When an affiliate leaves your program

How affiliates leave on their own, what happens to what they already earned, where they show up for you, and how they can rejoin.

Updated October 21, 2026

Affiliates can leave your program on their own, without asking you. Leaving stops them earning on new sales, but never takes away what they already earned.

How an affiliate leaves#

Affiliates leave from their portal, in one of two places:

The Program rules page, which ends with "Don't agree?", a way to contact you, and a leave the program link. It notes that earned commissions are still paid.
Their Account page, with Leave the program.

Either one opens a confirm step that explains what leaving means. Nothing changes until they click Leave the program. When you impersonate an affiliate, these options are hidden.

What happens when they leave#

New sales stop earning. Their links and codes stop crediting them. A sale that would have been theirs shows on your commission list as blocked, so you can see what happened.
What they earned is still owed. Their commissions stay payable and go out with your normal payouts. They can still sign in to see what they're owed, update their payout method and tax form, and see their payouts and statements.
They leave your roster. They move to the Archived tab on Affiliates.
They stop getting your emails. Broadcasts, nudges and other program emails stop. Emails about money they're owed, such as payout notices, still reach them.
In the API, they show with the state left. Filtering affiliates by a status such as active leaves them out, and ?status=left lists them.

If you use webhooks, affiliate.updated fires with the status left.

Note

You get an email when someone leaves, as long as An affiliate leaves the program is on under GrowthEmailAdmin alerts. It's on by default.

Rejoining#

An affiliate who left sees a banner in their portal with Apply to rejoin. Rejoining is a new application:

They come back as pending, even if your program approves everyone automatically.
Their old links and codes stay off until you approve them.
Approve them the same way as any applicant. If you reject them, they go back to having left, and what they earned before is still owed.

Leaving versus archiving#

Leaving works like archiving, with one difference: when you archive an affiliate yourself, it's your decision, and only you can bring them back with Unarchive. When they leave, it's theirs, and they can apply to rejoin. Either way they stop earning on new sales and can still collect what they already earned. See Suspend, archive or delete an affiliate.

Questions

Yes. Leaving stops new earning, but what they already earned is still owed. It stays in your payouts and is paid on your normal schedule.

On the Archived tab of your Affiliates list. They're out of your active roster and no longer get broadcasts.

Yes, by email, as long as the An affiliate leaves the program alert is on under Growth, Email, Admin alerts. It's on by default.

Yes. They can apply to rejoin from their portal. They come back as pending, whatever your approval setting, and their old links and codes only work again once you approve them.

Leaving is something affiliates do themselves. To remove someone yourself, archive or suspend them.

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