Correction, September 21, 2026:
This post previously listed Amazon Haul at 7% and Amazon Games at 20%, citing what we believed was Amazon’s own rate table. Neither figure is on Amazon’s actual page. We checked Amazon’s Associates Program Standard Commission Income Statement directly (no login required) and it has no percentage row for Haul or Games at all. The table below is corrected to match that page exactly, and the Haul and Games sections further down explain what changed and why.
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Quick answer: Amazon’s own published commission table runs from 0% (gift cards, alcohol) up to 10% (Luxury Beauty, Amazon Explore), with most categories sitting in the 2 to 5% range. There is no separate “Amazon Games” line and no “Amazon Haul” percentage line on Amazon’s own page. Amazon pays a flat $4.00 one-time bounty when your referral makes their first purchase from Amazon Haul, on top of whatever rate the specific item’s own category pays. Since April 14, 2026, onsite commission only pays on the exact ASIN or variant you linked, not on whatever else someone happens to buy in the same session. Creator Connections campaigns can stack a 10 to 50% bonus on top of these base rates, but only while the campaign is active.
The full table by category
These are the current standard Amazon Associates and Influencer commission rates, cross-checked against Associates Central policy language as of this post’s publish date. Amazon adjusts individual category rates periodically (roughly every spring and fall in recent years), so treat this as current-as-of-today, not permanent.
| Category | Rate |
|---|---|
| Luxury Beauty, Luxury Stores Beauty, Amazon Explore | 10% |
| Digital Music, Physical Music, Handmade, Digital Video | 5% |
| Physical Books, Kitchen, Automotive | 4.5% |
| Fire Tablet, Kindle, Fashion/Apparel, Fire TV, Echo, Ring, Watches, Jewelry, Luggage, Shoes, Handbags | 4% |
| All Other categories (default) | 4% |
| Toys, Furniture, Home, Pets, Beauty, Sports, Outdoors, Tools, Baby | 3% |
| PC, PC Components, DVD & Blu-Ray | 2.5% |
| Televisions, Digital Video Games | 2% |
| Amazon Fresh, Physical Video Games & Consoles, Grocery, Health & Personal Care | 1% |
| Gift Cards, Wireless Service Plans, Alcoholic Beverages, Coach | 0% |
Source: Amazon’s own Associates Program Standard Commission Income Statement, fetched directly September 21, 2026, no login required. This replaces a table this post ran for over a month that added two rows, “Amazon Games” at 20% and “Amazon Haul” at 7%, neither of which appears on Amazon’s actual page; that version traced to a third-party site, not Amazon.
What Amazon Haul actually pays
Amazon Haul is not its own commission-rate category. Amazon’s own page mentions Haul exactly once, as a flat $4.00 one-time bounty for a customer’s first purchase from the Haul store, listed under Special Commission Income, not the percentage table. Individual items sold through Haul are commissioned at whatever rate their own product category pays from the table above, commonly 1% to 4.5% since Haul skews toward cheap household and lifestyle goods. So a $4.00 bounty on someone’s first Haul order, plus your normal category rate on what they actually bought, is the honest answer, not a flat 7%.
What happened to “Amazon Games at 20%”
There is no distinct “Amazon Games” line on Amazon’s own rate table, and never was on the page we checked. Video game purchases fall under the ordinary categories above: digital video games at 2%, physical video games and consoles at 1%. A 20% rate for games is not something Amazon’s own page states.
A rejected-and-corrected fact worth stating plainly, since it still circulates: Luxury Beauty is 10%, not 9%. A single-source claim of a cut to 9% got repeated around the community for a while and even showed up in some AI search summaries, but every current source this site checked, plus Associates Central’s own policy language, confirms 10% still stands.
What changed April 14, 2026, and why it matters more than the table
The rate table above hasn’t moved much lately. What actually changed your real earnings is scope, not percentage. Before April 14, onsite commissions could apply to “halo” purchases, meaning if someone clicked your video for a phone case and then bought a laptop in the same session, you could earn on both. That’s gone for onsite content now. Commission only pays on direct qualifying purchases of the exact ASIN or variant you linked, within a 180-day window from click to shipment or payment.
This is the change that actually moves your monthly number, more than any single category’s rate does. A video that used to earn a little extra from whatever else someone browsed into now earns only on what you specifically pointed at. If your storefront strategy assumed halo purchases were carrying part of your income, this is worth re-checking against your own Associates Central earnings report, not assuming the old math still applies.
The unconfirmed May 2026 rate-cut reports
Multiple outlets, including Adweek, eMarketer, and Hello Partner, reported in May 2026 that Amazon quietly cut commission rates for some publishers, in some cases by as much as half, alongside cuts to milestone bonuses and reduced reporting-tool access. Amazon has not made an official public announcement about this. A spokesperson told Hello Partner the changes affected “a tiny fraction of associates,” without naming which categories or accounts.
