping “more.”
- Disclose even if you think your recommendation is unbiased.
Amazon’s required sentence satisfies Amazon’s contract, but the FTC’s test is about placement and clarity next to each link. We would use both, a plain “paid link” or “I earn a commission” beside every link and Amazon’s sentence where Amazon asks for it. This is general information about US rules, not legal advice.
Is affiliate marketing worth it for small creators?
Affiliate marketing is worth adding once you already recommend products, but low rates make it a side income for most creators. The math rewards higher-priced products and viewers who arrive ready to buy.
As arithmetic on published rates, 100 sales of a $20 book through Amazon at 4.5% pay $90. The same 100 sales of a $20 product on TikTok Shop at an example 15% seller rate pay $300, though the real rate is whatever that seller picks. We think Amazon links fit search-driven content such as reviews and tutorials, where viewers are already shopping, because the 24-hour window rewards fast buyers.
Creators who sell their own products can run the other side of the deal. Gumroad and Payhip both include affiliate programs that let other people sell your products for a commission. For the rest of your income mix, see how creators make money, and for a brand deal that mixes a flat fee with commission, see how to price sponsored posts. Affiliate commissions usually count as self-employment income in the US, which our creator taxes basics guide explains.