Amazon affiliate commission rates by category (2026 table)

You searched for a rate table, and you have probably already found three that disagree. One says Handmade pays 10%, another says 5%. One says electronics pay 1%, the table below it says 2.5%. That is not a small problem: if you pick a niche based on the wrong rate, you can spend six months building traffic that pays half what you expected.

This page fixes that. The rates below come straight from Amazon's own Standard Commission Income Rates page, checked on November 3, 2026, for the US store. After the table comes the part most lists skip: the math that shows why the category you pick matters more than how much traffic you get.

What are the Amazon affiliate commission rates by category?

Amazon pays a fixed percentage of the item price, from 0% to 10%, depending on the category of each item bought. Here is the full US table, as published on Amazon's Associates help page:

Two details the copycat lists usually drop. First, fine art commission is capped at $200 per product, so a $10,000 painting does not pay $300. Second, the "all other categories" row pays 4%, which is higher than most of the big physical categories.

Watch out: Several blogs list "Amazon Games 20%" or "Amazon Haul 7%". Neither appears on the current US standard table. Treat any rate you cannot find in Associates Central as unconfirmed.

Does Amazon pay bounties as well as percentages?

Yes. On top of percentage commission, Amazon pays fixed "bounties" when someone you send signs up for certain programs. Amazon's page lists, as of November 2026:

• Prime Free Trial or Prime Paid Membership: $12
• Amazon Business registration: $15
• Audible Premium Plus Annual Membership: $25
• Subscribe and Save activation: $0.25
• First Pet Food and Supplies purchase: $3 bonus

Bounties are useful but secondary. They reward you for sending new customers, which matters most if your audience is young or new to Amazon.

What are Amazon onsite commission rates?

Onsite rates apply when shoppers buy through your content that Amazon shows on its own site, mainly Amazon Influencer videos on product pages. They are far lower than the standard table. Amazon's Onsite Table A, for example:

Notice something: home, furniture, lawn and garden and pets keep the same 3% onsite. That is why so many Amazon Influencers end up reviewing furniture and patio gear. One creator on r/Amazon_Influencer said furniture, gym equipment and outdoor power tools like lawn mowers "have done the best".

Onsite also changed in 2026: an r/Affiliatemarketing thread flagged an Associates update so onsite commission applies only to purchases of the same product variant you linked, not anything else in the category. If you want the full comparison of the two programs, see Amazon affiliate earnings per click.

Why does category matter more than traffic volume?

Because your income is clicks times conversion times average order value times rate, and the last two vary far more between categories than your traffic realistically can. Doubling traffic is hard. Picking a category where each sale pays five times more is a decision you make once.

Here is a worked example with the same 1,000 monthly clicks to Amazon and an 8% conversion rate (80 orders) in three niches. The order values are illustrative:

Same clicks, same conversion, a 60x gap. To match the espresso site, the supplements site would need about 60,000 clicks a month. That is the whole argument in one table.

Real creators report the same thing. One on r/Amazon_Influencer reviewed an $800 item and earns $39 per sale on 15 to 20 sales a month, roughly $600 to $800 from a single product. A long running r/juststart case study credited its niche for having "a decently expensive ($200 to $1000) main product category, with loads of accessories ($5 to $300)", which "helps pump the Amazon commissions up".

Tip: Expensive items convert worse than cheap ones, so the real gap is smaller than the table shows. But even if the espresso site converts at 3% instead of 8%, it still earns $540, more than six times the toy site.

Do you earn on the whole cart or just the item you linked?

With standard Associates links, you earn on qualifying purchases in the session, not only the product you linked. Each item pays its own category rate. So a reader who clicks your $90 knife link and also buys a $200 stand mixer earns you 4.5% on both.

This is why category mix matters even inside one niche. One r/Affiliatemarketing publisher said hundreds of links drove $16,000 in sales for about $400 in commission, an effective 2.5%, because grocery, health and other low rate items filled the carts. Your dashboard's "earnings by category" report shows your real blended rate. Check it monthly.

The flip side shows up in creator threads too: one r/Amazon_Influencer member said they have videos that "sell tons of items each month but make $0.00", almost certainly because those items sit in a 0% category.

Which categories are best for a beginner?

The best beginner categories combine a 3% to 4.5% rate, order values above $100, and buyers who research before purchasing. Kitchen, home improvement, outdoors, furniture and hobby gear fit that pattern. Grocery, health, video games and gift cards do not.

Use this short process before you commit to a niche:

1. List 20 products your future reader would actually buy and note their prices.
2. Look up each one's category on the table above and multiply price by rate.
3. Throw out any niche where the median commission per sale is under $2.
4. Check that the niche has a "hero" product over $150 with accessories around it.
5. Search the top keywords and confirm forums or thin pages still rank, so the traffic is winnable.

Our guide to the best Amazon affiliate niches for beginners runs this exact check across a dozen niches. The Amazon Affiliate pack turns it into a worksheet, with the niche scoring sheet and buyer guide templates built in.

What mistakes cost Amazon affiliates the most?

The most expensive mistake is choosing a niche for traffic potential and only checking the rate afterwards. Close behind:

• Trusting a stale rate list. Amazon cut home, furniture and lawn and garden from 8% to 3% in April 2020. One r/juststart site owner said the cut "decimated our income" overnight. Rates change, and you only get emails, not a vote.
• Building on 1% categories. Supplements, grocery and personal care get huge search volume, which is exactly why beginners pick them. At 1%, they need enormous traffic to pay.
• Assuming expensive always wins. A creator on r/Amazon_Influencer made over $10,000 from a single $30 product over a couple of years, while $500 products never sold. Demand and trend still matter. Another said Amazon promotes what is trending, not what is expensive.
• Ignoring the 0% rows. Gift card guides and wine pairing posts earn nothing from Amazon, however well they rank.
• Putting every egg in one program. An analysis of 29,000 Skimlinks programs on r/Affiliatemarketing argued commission rate alone is the wrong metric; earnings per click (rate times basket times conversion) is what to compare. Sometimes a brand's own program beats Amazon on that.

If you are still deciding whether the program is worth your time at these rates, read is Amazon affiliate worth it before you buy a domain.

How do you check your current rates?

Log into Associates Central, open Help, and search "Standard Commission Income Rates". That page is the only source that counts, and it overrides anything here once it changes. Each country store has its own table, so check the marketplace your readers actually shop on. Your Reports tab also shows earnings by category, which is your true blended rate.

Where to go from here

1. Bookmark Amazon's rate page and recheck it every quarter.
2. Score three candidate niches with price times rate, and drop anything under $2 per sale.
3. Pick the niche with a $150+ hero product and real forum demand.
4. Write buyer guides around the hero product and its accessories first.
5. Review your earnings by category monthly and lean into what pays.

The Amazon Affiliate pack gives you the full step by step: 22 lessons across 6 modules, the niche scoring worksheet, buyer guide templates and the traffic checklists, for $19. All 16 Money Printer packs are $39. Results depend on your niche, your content and your consistency; no rate table guarantees income.