Here’s the honest state of this claim: the public commission rate table above appears unchanged by it. If a cut happened, it’s either account-specific, category-specific in a way nobody’s published, or both. The only way to know if it touched you is to check your own numbers directly: Associates Central → Earnings → Commission Summary, compared against what a given category should be paying per the table above. Don’t assume you were hit, and don’t assume you weren’t. Check.
Creator Connections bonus stacking
Separate from the base rate table, Creator Connections campaigns let brands add a 10 to 50% bonus on top of your standard commission for a specific product, while the campaign is running. This is a range, not a flat number, it varies campaign to campaign, so don’t plan around any single percentage without checking the specific offer.
To find active campaigns: Associates Central → Promotions tab → Connect with Brands. Accept a campaign, and its detail page has a “Get affiliate link” button that generates your unique bonus-eligible link. One thing worth knowing before you accept: campaigns obligate you to publish at least one piece of live content linking that product before the campaign’s end date, or the bonus is forfeited even if you never made a sale. Amazon sends a reminder email roughly 24 hours out, but a weekly check-in habit is safer than relying on that alone.
Full walkthrough of how these campaigns work end to end is in our Creator Connections breakdown, including the compliance details around disclosure and the campaign-forfeit risk above.
Which categories are actually worth building a library around
Rate alone doesn’t tell the whole story, since a 20% rate on a $10 item and a 3% rate on a $200 item can land in similar territory. But at these current numbers, a few things stand out:
- Luxury Beauty (10%) is the highest standard rate on Amazon’s own table, and it combines a strong rate with typically higher average order values, a meaningfully different math problem than a high rate on a cheap product.
- Games and consoles pay far less than the old 20% myth suggested, 1 to 2% under the actual table, so a games-focused library should be built for volume and audience, not for a rate advantage that doesn’t exist.
- Grocery, Health & Personal Care, and gift cards sit at 1% or 0%. These categories can still be worth reviewing for audience-building or storefront traffic, just don’t expect them to carry your commission income.
The categories in the 3 to 4.5% middle band, kitchen, home, toys, fashion, automotive, are where most everyday product review content actually lives. At those rates, volume is what makes the math work, not any single video’s rate advantage. It also means picking a category purely for its headline percentage is a mistake if there’s nothing in it you’d actually use and honestly review, since a thin content library at a great rate still earns less than a real one at an average rate.
And volume is exactly where most creators get stuck. Filming isn’t usually the bottleneck. Editing is. Every additional video live and earning compounds against these rates, but only if it actually gets published instead of sitting half-edited. ReviewCut is built for that specific bottleneck: it removes dead air and weak takes automatically, burns in your FTC disclosure, and gets a video from raw footage to a finished upload in minutes rather than an editing session you keep pushing off. At 3 to 4.5% on most categories, the creators earning real money are the ones with a library, not the ones with one perfect video.
If you want the wider picture on editing tools beyond just ReviewCut, we tested every one we could find and ranked them honestly, rates and all.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
How to check your own real rate
The table above is the standard published rate, but your actual per-category rate can be confirmed directly: Associates Central → Earnings → Commission Summary shows what you were actually paid, broken out by category, for any period you select. That’s the number to trust over any table, including this one, if the two ever disagree.
For the wider picture on earnings and tools across the whole program, the homepage rounds up the current best resources.
Bottom line
The rate table itself hasn’t moved dramatically. Luxury Beauty still sits at 10%, the top of the actual table, and most categories are in the low single digits. Neither “Amazon Games at 20%” nor “Amazon Haul at 7%” is on Amazon’s own page, corrected above. What’s actually reshaping creator income right now is the April 14 ASIN-only scope change, which quietly removed halo-purchase earnings from onsite content, and the still-unconfirmed May 2026 reports of account-specific rate cuts that Amazon hasn’t detailed publicly. Check your own Commission Summary before trusting any published table, this one included, and remember that a 10 to 50% Creator Connections bonus is a range that depends entirely on which campaign you’re in, never a flat guaranteed number.
Frequently asked questions
What is the highest Amazon commission rate in 2026?
Luxury Beauty and Amazon Explore, at 10 percent, per Amazon’s own published rate table. There is no separate “Amazon Games” line on that table; game purchases fall under the ordinary 1 to 2 percent tiers.
Did Amazon really cut Luxury Beauty from 10 percent to 9 percent?
No. That claim traces to a single unverified source and got repeated around creator groups. Every current source checked, plus Associates Central’s own rate language, confirms Luxury Beauty is still 10 percent. Full breakdown: did Amazon cut Luxury Beauty to 9 percent?
Does the April 14 ASIN-only rule affect Creator Connections bonuses too?
No. The ASIN-only scope change applies to onsite storefront attribution specifically. Creator Connections bonuses (10 to 50 percent on top of base rate) run on their own campaign mechanics and aren’t touched by the April 14 change.
How do I check my real commission rate instead of trusting a published table?
Associates Central, Earnings, then Commission Summary shows what you were actually paid, broken out by category, for any period you pick. That number beats any table, including this one, if they ever disagree.