How the Binance Referral Program Works (5% / 15% Explained)

The commission split

Binance charges a trading fee on every executed order. That fee is revenue, and the referral program hands part of it back into the network that produced the customer.

The split is expressed as two percentages of the fee: the inviter's commission rate and the invitee's discount rate. Together they cannot exceed the total commission pool Binance allocates to the program.

So when a code advertises "5% / 15%", it is describing how a fixed pool is divided. A referrer choosing a higher invitee discount is choosing to take less themselves — the total does not grow because someone was generous.

A worked example

Follow a single trade through the whole chain.

An invited account places a $10,000 spot taker order. At the VIP 0 rate of 0.1%, the list fee is $10.00.

The invitee discount of 15% is applied, so the account is charged $8.50 instead. Of that $8.50, Binance passes 5% — about $0.43 — to the inviter as commission. Binance keeps the rest.

No money moved from the trader to the inviter. The trader paid $1.50 less than they would have without a code, and the inviter was paid out of the exchange's remaining share.

This is why the arrangement is stable rather than promotional: it is a customer acquisition cost Binance pays instead of paying an advertising network, and it comes out of revenue that already exists.

Why rates differ between codes

Not every referral code offers the same discount, which is the single most useful thing to know when comparing them.

A standard referral account can adjust how the pool is divided between itself and its invitees, within limits Binance sets. Some referrers keep the maximum and offer no discount at all. Others give most of it away to attract sign-ups.

Affiliates — a separate application-only tier — negotiate different terms, often with higher total commission and correspondingly larger discounts available to pass on.

• A code offering 0% invitee discount is worth nothing to you. They exist and they are common.
• A code offering a high spot discount may still offer little on futures, since the two are configured separately.
• Rates attached to a code can be changed by the referrer for future sign-ups; accounts already registered keep what they had.
• Higher-tier affiliate codes can offer more, but require the referrer to have been accepted into the program.
• There is no code that gives you money for signing up without trading — offers like that are either campaign-specific or fraudulent.

Referral versus affiliate

The words are used interchangeably in search results, but inside Binance they describe two different arrangements.

The referral program is open to every verified account automatically. You get a code, you share it, you earn a share of your invitees' trading commission. No application, no minimum, no obligations.

The affiliate program requires an application and is aimed at people with an existing audience — content creators, communities, trading educators. Accepted affiliates get higher commission tiers, access to campaign tooling and reporting, and in exchange are held to content and compliance standards.

For an individual signing up to trade, the distinction changes nothing about the account you receive. It only affects how much the person who invited you earns and how much they were able to hand back to you.

What the invited account gives up

Nothing financial. It is worth being specific about this, because a permanently attached third-party relationship sounds like it should have a catch.

The inviter cannot see your balances, your trades, your identity documents or your personal details. They receive aggregate statistics — how many accounts registered through their code, and the commission generated in total. Not who you are or what you traded.

They cannot act on your account in any way: no withdrawals, no orders, no settings changes, no support requests on your behalf. The relationship is one-directional and exists only in Binance's commission accounting.

The attachment is permanent and cannot be removed later, which is the one thing to be aware of. In practice this matters only in the sense that you should pick a code with a good invitee rate the first time, since you will not be choosing again.

Your own referral code

Once your account is verified you automatically have one, and inviting people works the same way in the other direction.

The code lives in the referral section of the account. You can generate multiple codes with different splits — useful if you want a public code with a generous invitee discount and a private one for people you know.

Commission accrues per trade and is credited to your spot wallet. It shows up in the referral dashboard broken down by invitee cohort, market and period.

1. Complete identity verification — unverified accounts cannot earn commission.
2. Open the referral section and note the default code, or create a new one.
3. Set the split. Giving away more of the pool makes the code more attractive but reduces your own share.
4. Share the link rather than the bare code where possible, so the field is pre-filled.
5. Check the dashboard after your first invitee trades; commission appears per trade, not per sign-up.

Rules worth knowing before you promote a code

The program has terms, and breaking them costs more than the commission was worth.

• One account per person. Referring yourself with a second account is the most common violation and the most reliably detected.
• No misleading claims. Promising guaranteed returns or presenting yourself as Binance are grounds for removal from the program.
• No paid search on the brand. Bidding on Binance trademarks in ad auctions is prohibited for referrers and affiliates.
• Disclose the relationship. Beyond Binance's rules, advertising regulations in most countries require affiliate relationships to be disclosed clearly.
• Rates can change. Binance can revise program terms; existing invitee relationships are generally honoured, but nothing is guaranteed indefinitely.

This site discloses its own referral relationship on every page and on a dedicated disclosure page, which is both a legal requirement and the reason you can weigh what you read here.