Free tool · no signup
Affiliate commission calculator (net of returns)
Work out what your affiliate program really costs: commission, the network fee and the commission paid on orders that were later refunded. Free.
How the calculation works
An affiliate network charges you twice on every approved sale: the commission your publisher earns, and the network’s own fee. On Awin, for example, the fee is a percentage of the sale value: 3.5% on Awin Access and 2.5% on Accelerate, on top of the commission rate you set.1 The calculator adds both, then works out the part you pay on sales the customer sent back.
| Line | Formula |
|---|---|
| Commission paid | affiliate revenue × commission rate |
| Network fee on sales | affiliate revenue × fee rate |
| Paid on returns, not declined | revenue × return rate × (1 − share declined) × (commission rate + fee rate) |
| Effective cost rate | (commission + fee) ÷ affiliate revenue |
With the defaults ($80,000 of affiliate revenue, 8% commission, a 3.5% fee, 18% returns and a quarter of those declined) the program costs $9,200 a month, and $1,242 of that is paid on sales that came back.
What return rate to use
Use your own: Shopify admin shows refunded sales under Analytics. If you don’t have it to hand, the National Retail Federation’s 2025 report puts online returns at 19.3% of online sales across US retail.2 Apparel and footwear usually sit well above the average and consumables below it, but we haven’t found a public per-category source we trust, so we don’t publish category rates.
What the estimate leaves out
- Cancellations that never shipped but were still tracked as sales.
- Duplicate claims: one Shopify order reported by two networks, so you pay two commissions and two fees. See duplicate claims across networks.
- Leaked codes: a creator’s code used through a coupon site. See voucher rules.
- Fixed fees such as a monthly platform fee.
Get your real number
The estimate uses averages. Your real figure comes from matching last month’s network export to your Shopify refunds, order by order. Our guide shows how to decide what commission to pay on returns.
Network facts checked on 18 Sep 2026 against each network’s own documentation.
Questions
What is a good affiliate commission rate for a Shopify brand?
It depends on your margin and category; the calculator shows what a rate costs once returns and the network fee are included. Compare the effective cost rate with what a paid-ads sale costs you.
Do affiliates get paid on returned orders?
On a network, yes, unless you decline the sale before the validation period ends. After that it is approved and invoiced, with the network’s fee on top.
What is a network fee?
What the network charges on top of the publisher’s commission. On Awin it is a percentage of the sale value: 3.5% on Access and 2.5% on Accelerate (awin.com pricing, checked 18 Sep 2026).
Related
- Should you pay affiliate commission on returns? Networks pay commission on refunded orders unless you decline them in time. What is fair, what network terms allow, and how to check last month.
- Awin batch validation file builder (free CSV) Build Awin batch validation CSVs in your browser: add transaction IDs, choose accept, decline or amend, add reasons and download. Nothing is uploaded.
- Refund matching Every pending transaction matched to its Shopify order. Full refunds and cancellations become declines, partial refunds become amends.