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Affiliates

Affiliate Commission & Payouts

Every figure: how a sale is credited to you, what earns commission, the hold, the minimum, and how and when you are paid.

Last updated on October 25, 2026.

Each course sets what it pays, above 0% and at most 50% of what the buyer pays, funded by that course's instructor. A sale is yours when the buyer reached that course through your link or entered your code at checkout; where two affiliates sent the same buyer to the same course, it belongs to whoever sent the visit that led to the purchase, and it is fixed from that moment. A commission clears 14 days after the charge, and once cleared it is never taken back unless the sale was fraud. You are paid from $20, on a schedule you choose or whenever you ask, by Stripe or, outside the United States, PayPal.

This summary is for orientation only. The sections below are the operative terms.

1. What this covers

This policy states every figure the Affiliate Agreement refers to: what a link and a code are, how a sale is attributed, what earns commission and how much, when it clears, and how and when it is paid. The agreement is the contract; this policy is its numbers. ACADA L.L.C., a Tennessee limited liability company (ACADA, we), takes every payment from students and pays you your commission. All amounts are in US dollars.

2. Your link and codes

  • The link. Your link is acada.ac/join, the course, and your code: one link per course you promote. It works anywhere a link works.
  • The code on its own. The same code can be typed at checkout, which credits you without a link at all. That is what makes a recommendation on a podcast or a video work, and it does not depend on a cookie surviving.
  • Codes. You start with a code we generate. You can replace it with one of your own: 4 to 24 letters and numbers, no spaces or symbols, not already taken, and not a name that reads as ACADA's or as an official, staff or support account. You can hold up to 10 codes over the life of your account. One code covers every course; there is no code per course.
  • Retired codes. When you replace a code, the old one keeps crediting you on every link you already shared, and nobody else can ever claim it.
  • The click. Someone who opens your link is asked whether we may remember the referral, as the Cookie Policy sets out. If they agree, the referral is remembered: on that browser until they next use ACADA signed in, then with their account. A referral that has not led to a purchase lapses 90 days after the visit that made it. If they decline, nothing is stored and there is no referral.

3. How a sale is attributed

  • Per course, not per person. Attribution is recorded for one person on one course. The same buyer can be yours on one course and somebody else's on another, and both of you are paid. Nobody is anybody's member.
  • Any buyer, not only new ones. A person who has had an ACADA account for years can still be attributed to you on a course they have not bought.
  • Last touch before the purchase. Where more than one affiliate sent the same buyer to the same course, it belongs to whoever sent the visit that led to the purchase. Entering a code at checkout is the clearest such visit.
  • Fixed once bought. From the moment of the purchase the attribution cannot change. A later click by anyone leaves it alone, and every renewal of that enrolment pays the same affiliate at the same rate. A repurchase after the buyer's access ended stays with that affiliate too, unless they have left the programme or every commission on the first purchase was reversed; then the latest visit decides.
  • Free trials. For a free trial, the purchase is the charge at the end of the trial: the affiliate credited, the rate and any buyer discount are those in force on that day.
  • Only live programmes. A click on a course whose instructor has not switched a programme on records nothing, and neither does one on a course that is unpublished, retired or on copyright hold.
  • Not counted. Yourself, your other accounts, your own courses, courses you work on as an accepted collaborator, and anything while your affiliate account is blocked or after you have left the programme.
  • What the member sees. Nothing different, except a buyer discount where the instructor funds one; otherwise they pay the same prices as everyone else.

4. What earns commission

  • The rate. Set by the course's instructor, above 0% and at most 50% of what the buyer actually pays, after any discount and before tax. It is shown in your affiliate dashboard before you promote the course, and applies to each of these charges: a first purchase, each monthly renewal, the charge at the end of a free trial, an upgrade from monthly to lifetime (on the amount charged, after the credit for unused days), and a repurchase after access ended.
  • Where it comes from. The instructor's share. A sale splits 30% to us, the course's commission to you, and the remainder to the instructor, under Instructor Earnings & Payouts. Our share is the same whether a sale came through an affiliate or not; the instructor is the one who chose to fund the commission.
  • The rate is fixed at the sale. An instructor may change what their course pays, or close its programme, at any time. That never moves a commission already earned, and renewals of a sale you already made keep paying the rate that applied when it was made.
  • The buyer's discount. An instructor may also fund a discount of up to 15% for buyers credited to an affiliate, by a link or by the code. It applies to a first purchase, and on Monthly Access to the first payment only; it never applies to an upgrade. It is not combined with an ACADA discount code: the buyer gets whichever is larger. Your commission is a percentage of what the buyer actually paid.
  • What earns nothing. A free course, a free trial until it is charged, a payment that fails, a bundle, a course with no live programme, and any charge not attributed to you. An instructor earns nothing on their own courses, and a collaborator nothing on a course they work on; those charges pay no affiliate commission at all.
  • No caps. There is no limit on what one course can earn you, or on your total.
  • Example. A $29.99 monthly course offering 20% pays you $6.00 the day the buyer is charged, and $6.00 again each month they stay. A $100 lifetime course offering 20% with a 10% buyer discount: the buyer pays $90, you earn $18.00, we take $27.00, and the instructor keeps $45.00.

