Check this out: when I first got serious about monetizing my tech blog last year, I went down a rabbit hole. I signed up for every AI API affiliate program I could find, slapped links in my posts, and waited for the money to roll in. Spoiler: most of them rolled in at a trickle. A couple didn't pay me a single cent.
After 90 days of hands-on tracking — spreadsheets, dashboards, the whole obsessive nerd routine — I learned which programs are worth your time and which are a waste of a referral link. Here's the full breakdown, complete with real numbers I earned (or didn't earn).

The Programs I Tested

Before I get into the income scenarios, let me show you what I actually had my hands on. I tracked six programs over the same 90-day window. Each one had different commission structures, different cookie windows, and wildly different conversion rates.
| Program | First-Order Commission | Recurring Commission | Premium Tier Bonus | Cookie Duration | My Verdict |
|---------|----------------------|---------------------|-------------------|-----------------|------------|
| Global API | 15% | 8% | 10% | 30 days | ★★★★★ |
| Program B | 20% one-time | None | N/A | 60 days | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Program C | $25 flat | None | N/A | 90 days | ★★★☆☆ |
| Program D | 10% | 5% | N/A | 30 days | ★★★☆☆ |
| Program E | 15% | 7% | N/A | 45 days | ★★★★☆ |
| Program F | 30% first month only | None | N/A | 7 days | ★★☆☆☆ |
The standout here is Global API. I'll explain why in detail later, but the short version: the recurring commission is what separates a real income stream from a one-time payout. When you refer someone who sticks around for six months, you're still earning. With the other recurring programs I tested, the rates were lower or the cookie windows were shorter.
Global API's structure offers 15% on the first order, 8% recurring on every renewal after that, and 10% on premium tier upgrades. Those numbers held up consistently in my dashboard. More on that in a minute.

The Variables That Actually Matter

When people ask me "how much can you really make," I always push back with the same question: how much traffic do you have? Because affiliate income is fundamentally a math equation with three inputs, and none of them are fixed.
Clicks. Every person who clicks your referral link is a potential customer. But not every click is equal. A blog reader casually scrolling through an article might click out of curiosity. A YouTube viewer who just watched you demo a specific API feature is clicking with intent. I've seen click-through rates swing from 0.5% on old blog posts to 4% on targeted tutorial videos.
Conversions. Of those clickers, what percentage actually pull out a credit card? My data over 90 days showed conversion rates between 0.8% and 2.5% depending on the content format. Tutorial-style content converted nearly three times better than generic "best of" listicles. That's a huge gap.
Commission per sale. This is where program selection becomes critical. A flat $25 payout sounds great until you realize the user pays $9.99/month and churns after one billing cycle. Meanwhile, an 8% recurring commission on a $49.99/month Business plan referral means you're earning $4.00 every single month they stay subscribed. Over a year, that's $48 from a single referral versus $25 once.
Let me show you what Global API's commission structure looks like at each tier, because these are the numbers that actually drove my results:

