Amazon Affiliate Program 2026: UK and US Commission Rates, Rules and the Niche Commission Gap
Quick answer: The Amazon affiliate program (Amazon Associates) is free to join and pays a fixed percentage of each sale you refer. In the UK the rates run from 0% to 6%, and most categories not listed pay 3%. In the US they run from 0% to 10%, and the default is 4%. A referral counts for 24 hours after the click, or up to 89 days if the shopper put the item in their basket inside those 24 hours. New accounts need three qualifying sales within 180 days or the application can be withdrawn. For a blogger, your niche sets the rate. Across our four starter niches the UK rate runs from 1% for gaming to 5% for food and finance, a five-fold gap we call the niche commission gap.
Every rate and rule below was read from Amazon’s own Associates Central pages on 4 November 2026. Amazon’s rate tables carry no “last updated” date, so check the linked pages before you rely on a figure.
What the Amazon affiliate program is
Amazon Associates is Amazon’s own affiliate scheme. You add special tracking links to products on your blog. When a reader clicks one and buys within the referral window, Amazon pays you a share of what they spent. Joining costs nothing.
The US programme (Amazon.com) and the UK programme (Amazon.co.uk) are separate accounts with separate rate tables, payment rules and help pages. A link built in one only earns on that marketplace. If your readers are mostly British, the UK table is the one that matters. It pays less than the US on luxury beauty, Amazon devices and the default rate, and more on clothing, home, books, beauty, sports and automotive.
Amazon affiliate commission rates, UK and US
These are the standard rates as published on 4 November 2026. Amazon groups categories differently on each site, so the rows pair the closest equivalents.
| Category | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com |
|---|---|---|
| Luxury beauty | 6% (Luxury stores beauty) | 10% |
| Clothing, shoes, handbags, watches | 6% | 4% |
| Books | 5% (Kindle books too) | 4.5% (physical books) |
| Kitchen | 5% (Kitchen & Dining) | 4.5% |
| Home, furniture, home improvement | 5% | 3% |
| Automotive | 5% | 4.5% |
| Music and handmade | 5% | 5% |
| Beauty (standard) | 4% | 3% |
| Sports and fitness | 4% | 3% |
| Amazon devices | 2.5% for Fire TV devices; Kindle and Echo devices are not listed separately | 4% |
| Computers and phones | 2.5% (mobile electronics) | 2.5% (PC and components) |
| Video games and consoles | 1% | 1% (physical); 2% (digital) |
| Grocery | 1% | 1% |
| Gift cards | 0% | 0% |
| Everything not listed | 3% | 4% |
Two quirks are easy to miss. In the UK, wine and Kindle Unlimited pay 0%, as do Coach products on both sites. In the US, alcohol and health and personal care sit at 0% and 1% respectively, and a single fine art product can never earn more than $200 in commission however much it sells for.
Fixed-fee bounties
Amazon also pays flat bounties when a reader signs up for one of its services. In the UK a Prime free trial pays £3.00, an Audible free trial £5.00 and a full-price Audible membership £8.00. In the US the Prime trial is worth $12.00, an Audible Standard trial $20.00 and an Amazon Business registration $15.00. For a book or podcast blog, one US Audible Standard trial at $20 earns as much as $444 of physical book sales at 4.5%.
The niche commission gap: what your topic does to the rate
The headline range hides the number that matters. What decides whether Amazon is worth your time is the rate in your own niche, because a blog sends readers to a narrow set of categories. We mapped the four niches from our start-a-niche-blog series to the categories their readers would buy from.
| Niche | Main Amazon category | UK rate | Earned on £1,000 of sales | US rate | Earned on $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Kitchen | 5% | £50 | 4.5% | $45 |
| Personal finance | Books | 5% | £50 | 4.5% | $45 |
| Fitness | Sports and fitness | 4% | £40 | 3% | $30 |
| Gaming | Video games and consoles | 1% | £10 | 1% | $10 |
The same £1,000 of referred sales pays a food blogger £50 and a gaming blogger £10. That is the niche commission gap, and in all four niches it is wider than the gap between the UK and US rates. If you run a gaming blog, Amazon’s 1% on games and consoles is a weak base. Our guide to how to monetize a gaming blog checks 24 other programmes.
Real blogs rarely sell into one category only. A gaming blogger who recommends headsets and chairs moves part of their sales into 3% or 5% categories, and a food blogger who links ingredients drops part of theirs to the 1% grocery rate. Look at which categories your recommendations actually fall into before you judge the programme.
How long the referral window lasts
The window is short, and it has two parts.
- 24 hours from the click. Anything the reader orders in that time counts, even products you never linked. The window closes early if they place an order or click another Associate’s link.
- Up to 89 days for items added to the basket. If the reader adds something to their basket during those 24 hours, it still earns when they buy it later. The order has to be completed no later than 89 days after the first click. Amazon’s help pages describe this as the basket expiring “usually after 90 days”. The contract says 89.
Since 14 April 2026 there is one more condition: the product has to be shipped and paid for within 180 days of the purchase to count.
Getting accepted: the three-sales rule
Amazon approves your account provisionally and then reviews it once you have made sales. Both the UK and US help pages say it needs at least three qualifying sales within the first 180 days. Your own orders do not count. If you miss the target, the US help pages say the application can be withdrawn.
When it reviews your site, Amazon looks for original content that still has value with the ads removed, publicly reachable without a login or paywall. Its help pages suggest at least 10 posts as a rule of thumb, content published within roughly the last 60 days, and a site you own. A rejected application cannot be reassessed, so apply when the blog is ready, not on launch day.
