Free tool
How many affiliates do I need?
Say how much a month you want affiliates to sell. See how many active affiliates that takes, and how many people to contact to find them. It runs in your browser and nothing you type leaves the page.
An affiliate is a person or site that recommends your products and earns a cut of each sale they send you. An active one has sent at least one sale in the month.
What it takes
21 active affiliates
2,100 people to contact
Low to high case: 11 to 42 active affiliates, 617 to 21,000 people to contact.
Based on the numbers you typed and the assumptions in the assumptions box. Orders per active affiliate has no good source, so check it first.
- Orders a monthGoal divided by average order value, rounded up84
- Active affiliatesOrders divided by orders per active affiliate21
- Sign-upsActive affiliates divided by the active share84
- People to contactSign-ups divided by the sign-up share2,100
| Low case | Your numbers | High case | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orders per active affiliate | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Active share | 10% | 25% | 30% |
| Sign-up share | 2% | 4% | 6% |
| Active affiliates | 42 | 21 | 11 |
| People to contact | 21,000 | 2,100 | 617 |
The low case halves orders per affiliate and the sign-up share. It cuts the active share to 40% of yours. The high case doubles orders and lifts the sign-up share by half. It lifts the active share by a fifth, capped at 100%. With the defaults, the active share runs from 10% to 30%. 10% is a low case, not a floor, and 30% tops UpPromote's range. Measured software data sits lower still. The sign-up share runs from 2% (UpPromote's reply range without a personal first line) to 6% (inside its 5% to 8% range with one). These are our picks, not measured results.
You would pay about $750 a month in commission at your goal. An active affiliate at these numbers earns about $36 a month. If that looks too small to bother with, we expect fewer to stay active.
Our scan gives a sense of scale. On 22 October 2026 we ran a first search for 30 hand-picked public Shopify brands. The median showed 92 people, and a separate median of 30 had an email on record. A 30-row check read by an AI model, from titles and addresses only, found 21 looked like a fit. That is likely 52% to 83% of rows. Your number is about 70 times the 30 people with an email that a first search found for the median brand. Repeat searches may return many of the same people, so the gap can be wider. Full method and limits.
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How the numbers work
The calculator walks backwards from your goal. Orders come first, which is your monthly goal divided by what one order is worth. Next, work out how many active affiliates send that many orders. After that, work out how many people must sign up to end up with that many active ones. Finally, work out how many people you must contact to get those sign-ups. Each step rounds up.
Three inputs rest on weak public evidence. They are orders per active affiliate each month, the share of sign-ups who become active, and the share of people contacted who sign up. They sit in a box you can open and change. Try a worse case and a better one, and see how far the answer moves.
What moves the answer most
- Orders per active affiliate. Double it and you need half as many affiliates. Our starting guess of 4 has no source, so test a low and a high value.
- The sign-up share. UpPromote's reply range is 5% to 8% when the first line names a specific article, and 1% to 2% when it doesn't. See our guide to where to find affiliate partners and how to recruit affiliates.
- The active share. UpPromote calls it the most important number in its own planning table. Our guide on what to offer affiliates covers the pay side.
Where each number comes from
All pages were checked on 23 October 2026. Where we found no good source, the table says so.
| Default | Source and date | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Active share: 25% | UpPromote, how to recruit affiliates for your Shopify store, updated 3 August 2026 | A planning figure in its own calculator, 20% to 30% of sign-ups with a sale each month. The page gives no sample. It is a vendor rule of thumb. |
| Active share, a lower view | Rewardful, State of SaaS Affiliate Programs Report 2026, published 17 March 2026, updated 21 July 2026 | 1.28% of affiliates made at least one sale and 7.6% made at least one referral, over the last 12 months. It covers software programs, not shops, and gives no sample for these two figures. Treat it as a warning that 25% can be too high. Rewardful sells affiliate software. |
| Sign-up share: 4% | UpPromote, same page, updated 3 August 2026 | Its worked example for niche bloggers: 100 cold emails, 6 responses, 4 sign-ups. It gives 5% to 8% response when the first line names a specific article and 1% to 2% when it doesn't. Its YouTube (4% to 7%) and TikTok (3% to 6%) figures are labelled response, not sign-up. Aggregate data for Q4 2025 to Q1 2026, with no sample size. UpPromote sells an affiliate app. |
| Cold email reply rate, a second view | Hunter, state of cold email, 2025 data, date not shown; Instantly benchmark report, data to 18 December 2025, updated 12 January 2026 | Hunter: 4.5% average reply rate across 31 million emails. Instantly: 3.43%. Both sell email tools. These are replies, not sign-ups, and cover all kinds of sales email. They show roughly what a cold message earns, so they support keeping the sign-up share near or below 4%. |
| Commission: 15% | Tradedoubler, recommended commission rates, date not shown | Its suggestion for health and beauty and fashion in the UK, US and Ireland. Home and garden is 10%. It is a recommendation, not a measured average. |
| Orders per active affiliate: 4 | No good source found | We searched for a dated figure for small online shops and found none. 4 is a placeholder. Change it. |
| Scale check | Our scan of 30 public Shopify brands, 22 October 2026 | 30 hand-picked brands, one search each. Median 92 people shown, median 30 with an email on record (range 5 to 53). In a 30-row check read by an AI model, 21 were a clear or loose fit and 9 were not promoters (likely 17% to 48%). Emails are found, not verified. |
What this can't tell you
- It gives a plan, not a forecast. Real results depend on your products, your offer and who you ask.
- It treats all affiliates as equal. Real programs are lumpy, and some affiliates send far more than others.
- The scan covers 30 hand-picked brands with an estimated $25,000 to $250,000 in monthly sales, taken from a list and not checked. Your numbers may differ.
Questions people ask
How many affiliates does a Shopify store need?
It depends on your goal and your average order value. Take $5,000 a month in affiliate sales, $60 orders and 4 orders per active affiliate each month. A store needs about 21 active ones and about 2,100 people to contact. The low and high cases give 11 to 42 active affiliates. Type your own numbers in the calculator above.
What share of affiliates are active?
No one source settles it. UpPromote plans on 20% to 30% of sign-ups making a sale each month. Rewardful's 2026 report on software programs found that 1.28% of affiliates made a sale in the last 12 months. That covers software, not shops. Start with 25%, then try 10% as a low case of our own choosing, not a floor. The software data above is lower still.
How many people do I need to contact to get one affiliate?
At a 4% sign-up share, about 25 people. At 2%, about 50. UpPromote's worked example for bloggers is 4 sign-ups from 100 cold emails, and it says naming a specific article lifts replies. See how to recruit affiliates.
What commission should I offer?
Tradedoubler suggests 15% for health, beauty and fashion, and 10% for home and garden. Check what an active affiliate would earn each month in the calculator. If it is only a few dollars, expect fewer to stay active, which is our view. Our guide on what to offer affiliates goes further.
Does the calculator store what I type?
No. The sums run in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or saved.
Can RecruitAffiliates.ai find these people for me?
Yes. It searches the web, podcasts, TikTok and Instagram for people who already promote brands like yours, then emails them your sign-up link. Start with a free trial and your first search runs within minutes. See also our free checker for who promotes your rivals.