The highest commission you can pay an influencer is your contribution per order, after product, shipping and payment costs and the profit you want to keep, divided by the order value. Enter your numbers to see yours.
Results update as you type and your inputs are saved in the page URL so you can share them. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Starting values are placeholders so there is a result to show. Replace every one with your own.
Usually the subtotal after discounts, excluding tax and shipping.
Check your own payment provider's rate.
After commission, before ads and overhead. 0 means break-even.
The ceiling is the most you can pay, not a recommended offer.
Maximum affordable commission
A 15.0% offer costs $10.50 per order and leaves $28.47: inside your ceiling.
Next: turn a ceiling into a ladder with the ambassador commission tier builder, or check your acquisition cost with the influencer CAC calculator.
| Commission | Paid per order | Profit per order | Profit as % of order | Meets your target? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | $3.50 | $35.47 | 50.7% | Yes |
| 10% | $7.00 | $31.97 | 45.7% | Yes |
| 15% | $10.50 | $28.47 | 40.7% | Yes |
| 20% | $14.00 | $24.97 | 35.7% | Yes |
| 25% | $17.50 | $21.47 | 30.7% | Yes |
| 30% | $21.00 | $17.97 | 25.7% | Yes |
Computed from your inputs above. "Meets your target" compares profit per order with the profit you want to keep.
These ranges are reported in a Shopify guide to affiliate commissions, which describes them as widely reported in the industry and names no primary dataset. Treat them as a rough conversation starter, not a market rate. The last column compares each range with your own ceiling.
| Product type | Reported range | Against your ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Tangible goods (fashion, home, beauty) | 5% to 15% | Whole range fits |
| High-ticket items (furniture, mattresses) | 3% to 8% | Whole range fits |
| Subscription services (recurring payments) | 15% to 30% | Whole range fits |
| Digital products and online courses | 20% to 50% | Only part of the range fits |
| B2B software and services (first contract value) | 10% to 30% | Whole range fits |
The same guide quotes a Shopify Masters guest saying standard rates for well-known publishers run 10% to 15% per sale, and gives 20% / 10% / 5% as an illustrative gold / silver / bronze example. Influencer deals vary widely with audience size, exclusivity and whether a flat fee is also paid.
Seed handles the free-product side of creator programs: one branded link, a $0 draft order in Shopify, and post tracking.
Install Seed on ShopifyA commission ceiling is one half of the picture. The other half is what a customer is worth over time, which the influencer CAC calculator works out. If you pay a flat fee alongside commission, price it with the influencer rate calculator, and put the payment terms in writing with the influencer contract generator. To see whether a finished campaign paid back, use the influencer marketing ROI calculator. More in all free tools.
Published guides commonly put physical-goods affiliate commissions at roughly 5% to 15% per sale, with digital products much higher. Those are reported ranges from vendor and publisher articles, not audited data. Your own margin decides what is affordable, so find your ceiling here before comparing it with anyone else's number.
Start with the order value, subtract product cost, shipping and fulfilment, and payment fees. That is your contribution before commission. Subtract the profit you want to keep per order, then divide what remains by the order value. The result is the highest commission rate you can pay and still hit your target.
Decide this in writing before launch. Brands often pay on the order subtotal after discounts and excluding tax and shipping, because that is the revenue the sale actually generates. Enter that commissionable amount as your order value here, so the ceiling matches what you will really pay out.
Commission ties your cost to sales, so you only pay for results, but creators carry the risk and may expect more per sale. A flat fee guarantees the creator's income and your cost. Many deals combine a smaller fee with commission. Price the fee side with the influencer rate calculator.
That is a contract term, not a rule. A common approach is to hold commission until the return window closes, then pay only on orders that were kept. Whatever you choose, state it in the agreement. The influencer contract generator has a payment-terms section you can adapt.
No. Free product is a separate cost, and a creator who is gifted product and paid commission costs you both. When you judge the program, add product cost and shipping to commission and measure the total against new customers with the influencer CAC calculator.
Contribution before commission = order value - product cost - shipping and fulfilment - (order value x payment fee %). Maximum commission per order = contribution - profit to keep. Maximum commission rate = that amount divided by the order value. The table of commission rates applies each rate to your order value.
Not modelled: refunds and returns, tax, creator flat fees, free product sent to the creator, and ad spend that supports creator content. Add those to the profit-to-keep figure if they apply. All defaults are illustrative starting assumptions, not Seed data. The reported ranges above come from a third-party guide that does not cite a primary dataset, so verify them against your own program or network before relying on them. This is not tax or legal advice.
Build a gifting agreement in under a minute — deliverables, posting window, usage rights, and FTC disclosure. Copy it or save as PDF. Free, no email.
The same contract generator, pre-set for an Instagram deliverable: in-feed post plus story.
The same contract generator, pre-set for a TikTok deliverable.
A content-licensing agreement for UGC, not a posting agreement. Usage rights and deliverables only.
For unpaid product-gifting sends specifically: the gift, deliverables, and usage rights.
