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Referral Rock

Referral fee calculator

Work out what one referral fee should be. Flat, percentage, or a mix for each side, then check what the whole program returns after reward costs. Results update as you type.

How to use the calculator

1

Set the rewards

Choose a flat amount or a percentage for each side, the person who refers and their friend. Mixing the two works fine.

2

Enter your numbers

What the friend spends, or the monthly price for subscriptions, and what a customer is worth to you in total. Blank fields count as zero.

3

Read the results

The cost per referral and what you keep update as you type, with the whole program's return in the calculator below.

How much should a referral fee be?

Start from what a new customer is worth. Take the revenue one customer brings in over their lifetime, subtract what it costs to win one today, and the fee has to fit inside what's left. A useful check is what you already pay in ads or sales time to win the same customer.

Most programs pay a flat amount. In our data from 500+ referral programs, 92% use a fixed reward and 8% pay a percentage of the sale.

The percentage programs average 23% of the sale, which is closer to how affiliate commissions work.

A flat fee is easier to promote and budget, and works well when deal sizes are predictable.

A percentage scales with deal size, which suits businesses where deals vary a lot. Many programs start flat and move to a percentage once the numbers prove out.

Decide who gets paid, too. Rewarding only the person who refers is the most common setup, but a reward for the new customer gives them a reason to act on the introduction.

Gift cards are the most common reward on both sides. Run both versions through the calculator and compare what you'd pay and what margin is left before committing to either.

What should one referral fee be?

Pick a flat amount or a percentage for each side.

Who gets rewarded

%
%

Usually money off their purchase or a gift card.

What they buy

$
$

Also called customer lifetime value (CLV). Your own estimate in this mode.

Reward to the referrer$5
Discount for their friend$5

Each referral costs you

$10

You keep $490 per customer

Paying affiliates a commission instead? Use the affiliate commission calculator.

What's the whole program worth?

You're paying a fixed reward for each new customer.

$
$
The program brings in$3,000
You'll pay out$600

The program returns

$2,400

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Frequently asked questions

A payment to someone who sends you a new customer. A referral fee can be a flat amount per referral or a percentage of the sale, paid to customers, partners, or anyone else who makes an introduction.

Set a flat amount or a percentage for each side, including a mix of the two. Percentages apply to what the friend spends, once or per month for subscriptions. There's also a mode that suggests a fee from customer lifetime value, which is revenue per customer minus acquisition cost.

Most referral programs pay a flat amount per new customer, usually as a gift card. Programs that pay a percentage average about 23% of the sale. The right number depends on what a customer is worth to you, which the calculator works out.

A referral fee usually rewards someone with an existing relationship to the customer they send, like a happy client. A finder's fee rewards a third party for making an introduction, often in one-off or higher-value deals. There's a separate finder's fee calculator on this site for that model.

Referral programs often reward two people, the member who shared and the new customer who joined, so the calculator adds both costs. Affiliates earn a single commission, which the affiliate commission calculator handles.

Yes. The calculator runs right on this page, no signup or download. Use it as often as you like.

Put the fee into a real program

Referral Rock tracks referrals and issues rewards at the fee you set, from gift cards to custom payouts. Book a demo to see it with real numbers.

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