5. When a commission clears

  • The hold. A commission clears 14 days after the charge, the same period a student has to ask for a refund under the Purchases, Refunds & Subscriptions policy. Until then it shows in your dashboard as pending.
  • Inside the hold. If the charge is refunded or charged back before it clears, the commission is reversed, and we tell you. A partial refund inside the hold reduces the commission by the same part, and we tell you that too.
  • After the hold. A cleared commission is yours. A refund we make later, or a chargeback the bank opens later, does not take it back. The one exception is fraud: a commission on a sale made with stolen payment details, or on a referral that was not a real person, is withheld or reversed whether or not it had cleared.
  • Chargebacks we win. If a charge is charged back inside the hold and the bank later decides in our favour, the commission is restored and clears 14 days from then.
  • Corrections. If a commission was recorded in error, we correct it and tell you why. A commission already paid is never changed.

6. Withdrawing your commission

  • Minimum. $20 of cleared commission. You can set a higher minimum for yourself in your dashboard; you cannot set a lower one.
  • Amount. A payout is always your full cleared balance, and one payout is in progress at a time.
  • On request. Whenever your cleared balance meets your minimum, you can request a payout from your dashboard.
  • On a schedule. You can choose weekly, twice a month or monthly instead. On each payout day, if your cleared balance is at least your minimum and your payout method is ready, the payout is created for you: weekly on Mondays, twice a month on the 1st and the 15th, monthly on the 1st, all in UTC.
  • When it is sent. We send a payout within 1 day of it being created. Stripe or PayPal then pay you on their own timeline, usually 1 to 3 business days.
  • If it fails. We email you the first time, then try twice more, on the next two daily runs; a retry uses your payout method as it is then. If every attempt fails, the amount returns to your balance; fix the method and request again, or the next scheduled payout takes it.

7. Payout methods

  • In the United States. Stripe Connect, which collects the tax details your payouts need. PayPal is not available to US affiliates.
  • Outside the United States. Stripe Connect where Stripe can pay your country, chosen when you connect, or PayPal once you have confirmed in your dashboard that you are not a US person and do not live in the United States. A PayPal payout to someone who is in fact a US person is a misrepresentation under the Affiliate Agreement.
  • Stripe's terms. A Stripe Connect account is your account with Stripe, under Stripe's Connected Account Agreement, and Stripe decides what it needs from you to open and keep it. If Stripe pauses your account, we tell you, scheduled payouts pause until it is resolved, and your balance keeps accruing.
  • Currency and fees. We pay in US dollars and cover what it costs us to send the payout. Any fee your bank or PayPal charges to receive it, and any currency conversion, is yours.

8. Taxes

What we pay you is yours to declare, and every tax on it, wherever you are, is yours to pay. We do not withhold tax from a payout unless the law obliges us to. Where US law requires us to report what we paid you, we do it through Stripe, and your copy is available in your Stripe account. Nothing in this policy is tax advice.

9. Records

Your dashboard shows every course you are credited on and what each has earned you; every commission, with the course it came from, the charge it was for, the rate the sale was made at, its amount and whether it is pending, cleared, paid or reversed; and every payout with its reference. It shows you nothing that identifies a buyer. Those records stay available for as long as your account does. If a figure looks wrong, write to support@acada.ac and we answer within 5 business days.

10. Leaving, and being closed

What happens to your balance when you leave the programme, or when we block or close your affiliate account, is set out in sections 10 and 11 of the Affiliate Agreement: on leaving, what has cleared is paid out on the next daily run with no minimum, and what is still in its hold as it clears, once a payout method is set up; while an account is blocked, payouts wait until the block is lifted or the account is closed; on closure for a breach, cleared commissions are still paid, and those still in their hold as they clear; on closure for fraud, commissions from fraudulent referrals are withheld, and nothing is paid out automatically while the closure stands.

11. Timelines

  • A click stays live. 90 days, if the visitor agreed.
  • Attribution is fixed. At the purchase, for that enrolment and every renewal of it.
  • A commission clears. 14 days after the charge.
  • Scheduled payouts. Mondays; the 1st and 15th; or the 1st, in UTC.
  • A payout is sent. Within 1 day of being created.
  • It reaches you. Usually 1 to 3 business days after that.
  • A failed payout. An email on the first failure; up to three attempts over about two days.
  • A question about a figure. Answered within 5 business days.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we change the date shown at the top. If a change adds a rule or a consequence, we post a notice in the app at least 14 days before it takes effect. A change to what you are paid is also emailed to every affiliate, as the Affiliate Agreement provides.

13. Related policies