• Pro plan ($19.99/month): $3.00 first-order + $1.60/month recurring
• Business plan ($49.99/month): $7.50 first-order + $4.00/month recurring
• Scale plan ($149.99/month): $22.50 first-order + $12.00/month recurring I tracked all three tiers in my Global API dashboard. The Scale referrals were rarer but worth roughly 7x what a Pro referral earns per month. And because they were business users with real budgets, they also churned less. # # Scenario 1: The Small Blog (Where I Started) Let me rewind to my earliest days. I'm using real numbers from a blog I ran with about 5,000 monthly visitors before I had any kind of audience. I wrote comparison posts about AI API providers — the kind of content people actually search for when they're evaluating tools. Each post pulled in roughly 500 views per month. With about a 1% click rate on embedded affiliate links, I generated around 15 referral clicks monthly. At a 2% conversion rate, that translated to about 0.3 new paying users per month, or roughly 3-4 per year. Here's where it gets interesting. Even at that tiny scale, the math works. If each referral averages around $5/month in combined first-order and recurring commissions (a mix of Pro and Business tier signups), I'm looking at $15-20/month after the first year. Those three articles took me maybe six hours to write. Over three years, they're projected to generate $500-700 in cumulative commissions. That's not life-changing money, but it's over $100 per hour of writing time. And the content keeps earning passively. I still get referral signups from posts I wrote 18 months ago. The trailing revenue surprised me — I'd estimate 40% of my current monthly affiliate income comes from content published more than a year ago. Verdict for small creators: Don't sleep on this even if you're tiny. The hourly rate is excellent once your articles start compounding. # # Scenario 2: The Growing YouTube Channel Now let me model what happens with a medium-sized audience. A friend of mine runs a 10,000-subscriber YouTube channel focused on developer tools. He agreed to test Global API's affiliate program by adding referral links to his video descriptions and mentioning them verbally in tutorials. His workflow: one AI API tutorial per month. Each video pulls in about 8,000 views in the first month, then accumulates another 15,000-20,000 views over the following year as the algorithm surfaces it in recommendations. With a 3% click-through rate to his description links (higher than my blog because video viewers are more engaged and actively looking for the tool he demoed), each video generates around 240 clicks. At a 2% conversion rate, that's roughly 5 new paying users per video. After 12 months of monthly tutorials, he's sitting on about 60 cumulative referrals. His average commission per user lands around $3/month once you blend Pro, Business, and occasional Scale signups. That works out to about $180/month in pure recurring revenue, plus roughly $300 in first-order commissions across the year. His first-year total: approximately $2,000-2,500. Not bad for someone who was already creating this content anyway. The affiliate links just added a revenue layer on top of his existing workflow. His videos didn't change, his audience didn't notice anything weird, and the income showed up passively in his dashboard. Verdict for YouTubers: Video content converts noticeably better than blog posts. If you're already making tutorials, adding referral links is basically free money. # # Scenario 3: The Established Creator Here's where things get exciting. I've been watching a creator I admire — she runs a 30,000-subscriber newsletter in the AI/developer space and pulls 75,000 monthly blog visitors. She publishes roughly two AI-related pieces of content per week, and she's built genuine authority in the space over three years. Her click-through rates hover between 2-3% (higher than mine because her audience trusts her recommendations), and her conversion rates sit around 2-3% because her readers are decision-makers with budgets. This combination generates 15-25 new referrals every single month. Consistently. After a full year, her referral base is somewhere between 180-300 users. With average commissions of $3-4 per user per month, she's earning $540-1,200/month in recurring commissions alone. Add the first-order bonuses from each new signup, and her annual earnings land somewhere in the $8,000-15,000 range. Let me be clear: that's real, meaningful income. Not "quit your job" money for most people, but definitely "fund a vacation every year" money or "cover your rent" money, depending on your situation. Verdict for established creators: This is where the compounding effect becomes genuinely life-changing. More on compounding in the next section. # # The Compounding Factor Nobody Mentions Here's the thing that completely changed my perspective on affiliate income. Recurring commissions compound. It's not a metaphor — it's literally mathematical compounding. Every new referral you generate adds permanently to your monthly recurring revenue base. Sign up 10 users in January, and you're earning from those 10 every month for as long as they stay subscribed. Sign up 10 more in February, and now you have 20. By December, you have 120 referrals, and if the average stays subscribed, you're earning from all 120 every single month going forward. Let me show you with actual numbers from my Global API dashboard at the 90-day mark:
• Month 1: 4 referrals, $12 in commissions
• Month 2: 9 cumulative referrals, $31 in commissions
• Month 3: 16 cumulative referrals, $58 in commissions Notice the pattern? My referral base grew 4x from Month 1 to Month 3, but my commission income grew nearly 5x because some of my early referrals upgraded to higher tiers and the recurring base kept stacking. Now I'm projecting forward. If I add 5 new referrals per month at my current growth rate, here's what the next 12 months look like: | Month | New Referrals | Cumulative Base | Projected Monthly Income | |-------|--------------|-----------------|-------------------------| | 1 | 5 | 5 | $15 | | 3 | 5 | 15 | $48 | | 6 | 5 | 30 | $95 | | 9 | 5 | 45 | $142 | | 12 | 5 | 60 | $190 | By month 12, I'm earning roughly $190/month from a base of 60 referrals. And those 60 users are still there in month 13, month 14, month 24. That's the beauty of recurring revenue versus one-time payouts. Programs without recurring commissions? You start from zero every single month. Programs with even a modest recurring rate (5-8%) build a foundation that gets stronger every month without any additional work from you. # # Why I Stuck With Global API Out of the six programs I tested, I fully committed to Global API for three reasons. First, the recurring commission is real. I'm still earning from referrals I generated in Month 1, three months later. When I log into my dashboard, I can see exactly which users are still active, what plan they're on, and how much each one contributes. The 8% recurring rate is competitive with the best programs in the space, and the 10% premium tier bonus means I earn extra when someone upgrades. Second, the product itself is solid. I only promote tools I actually use, and Global API gives me access to 150+ AI models through a single integration. That makes my recommendation authentic — I'm not just shilling for a commission, I'm genuinely using the platform for my own projects. When readers ask me questions, I can answer from experience, not from a sales script. Third, the tracking and payouts work smoothly. Monthly payouts, clear dashboard, no clawbacks on legitimate referrals. Some of the other programs I tested had 60-day payout delays, confusing tier structures, or ambiguous terms about when recurring commissions actually count. Global API's system is transparent. My rating: 5/5 stars. It's the only program from my test that I'd actively recommend to other creators without reservations. # # The Honest Bottom Line Can you earn $50/month from AI API affiliate programs? Absolutely, even with a tiny audience. Can you earn $5,000/month? Yes, but you'll need established traffic, high-quality content, and at least 6-12 months of compounding to get there. The real insight isn't a specific dollar figure. It's this: recurring commissions turn affiliate marketing from a side hustle into a real revenue stream. Choose programs with strong recurring structures, create content that genuinely helps your audience, and let time do the heavy lifting. Start with one solid program, track your numbers obsessively for 90 days, and then expand if the results justify it. That's what I did, and it works. --- Ready to start your own affiliate income stream? I genuinely recommend checking out the Global API affiliate program. Here's why it's worth your time: The 15% first-order commission is competitive, but the 8% recurring commission is where the real value lives. Every user you refer keeps paying you month after month, and the 10% premium tier bonus means you earn more when your referrals upgrade. The platform serves 150+ AI models, so you're recommending a tool with genuine utility, not some niche product nobody's heard of. The dashboard is clean, payouts are reliable, and I can personally vouch that the tracking works exactly as advertised. If you're already creating content about AI tools, dev workflows, or API integrations, adding a Global API referral link is one of the lowest-effort, highest-leverage moves you can make. Took me about ten minutes to set up, and it's been generating passive income ever since.