—
Monthly Payout / Affiliate
—
Year 1 Payout / Affiliate
—
Lifetime Payout / Affiliate
Subscription Details
Your monthly subscription or product price
Typical: 20–40% for SaaS recurring
Typical SaaS: 2–7%. Lower = higher lifetime payouts.
Program Scale
Average new referred customers per affiliate monthly
Per-Affiliate Payout
Commission / Sale—
New Customers / mo—
Monthly Payout—
Monthly Payout / Affiliate—
Cumulative Payout Timeline
12-Month Payout—
24-Month Payout—
36-Month Payout—
Program Total
Lifetime Payout (all affiliates)—
Total Program Cost (12 mo)—
Cumulative Payout Timeline (per affiliate, new cohort)
How Recurring Affiliate Commissions Work
Unlike one-time commissions, recurring affiliate programs pay affiliates a percentage of the customer's subscription revenue every month they remain a customer. This creates a powerful alignment of incentives: affiliates are motivated to refer high-quality customers who stay long-term.
Lifetime Affiliate Payout Formula
With a monthly churn rate of c, the average customer lifetime in months is 1/c. So the lifetime payout per affiliate is:
Lifetime Payout = MRR × Commission Rate × (1 / Monthly Churn Rate) × New Customers / Month
For example: $99/mo subscription at 30% commission with 5% monthly churn = Lifetime value per affiliate customer = $99 × 0.30 × 20 months = $594 per referred customer. If an affiliate refers 3 customers/month, that's $1,782 in lifetime payouts per affiliate per year.