Sites are refused outright if they are aimed at children, carry sexually explicit, violent or hateful material, or use an Amazon trademark in the domain. Social profiles generally need around 500 organic followers.
When and how Amazon pays
Earnings are paid roughly 60 days after the end of the month they were earned in, and only once your tax information is on file.
| Payment method | Amazon.co.uk minimum | Amazon.com minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Direct deposit | £25 | $10 |
| Amazon gift card | £25 (up to £5,000) | $10 (up to $2,000) |
| Cheque | £50 | $100, with a $15 processing fee |
One UK help page gives a £10 gift card threshold as an example. The UK payment policy and the threshold page both say £25, and we have used that figure.
The rules bloggers trip over
The Operating Agreement and Program Policies are long. These are the parts that most often matter on a blog.
- Disclosure. You must state, clearly and prominently, “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” That exact sentence is in section 5 of the Operating Agreement. A footer link alone is a risk; put it near the links.
- Prices. You may only show prices Amazon serves through its own links or through its product APIs. A price typed into a table by hand breaks the rule, and API data refreshed less than hourly needs a date and time stamp.
- Star ratings and reviews. Amazon customer reviews and star ratings are off limits unless they come through the API.
- Ebooks, PDFs and print. Promotion “in any offline manner” is banned, and the Program Policies list ebooks and printed material. Leave Amazon links out of downloadable lead magnets.
- Email. Links in emails and direct messages are allowed only when the recipient opted in, so a newsletter is fine and a cold email is not.
- Cloaked links. You may not hide or disguise that a link goes to Amazon. Shorteners are allowed only when it stays clear the destination is Amazon.
- Paid ads. On Amazon.com, since April 2026, a purchase referred through a paid or boosted ad that links to Amazon earns nothing, whatever keywords the ad used, with limited exceptions. The UK policies bar paid ads that use Amazon’s trademarks.
- AI training. The Program Policies bar using your Special Links or Amazon’s product content to train machine learning models or LLMs without permission.
Have the rates been cut?
Amazon’s public rate tables show no change notice, and Amazon’s “What’s Changed” page for the April 2026 update to the Operating Agreement and Program Policies lists rule changes, not new rates. Separately, Adweek reported on 18 May 2026 that some publishers saw their commission cut by up to 50% and their bonuses ended, and that these changes were not publicly announced. We could not read the full article, so we cannot say which publishers or rates it covers. It reads as negotiated publisher deals, not the public table a new blogger joins on, but treat that as our reading, not a confirmed fact.
The practical point stands either way: Amazon can change rates with notice under the agreement. A blog that depends on one programme carries that risk. Our guide to affiliate marketing for bloggers covers how to spread it.
Is the Amazon affiliate program worth it for a blog?
It is worth joining if three things hold. Your readers buy physical products in a category that pays 4% or more. You can realistically make three sales in your first 180 days. And you are happy to follow the price and disclosure rules on every page. It suits food, home, books and fashion blogs well.
It is a weak fit for gaming and grocery-led sites at 1%, and for any blog whose best recommendations are software or services, where dedicated programmes pay far more per sale. Our checked list of web hosting affiliate payouts shows the gap: a single hosting referral can pay more than a thousand pounds of Amazon sales at 3%.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers, using the UK and US figures above.
How much does the Amazon affiliate program pay?
Amazon.co.uk pays 0% to 6% of each referred sale depending on category, with 3% for unlisted categories. Amazon.com pays 0% to 10%, with 4% for unlisted categories. Flat bounties for Prime, Audible and other sign-ups are paid on top.
How long does the Amazon affiliate cookie last?
24 hours from the click. Items added to the basket during those 24 hours still earn if the order is completed within 89 days of the first click.
How do I get approved for Amazon Associates?
Sign up for free, add links to a site with original, recent, publicly reachable content, and make at least three qualifying sales within 180 days. Personal orders do not count.
What disclosure does Amazon require?
The statement “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases”, shown clearly and prominently on the site.
What is the minimum payout?
£25 by direct deposit on Amazon.co.uk and $10 on Amazon.com. Payment arrives about 60 days after the end of the month the commission was earned.
Sources
- Amazon.co.uk Associates, commission rates (no date shown; read 4 November 2026)
- Amazon.com Associates, Standard Commission Income Statement (no date shown; read 4 November 2026)
- Amazon.co.uk Associates, Special Commission Income (bounties) (read 4 November 2026)
- Amazon.com Associates Program Operating Agreement (updated 15 October 2025)
- Amazon.co.uk Associates Program Operating Agreement (updated 15 October 2025)
- Amazon.com Associates Program Policies (updated 14 April 2026)
- Amazon.co.uk Associates Program Policies (updated 14 April 2026)
- Amazon.co.uk Associates help, referral window
- Amazon.co.uk Associates help, application review process
- Amazon.com Associates help, account dormancy and withdrawal
- Amazon.com Associates, What’s Changed (April 2026 update)
- Adweek, Mark Stenberg, 18 May 2026 (paywalled; headline and summary only)
- Affiliate marketing for bloggers: how to start and scale
- How does affiliate marketing work?
- How to monetize a gaming blog
- How to monetize a blog
Written by
Blogging Titan Team
Blogging Titan is an independent team of bloggers documenting what actually grows a blog in the AI search era. We have been building, ranking, and monetizing WordPress sites since 2017, and every guide on this site is based on strategies and tools we have tested ourselves. Want a second pair of eyes on your blog? Request a free blog audit or start with the 2026 playbook.