Send personalized bulk Instagram DMs to creators without copy-pasting one message at a time. Built for outreach at volume.
The Chrome extension behind the DM assistant above. Install it, connect your Seed account, send from your own session.
Put in your product cost, shipping, and creator count, and get your real cost per piece of content, including your own hours. Ungated.
How much should you pay an influencer? Enter views and a CPM to get a fair cash range, and see if your gifted product alone is a fair trade.
Work out a creator's engagement rate on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, by followers and by views. Average up to 12 posts. Free, no email.
Build an influencer media kit with stats, audience, past collabs and rates. Live preview, three layouts, save as PDF. Free, no signup.
A UGC or influencer rate card with deliverables, usage rights, whitelisting and bundles. Preview it, then save as PDF. Free, no signup.
Three ready-to-send pitch emails (cold, warm, follow-up) for creators asking brands for PR packages or collabs. Free, no signup.
What can you actually earn on TikTok? Sponsored-post rate by tier, Creator Rewards eligibility, and a TikTok Shop affiliate estimate. Free, no signup.
Sponsored feed post, Reel and Story rate ranges by follower tier, plus an affiliate-earnings estimate. Free, no signup.
Score a creator's video against your brief in about two minutes. Free, no login.
Enter how many posts you want and get the number of creators to contact and gift, using your own acceptance and post rates.
Plan a gifting campaign budget: product, packaging and shipping cost by lane, total cost and cost per creator.
Compare the cost per 1,000 views and per content piece of influencer gifting against Meta and TikTok ads, with your own numbers.
Answer six questions to find the right influencer deal type for a creator: gifting, a flat fee, or affiliate commission.
Build a free influencer gifting application form with the exact fields to ask, then copy it or run it live on Shopify.
A free outreach CRM template with statuses, follow-up dates and notes. Download the CSV for Google Sheets or Excel.
Track sends, posts, discount codes, revenue and ROI with formulas built in. Download the CSV for Google Sheets.
Generate a one-page influencer brief: product, key messages, dos and don'ts, disclosure and deadlines. Free, no signup.
Generate a short outreach DM or email offering influencers a gifted product, in your own tone and language.
Score your influencer outreach subject lines against a transparent checklist, and get better variants.
Pick a niche and platform for a hand-written hashtag set, mixed broad to niche. No made-up volume numbers.
Get a recommended monthly influencer budget, split across gifting, paid posts and UGC, from your revenue and stage.
Estimate the real cost of a PR package: product, box, inserts, packing materials and shipping.
Calculate what the content from your gifting campaign would cost to buy from an agency or UGC creators instead.
Estimate fair UGC rates from experience level, deliverables and usage rights, for brands and creators, sources linked.
Estimate fair YouTube sponsorship rates from a channel's average views, format and usage rights, sources linked.
Estimate expected reach for a creator's post, Reel or Story from follower count, using published benchmarks.
Calculate follower growth rate over any period and flag suspicious spikes between two checkpoints.
Enter a follower count to see its influencer tier under three published definitions, with typical CPM ranges.
Create $0 influencer orders in Shopify, tag them, and calculate the real COGS and shipping cost of every gift.
Generate hundreds of unique influencer discount codes from a prefix and download a CSV, ready for a Shopify bulk-codes app or the API.
Per-creator code conversion plus an estimate of the halo sales promo codes miss, with every assumption editable.
Paste your landing page and a list of creators and get one tagged UTM link per creator in bulk, as a CSV.
Price usage rights for creator content in ads: duration, channels and exclusivity, with editable percentages. Free, no signup.
Add the creator fee to your media spend to get blended CPM and CPA for TikTok Spark Ads or Meta partnership ads.
Turn a creator's fee and post stats into CPM, cost per engagement and cost per view, and compare with your own benchmark.
Estimate EMV from views, likes, comments and shares using values you set, plus an honest look at why EMV isn't revenue.
Find the most you can pay to acquire a customer through influencers, from your margin, repeat orders and target LTV:CAC ratio.
Build a tiered ambassador commission ladder from your margin, a starting rate and sales thresholds. Copy it or download CSV.
Work out ROI, ROAS and break-even revenue for a paid or gifted influencer campaign from your costs, commission and margin.
Get a step-by-step gifting campaign plan with dates and creator counts, from your goal, product and budget.
Score how well a creator fits your brand on a transparent, weighted checklist before you reach out.
Pick a launch date or holiday and get backward-planned recruit, ship and posting-window dates for 2026 and 2027.
See whether import VAT and duty likely apply when gifting product abroad, for the EU, UK, Switzerland and Norway, with official sources.
The regulator, required label and gifted-product rule in 10 countries, each with an official source. Not legal advice.
What the IRS, HMRC, CRA, ATO and other tax authorities say about gifted product as creator income, with sources. Not tax advice.
Share one branded link. The creator picks a product and types their address, and a $0 draft order lands in your Shopify admin. Seed then follows up and tracks their posts.