Affiliate Program ROI Calculator
Does the program pay for itself?
Enter the monthly revenue you expect affiliates to bring, and see what’s left after commissions, software and payout fees. At $10,000 a month in affiliate revenue with a 20% rate, an 80% margin and a $75 plan, the program contributes about $5,925 a month. The formula is published below.
0% to you. The receiving affiliate's account carries PayPal's fee.
- Net contribution
$5,925$5,925 - Cost per acquired customer
$41.50$41.50 - Return on program spend
2.862.86 ×- Total program cost
$2,075$2,075
per month
at 50 customers
net ÷ everything the program costs
commissions, software, fees, time
View as a table
| Step | Amount | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Gross profit at 80% margin | $8,000 | $8,000 |
| Commissions paid | −$2,000 | $6,000 |
| Software, Startup | −$75 | $5,925 |
| Net contribution | $5,925 | $5,925 |
A model built from the numbers you entered, not a benchmark and not a measured result.
View as a table
| Step | Affiliate CAC |
|---|---|
| 1 | $59 |
| 4 | $45 |
| 7 | $43 |
| 10 | $42 |
| 13 | $43 |
| 16 | $42 |
| 19 | $42 |
| 22 | $42 |
| 24 | $42 |
$10,000/month affiliate revenue · 20% commission · 80% margin · Startup plan · PayPal · 50 customers
| Affiliate revenue | $10,000 |
|---|---|
| Gross profit at 80% margin | $8,000 |
| Commissions paid | −$2,000 |
| Software, Startup | −$75 |
| Payout fees (PayPal, paid by the affiliate's account) | −$0 |
| Net contribution | $5,925 |
| Cost per acquired customer, at 50 sales | $41.50 |
| Return on program spend | 2.86× |
Plan prices are read from Referly’s own plan registry at render time, never hard-coded, so a price change updates this page in the same commit, and the model steps you to a higher plan when your revenue crosses a cap.
Every line of the maths
The formula, with the numbers in it
Including the payout row, where every other calculator quietly rounds to zero.
What's left
- Gross profit
- $8,000
- Commissions
- $2,000
- Software
- $75
- Net
- $5,925
What it cost you
- Program cost
- $2,075
- Customers
- 50
- Cost per customer
- $41.50
Return on program spend is net divided by cost: 2.86x.
What it costs you to send the money
Referly Payouts is opt-in. Referly’s transaction fee is 0% on every plan.
The real decision
Against another pound of Google Ads
The choice is almost never “affiliate program: yes or no”. It's affiliate against the next unit of paid spend.
You pay after the sale
Paid spend is committed before one. A bad month costs you nothing.
Affiliate CAC starts worse
The software fee is fixed, so a small program spreads it over very few customers. It only improves with volume.
Recurring keeps costing
Cheap in month one, expensive at month twelve. A payment cap is what flattens that curve.
Where this number is wrong
Five assumptions you should argue with
A model is only useful if you know what it cannot see.
Incrementality
Some affiliate sales would have happened anyway, coupon traffic especially. Discount your input by 10 to 30% if you want a conservative number.
Refunds
Refunded sales reverse their commission, so this slightly understates net contribution on refund-heavy businesses.
Ramp
This is a steady state, not a month-one forecast. The first quarter is mostly recruitment.
The revenue cap
Crossing $10,000 or $30,000 a month moves you to a higher plan, and the model steps the software line when you do.
Your time
Four hours a month suits a running program. Building a partner base from nothing is far more.
One line, many shapes
If the software fee is what's bothering you
Every rival calculates it a completely different way.
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Suggest oneFAQ
Before you commit a budget
The questions a sceptical founder asks first.
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It depends on your margin and whether you can recruit. You pay after the sale, so the downside is capped. The catch is the fixed software fee, which makes affiliate CAC worse than paid at low volume. If the net contribution line above is negative, the answer today is no.
Every figure on this page is modelled from the numbers you enter. It is not a benchmark, not a forecast, and not a customer result, real customer stories live here.