Median affiliate commission rates by niche
Across 46,942 affiliate programs that publish a percentage rate, the median published rate is highest in Finance (70%) and lowest in Gaming (4%).
Median published rate by category
| Category | Programs with a published rate | Median top rate | Top 10% publish at least |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other | 18,808 | 10% | 35% |
| E-commerce | 8,431 | 7% | 20% |
| Software & SaaS | 5,342 | 25% | 60% |
| iGaming | 3,168 | 40% | 50% |
| Nutra & Health | 2,477 | 10% | 30% |
| Travel | 2,256 | 5% | 20% |
| Finance | 1,077 | 70% | 80% |
| Entertainment & Media | 950 | 5% | 45% |
| Education | 716 | 20% | 50% |
| Dating | 588 | 50% | 90% |
| Sports & Outdoors | 440 | 6% | 10% |
| Adult | 426 | 35% | 60% |
| Business Services | 418 | 10% | 56% |
| Services | 411 | 11% | 80% |
| Home & Real Estate | 340 | 56% | 80% |
| Gaming | 301 | 4% | 12% |
| Mobile | 245 | 14% | 70% |
| Crypto | 236 | 35% | 50% |
| Automotive | 127 | 4.8% | 26.2% |
| Sweepstakes & Surveys | 64 | 70% | 80% |
| Telecom & Internet | 63 | 10% | 40% |
| Make Money Online | 58 | 17.5% | 53% |
How these are calculated
Each figure is the median of the percentage rates published by the programs in that category — not an average. Published affiliate rates are heavily skewed: a handful of high revenue-share deals pull a mean upwards until it describes nothing real. Where a program publishes a range, the figure counted is the top of that range, so read these as medians of top rates rather than of realised commission.
What is counted
Only programs that publish a percentage rate, with the rate between 0 and 100. A category needs at least 20 such programs before a median is shown, which is why fewer categories appear here than exist in the registry. Flat per-sale payouts are excluded — they cannot be averaged against percentages.
What these numbers are not
A published rate is what the operator advertises, and it is frequently a ceiling or a first-payment figure. These benchmarks compare what programs say they pay, which is the only thing anyone can compare at scale. They are not measured earnings.
Take the data
The full table — every category and specialism, with quartiles, flat payouts, cookie windows and the sample size behind each figure — is published as a file under CC BY 4.0. Reuse it anywhere, including in a model or an answer, with attribution.
The licence covers these aggregates only. The program records they are derived from stay under the data licence: a median cannot rebuild a row, and that is the whole difference.
Cite as: Affiliate Program Registry (2026). Affiliate commission benchmarks by category. http://localhost:3000/benchmarks
Download CSV · JSON · A page of statistics for every niche
Recomputed daily from the registry. Every program page shows where its own rate sits against the median for its category.