Affiliate Payout Structure: How and When You Get Paid
Who sets your rate, the 35 day hold, the Stripe account you need first, what is deducted, and what to check when the money has not arrived.
What this guide covers
Two different payouts, and you may use both
Affiliate commission and collaboration fees are separate systems. They pay differently, on different timetables.
This is the thing most creators get wrong, so it comes first. If you both take paid collaborations and promote affiliate links on Ainfluencer, your money arrives through two separate systems that share nothing.
| Affiliate commission | Collaboration fee | |
|---|---|---|
| What you are paid for | A share of each sale someone makes through your link | An agreed fee for delivering a post |
| Where the money goes | Straight to your Stripe account, then your bank | Into your Ainfluencer wallet first |
| How you receive it | Automatically. There is nothing to request | You send a withdrawal request yourself |
| Payout method | Bank account connected through Stripe | PayPal or a crypto wallet |
| Typical fee | Around 5%, taken from the commission | The percentage shown on the withdrawal screen, normally 20% |
| How long it takes | Roughly five to seven weeks from the sale | Released on approval, then the finance team pays by hand |
| If nothing sells | You earn nothing | You are paid anyway, the fee was agreed up front |
What you actually earn on a sale
The seller sets the rate per product. You can see it before you promote anything.
Ainfluencer does not set commission rates. Each seller sets a rate on each product, and you can read it on the product before you decide to promote it.
- The default is 15% on a newly imported product, until the seller changes it.
- Sellers can set anything from 0 up to just under 100%, per product or in bulk.
- Across the live catalogue today the average commission on an active product is 24.1%, and rates run from 8% to 50%.
- A seller can also give you a personal rate that differs from the public one, agreed in your partnership.
Two things earn nothing, and both surprise people. A sale on a product after the seller deactivates it earns no commission. And a sale that cannot be matched to an active partnership contract is skipped.
Connect Stripe once, and get the country right
No Stripe account means no payment. The country is set from your phone number and cannot be changed later.
Your commission is sent to a Stripe account that Ainfluencer creates for you. Open Account Settings, then the Billing tab, and press Let’s Go. The box is labelled Connect Credit Card, but it is really setting up a payout account.
- Stripe asks for your identity and bank details.
- The account counts as connected only when Stripe confirms it can both take charges and send payouts. Until then the box still says Check Your Credit Card.
- Once it is connected, everything else is automatic.
Phone verification is not offered for every country. At sign-up you cannot select Pakistan, India, Russia, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Sudan or Syria. If you are in one of those, you will need a number from another country.
When the money actually moves
A sale waits 35 days, then a nightly run pays it. Expect five to seven weeks from sale to bank.
There is no payday. Every sale is paid on its own clock, and here is that clock end to end.
| Stage | What happens | How long |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The sale | Someone buys through your link | Day 0 |
| 2. The sale is reported | Ainfluencer pulls the seller’s Amazon report, covering the last 60 days | Refreshed roughly every 72 hours per store |
| 3. The hold | The sale cannot be billed until it is 35 days old. This covers returns and late reports | 35 days from the sale date |
| 4. The nightly run | At 03:00 UTC the system picks up to 10 sellers and adds up their unbilled sales older than 35 days, per creator and per currency | Each seller at most once in 24 hours |
| 5. The charge | The seller’s card is charged the full commission, and your share is sent to your Stripe account in the same payment | Usually minutes |
| 6. Stripe pays your bank | Stripe sends it on its own payout schedule for your account. Ainfluencer does not control this | Stripe’s schedule |
Added up, five to seven weeks from the sale reaching your bank is normal, and longer if the seller’s card fails. If you see a Due Date in Upcoming Payments, ignore it: it always displays the next Sunday and is not a real date.
What is deducted, and what you receive
One fee, taken from the commission. It comes from the seller’s plan and is 5% when their plan sets none.
The seller is charged the full commission. Ainfluencer keeps a platform fee out of it and you receive the rest.
What you receive = commission minus the platform fee.
| Example | |
|---|---|
| Sale through your link | $200.00 |
| Commission rate the seller set | 20% |
| Commission charged to the seller | $40.00 |
| Platform fee at 5% | $2.00 |
| Paid to your Stripe account | $38.00 |
- The fee percentage comes from the seller’s plan, not yours. Where a plan sets none, it is 5%.
- It is fixed on the first day a sale is recorded, so a later plan change does not re-price it.
- There is no minimum payout. Any amount above $0.00 is billed.
- You get one statement per seller, per currency. The currency is the one the marketplace sold in.
Reading your payment statuses
Six statuses, and only one of them needs you to do anything.
Open Payments from the More menu. Upcoming Payments lists sales already past 35 days and waiting to be billed. Commission Payments History lists statements that have been created.
| Status | What it means | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | The statement exists and the charge is in progress | Nothing. It normally resolves within minutes |
| Succeeded | The seller was charged and your share is on its way through Stripe | Nothing. Watch your Stripe payout schedule |
| Failed | Every payment method the seller had on file was declined | Nothing you can fix. The seller has been told in their dashboard and must press Retry |
| Server error | Something failed that was not the card, and it is not retried automatically | Contact support with the statement, this one needs a human |
| Refunded or Partially refunded | An administrator refunded the seller for that charge | Contact support if you were not expecting it |
| Canceled | Exists in the list but nothing currently sets it | Nothing |
When a card is declined, the system tries the seller’s other saved methods, then retries up to three times, 60 seconds apart. After that the statement sits as Failed until the seller retries it. You are paid as soon as the charge goes through.
I have not been paid. What do I check?
Work down this list in order. Most cases stop at the first or second line.
- Is the sale at least 35 days old? If not, it is not payable yet and will not appear in Upcoming Payments.
- Is your Stripe account actually connected? The Billing box must say Connected Credit Card. If it says Check Your Credit Card, Stripe still wants details, and until that is finished your sales are skipped in the nightly run.
- Does the sale appear in Upcoming Payments? That table only shows Amazon sales already past 35 days and still unbilled. Newer sales appear in your reports, not there.
- Is there a statement with a Failed status? Then the seller’s card was declined and the money waits for them to retry.
- Was the product deactivated after the sale date? Sales dated after a product is switched off earn nothing.
- Is the amount smaller than you expected? Check the commission rate on the partnership and remember the platform fee is taken out of it.
What the affiliate programme does not do
Three things people ask for regularly that are genuinely not features.
- There is no second tier and no override commission. You cannot recruit other creators and earn a share of what they sell. Commission on a sale is paid to the one creator whose link produced it, and to nobody else. Anyone you introduce signs up as an independent affiliate with their own links and their own earnings.
- You cannot be paid by PayPal or crypto on this rail. Affiliate commission goes through Stripe to a bank account. PayPal and crypto exist, but only for collaboration fees withdrawn from your wallet.
- There is no affiliate wallet. Commission is never held by Ainfluencer and there is nothing to withdraw. It moves from the seller to your Stripe account in one payment.
Still not sure?
If you have checked the list above and something still looks wrong, send us the statement and we will look at it.
