Free tool
Affiliate commission calculator for SaaS
See what a commission rule really costs per customer once churn is counted, how that compares with customer lifetime value, and the most you can afford to pay.
Commission per payment
$12.25
Paid on up to 12 monthly payments.
Expected commission per customer
$118.61
About 9.7 paid months after churn.
Customer lifetime value
$980.00
Gross profit per customer.
Commission as share of LTV
12.1%
Within the one-third guideline.
Suggested maximum commission per customer
$326.67
One third of LTV. With this duration, that is a rate of about 68.9%.
How these are calculated
- Commission per payment = price × rate
- Lifetime: expected commission = price × rate ÷ churn
- N months: expected commission = price × rate × Σ (1 − churn)^k, k = 0 … N − 1
- LTV = price × gross margin ÷ churn
- Suggested maximum = LTV ÷ 3
- Month-12 cost = customers × Σ commission × (1 − churn)^k over the 12 cohorts still inside the duration
Reading the results
A commission rate on its own says little about cost. 25% of a $49 plan is $12.25 a payment, but whether that adds up to $12, $150 or $300 per customer depends on how many payments the rule covers and how many customers are still paying each month.
The calculator treats churn as a steady monthly rate. With 4% churn, 96% of customers make their second payment, about 92% their third, and so on. A 12-month commission therefore pays out on fewer than 12 payments on average, and a lifetime commission works out to price × rate ÷ churn, the same way lifetime value is calculated.
Customer lifetime value (LTV) here means gross profit, not revenue: price × gross margin ÷ churn. Many SaaS companies aim to keep the total cost of acquiring a customer at or below one third of that figure, which leaves room for the cost of serving the customer and for profit. The suggested maximum uses that guideline. Subtract anything else you spend per customer, such as onboarding or sales time, before comparing it with your commission.
If you enter referred customers per month, the projection shows your monthly commission bill in the program’s twelfth month, when twelve cohorts overlap. For lifetime commissions this number keeps growing slowly after month 12, until cancellations balance new customers.
Treat the output as a planning estimate. Real churn is usually higher in the first months than later, refunds cancel some commissions, and annual plans pay differently. For typical rates and how to structure them, read our guide to SaaS affiliate commission rates. When you are ready to run the program, Affiliatops tracks recurring commissions from Stripe, with holds and clawbacks for refunds; see pricing.
Questions
How do I calculate affiliate commission on a subscription?
Multiply each payment by the commission rate, then add up the payments the rule covers. Because some customers cancel every month, the expected total is lower than price × rate × months: each later month is weighted by the share of customers still paying.
How much commission can a SaaS company afford to pay affiliates?
A common guideline is to keep the total cost of acquiring a customer at or below one third of their lifetime value. If LTV is $900, that leaves about $300 per customer for commission and any other acquisition costs combined.
Why does the calculator show “Unbounded” for lifetime commissions?
With 0% churn, customers never leave in the model, so a lifetime commission and LTV both grow without limit. Enter your real monthly churn, even 1 or 2%, to get a finite estimate.
Should I use monthly or annual churn?
Monthly. If you only know annual churn, a rough conversion is monthly ≈ 1 − (1 − annual)^(1/12); 30% annual churn is about 2.9% a month.
Pay the commission you just worked out.
Set the rate and duration once. Renewals, refunds and payouts follow from your Stripe data.