FTC affiliate disclosure: the complete 2026 guide (rules, examples, placement)

If you earn a commission or receive anything of value for promoting a product, US law requires a clear and conspicuous disclosure of that connection, placed close to the recommendation and before the affiliate link. The FTC's own example sentence is: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Getting it wrong is not cosmetic. Civil penalties reach $53,088 per violation as of January 2025, and per violation multiplies across posts and affiliates. Both the affiliate and the merchant can be held responsible.

An endorsement, in the FTC's terms, is an advertising message that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings, or experience of someone other than the advertiser. When the endorser has a material connection to the advertiser, that connection must be disclosed.

A material connection is any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship, including a paid commission, free or discounted product, or anything else of value, even if no one asked you to post. The rules live in 16 CFR Part 255, the FTC's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials, applying Section 5 of the FTC Act.

If any row is true for a piece of content, you must disclose in that content.

• You earn a commission on sales through your link.
• You received the product free or at a discount.
• You were paid a flat fee or given anything of value.
• You have a family or employment relationship with the brand.
• You may earn a future commission or reward.
• The endorsement was created by an AI or virtual persona you operate.

A disclosure is clear and conspicuous if consumers actually notice it, read it, and understand it. The FTC's placement principle is that the closer the disclosure is to your recommendation, the better.

Put the disclosure before the affiliate link, not after it, and in the same view. If the recommendation and the link are separated so a reader might miss the connection, a single distant disclosure is not enough. Use the same language as the endorsement itself.

Short labels pass only when they actually convey a paid relationship. These ratings come from the FTC's own guidance.

Adapt these to your voice. The first is the FTC's own recommended wording.

• Blog or review: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
• Blog alternative: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a commission on purchases.
• YouTube description and spoken: Some links below are affiliate links. I earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. Say it aloud in the first seconds too.
• TikTok or Instagram on-screen and caption: #ad. I earn a commission if you buy through my link.
• Instagram Story: superimpose Paid partnership and affiliate over the image, held long enough to read.
• Email: This email contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission on purchases.
• Podcast: state it audibly near the recommendation, not only in the show notes.
• Live stream: repeat a short heads-up about affiliate links every few minutes for viewers who just joined.
• Space-limited or X: [Brand]Partner or #ad when a full sentence will not fit.
• AI affiliate: This content was created by an AI affiliate and includes affiliate links. We earn a commission on qualifying purchases.

The disclosure has to be where people actually see it, before they act on the link.

Acceptable disclosures include advertisement, ad, sponsored, #ad, #sponsored, and forms like [Brand]Partner or [Brand] Ambassador. Adding a hashtag is fine but not required.

Avoid shorthand that consumers will not parse: sp, spon, collab, a stand-alone thanks, or a stand-alone ambassador. Do not bury the disclosure in a cluster of hashtags or links, and do not rely on a platform's built-in disclosure tool by itself. Use it in addition to your own clear disclosure.

The 2023 revision to the Endorsement Guides updated the definition of endorsements to clarify that it includes fake reviews and virtual influencers. A virtual or AI-generated persona is not deceptive merely by existing, but it must follow the same disclosure rules as a human endorser, and hiding that an endorser is AI while it promotes a product is deceptive.

For a program that runs AI affiliates, this means two disclosures in one: that the content is paid, and that the creator is AI-generated where that matters. Bake the disclosure into the generated asset rather than bolting it on, because AI distributes at a scale where a human would forget. This is also the distribution-safety mechanism: undisclosed AI plus affiliate posting at scale is exactly the pattern the large social platforms restrict.

Disclosure is not only the affiliate's job. An advertiser is responsible for what its affiliates say and is expected to instruct and monitor them, and intermediaries such as networks and agencies carry responsibilities too.

Merchants reduce risk by selecting affiliates carefully, requiring disclosure in the affiliate agreement, and monitoring content. That is why the disclosure obligation belongs in your affiliate agreement, not just in an email.

The maximum civil penalty is $53,088 per violation as of January 17, 2025, up from $51,744 in 2024. It is inflation-adjusted every January, so confirm the current figure at the time you read this. Because it is charged per violation, exposure aggregates across many posts and affiliates rather than being a single fine.

A separate rule, 16 CFR Part 465, effective October 21, 2024, bans fake and AI-generated reviews, buying positive or negative reviews, undisclosed insider reviews, and review suppression, with its own civil penalties.

This guide is educational and summarizes public FTC materials. It is not legal advice for your business. Confirm the current rules and penalty figures on FTC.gov, and consult qualified counsel for your channels and jurisdiction.