The Shopify Affiliate Program pays you when a new store signs up through your link and pays full price for Basic, Grow or Advanced. Shopify pays $150 for a store in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe or Australia, and $25 for one in India, Latin America, Africa or Southeast Asia. Joining is free, and Shopify reviews each application.
Say a friend in the US asks how you built your store and signs up through your link on January 1. She pays $1 a month until April, then starts paying full price for Basic on April 5. Shopify sends $150 to your balance on May 22. Those five months show the rules that decide when you get paid.
What is the Shopify Affiliate Program?
It is Shopify's referral program: you share a link, and Shopify pays you when a new store that came through it pays full price for Basic, Grow or Advanced. Impact, a separate affiliate platform, tracks your link, shows your reports and sends your money.
Shopify names five kinds of affiliate: creators, course makers, publishers of reviews and guides, people who build stores for clients, and app makers. You can join while you run your own Shopify store, though that store earns you nothing.
Want affiliates who sell your own products instead? That is Shopify Collabs, a different program.
How much does the Shopify Affiliate Program pay?
Shopify pays $150 or $25 in US dollars for each store, and the store's location sets the amount. Where you live doesn't change it.
Shopify's Help Center, read November 10, 2026, splits the world into two groups.
| Where the store is | Payout per store |
|---|---|
| The US and Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the rest of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Hong Kong and the Middle East | $150 |
| India, Africa, Latin America, the rest of Asia and every other country | $25 |
Only Basic, Grow and Advanced count. A store on Plus, Enterprise or Retail earns you nothing here. The store must also pay full price for at least one month after its trial. Shopify sets no cap on what you can earn.
Say you send four stores from the US and four from India in one month. That is 4 × $150 plus 4 × $25, or $700, once all eight pay full price.
When does Shopify pay the commission?
Only after the store pays full price, and then on the 22nd of the next month. Your link tracks a visitor for 30 days after the click. If they start a free trial in that time, Shopify follows the store for up to 400 days until it pays.
On the 21st of each month, Shopify locks the commissions from the month before. It pays them into your Impact balance a day later. So the friend who started paying full price on April 5 earned you $150 on May 22.
Your balance has to reach $10 before Impact pays it out, to a bank account or to PayPal where it's offered. You choose when: at a threshold you set, or every two weeks.
No money yet? Shopify's own guide to Impact lists the possible reasons.
- The store hasn't paid full price. A store still paying $1 a month on its paid trial doesn't count yet.
- The commission hasn't locked yet.
- Your balance is under the $10 minimum.
- Your payment details or tax forms aren't set up.
Questions about the program go to Shopify's affiliate team at affiliates@shopify.com. Shopify's Partner Support can't answer questions about Impact, so those go to Impact's Help Center.
How do you become a Shopify affiliate?
Apply on Shopify's affiliate page, fill in Impact's form and wait for Shopify's email. The button reads Become an affiliate, and the form opens on Impact, not in your Shopify admin.
Shopify's Help Center lists what it looks for in an applicant.
- An active website that you own and run.
- An established audience.
- Original content, such as online courses, blog posts, videos or guides.
- Experience with commerce, entrepreneurship, Shopify or another ecommerce platform.
The Help Center also asks you to read the program terms first. Shopify's affiliate page adds that not every application gets in, because Shopify picks for quality and relevance.
The form asks how you would describe your business and where you promote to your audience: a website, social media, an app, a podcast, a newsletter or offline.
Shopify's pages disagree on how long the review takes: 24 hours on its affiliate page, up to 72 hours in its terms and 5 business days in its Help Center. A declined application gets no reason. The affiliate page lists the common causes: no active website, no established audience, or content that doesn't fit Shopify's brand.
Once you're approved, sign in to Impact with the login you applied with. Make your referral link in Impact and pick the version for your country. Then add your tax details and a bank account or PayPal, so the first payout has somewhere to go.
What can cancel a Shopify affiliate commission?
A refund, fraud, your own store and a few banned ways to promote. Shopify's April 2026 program terms list them.
- Your own store. No commission on a store you or your employer own, even in part.
- Refunds and chargebacks. Shopify can reverse the commission on a refunded or fraudulent store, and pays nothing on a charged-back payment.
- Coupon and deal sites. You can't promote Shopify there or show an offer code on a public page.
- Search ads. Your link can't go straight into a pay-per-click ad, and you can't bid on Shopify's name.
- Links Impact didn't make. Only links from Impact count, and only unchanged.
Tell your audience you're paid for referrals wherever you share the link. Shopify's terms require a clear disclosure, citing the US Federal Trade Commission's guidelines. Break a rule and Shopify can cancel, reduce or reverse your commissions.
Affiliate Program, Partner Program or Collabs: which one fits you?
The Affiliate Program pays you for new stores your link brings in, the Partner Program pays for client stores you build and Plus stores you refer, and Collabs is how you pay creators who promote your own products.
Build a client's store as a Shopify Partner and hand it over, and Shopify pays 20% of the plan fee plus 0.1% of eligible online sales for four years. A qualifying Shopify Plus referral through the Partner Program pays $2,500 once.
Sledge also runs a partner program for people who refer Shopify stores to the app.
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Does Shopify have an affiliate program?
Yes. The Shopify Affiliate Program is free to join and runs on Impact, a separate platform that tracks your link and pays you. Shopify pays $150 for each new store in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia and some other countries, or $25 for one elsewhere, once it pays full price for Basic, Grow or Advanced.
How much does a Shopify affiliate earn per referral?
$150 or $25 per store, set by where the store is. $150 covers the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Hong Kong and the Middle East. $25 covers India, Africa, Latin America, the rest of Asia and every other country. Shopify sets no cap, and Plus, Enterprise and Retail stores earn nothing.
Can I be a Shopify affiliate if I run a Shopify store?
Yes. Shopify's affiliate page says you can, and that some of its best affiliates run Shopify stores. You can't earn on a store you own, even in part, or on your employer's store. The commission comes only from new stores that sign up through your link and pay full price.
Do Shopify Plus referrals pay affiliates?
Not through the Affiliate Program, which pays nothing for Plus, Enterprise or Retail stores. Shopify's Partner Program pays $2,500 once for a qualifying Plus or Enterprise referral. You submit Shopify's Plus lead form as a Partner, and the store must be new to Shopify's sales team, pass $5,000 in sales and pay its first Plus bill.
Why was my Shopify affiliate application declined?
Shopify won't tell you. Its Help Center says it gives no feedback on declined applications. Its affiliate page names the common reasons: no active website, no established audience, or content that doesn't fit the brand. The requirements are a website you own and run, an audience, original content and experience with ecommerce.
How long does a Shopify affiliate link track a referral?
30 days from the click. If the visitor starts a free trial in that window, Shopify keeps tracking the store for up to 400 days while it moves to a paid plan. You earn only when the store pays full price, and the money reaches your Impact balance on the 22nd of the following month.
Running a Shopify store of your own?
Sledge doesn't track or pay affiliates for your store. It works inside the store itself: search, filters, bundles and a cart drawer. Try it free for 14 days. Growth Intelligence turns on when you pick a paid plan, and its suggested fixes add up to one dollar figure, labeled Est. potential.
