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How are free-trial signups tracked, and when does commission count?

On Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Creem, a free trial is recorded the moment it starts, as a trial with no commission. Its first real charge turns it into a pending commission at the campaign's base rate, waiting for your approval.

2 min read
Updated Oct 28, 2026

Free trials are captured immediately, but commission only becomes real once the trial turns into a paying customer.

The flow

  1. Trial starts: on Stripe, Paddle, Polar or Creem, LinkJolt records the signup as a trial conversion with a zero amount. It shows as Trial Period, on your Commissions page as a merchant and on the Earnings page in the affiliate portal. It is attributed to the affiliate but is not yet payable.
  2. Trial converts to paid: when the first real payment succeeds, that same row is filled in with the real sale amount and commission, and becomes a pending commission waiting for your approval.
  3. You approve it, and it can be paid out like any other commission.

That first real payment is the subscription's first payment, not a renewal. It pays the campaign's base rate, or your commission tiers if they are on, whether or not recurring commissions are switched on. Only the payments after it are renewals.

If you take payments somewhere else

  • Lemon Squeezy: there is no separate Trial Period row. The trial's order is recorded as an ordinary pending sale with a zero amount, and when the first real charge arrives LinkJolt fills that sale in with the amount and the commission at the base rate.
  • Apple In-App Purchase: an offer code that gives the first period free is recorded straight away as Pending with no commission, and that row stays as it is. The first paid renewal arrives as its own line and pays the campaign's base rate, even with recurring commissions off. The renewals after it need recurring commissions switched on.
  • Gumroad, GoPay, Fourthwall and WooCommerce: no Trial Period row is created. The referral is recorded when a payment is reported, as an ordinary pending commission. The sale is not lost, it just shows up later.

One thing to watch at approval time

A trial that converts while your brand is over its monthly tracked-sales limit lands as Held rather than Pending. A held sale cannot be approved by hand. Upgrading your plan releases held sales from the current billing period.

So an affiliate who drives a lot of trials will see trial conversions right away, but those only earn once the customer actually pays. It keeps commission tied to real revenue, not free signups.

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