What the Public.com Commission Rate Actually Is
Creators promoting Robinhood through the standard affiliate portal earn roughly $15 to $25 per funded account. Creators promoting Public.com earn $50 to $75 for the same action. That gap isn't widely discussed, and most creators who've been promoting Robinhood for name recognition have never sat down and run the comparison.
Public.com's affiliate program pays a flat CPA for each new user who opens and funds a brokerage account through a referral link. The "funded account" trigger means the user deposited money, not just created an account. Most programs don't require a specific dollar amount or a first trade, though terms can shift based on the platform's current acquisition goals. Check the active terms when you sign up, and review them annually.
The 30-day cookie window is standard for investing platforms. Click today, fund within 30 days, commission counts. That window gives your audience time to think and return without losing you the referral.
How Public.com Compares to Other Investing Platforms
The numbers favor Public.com by a wide margin against the field.
- Robinhood: approximately $15-$25 per funded account
- M1 Finance: approximately $30-$50 per funded account
- Public.com: approximately $50-$75 per funded account (standard portal)
Public.com's floor rate beats M1 Finance's ceiling. It beats Robinhood's ceiling by 2x. A creator driving 20 funded accounts per month earns at least $500 more per month with Public.com than with Robinhood at those rates. That's $6,000 per year from a single program swap, with the same audience and the same traffic.
Robinhood has stronger brand recognition, especially with viewers who've heard of it through social media. That awareness gap is real but overstated. A well-constructed review video that explains Public.com's features and positions it clearly against the alternatives closes most of the credibility gap. You're not asking viewers to trust an unknown platform; you're introducing them to one they haven't heard of yet.
What Affects Your Rate
Three things move your Public.com affiliate rate: traffic volume, conversion quality, and negotiation.
Volume is the most straightforward factor. Platforms set tiered rates based on how many referrals a creator drives per month. A creator sending 5 funded accounts per month gets different treatment than one sending 50. More referrals means more leverage, and platforms know that losing a high-volume creator costs them significantly.
Conversion quality matters because it tells the platform something about your audience. A funded account from a viewer who deposits $500 and actively invests is worth more to Public.com than one from a viewer who deposits $5 to test the platform. Platforms track this over time. Affiliates with high-quality audiences tend to see better rate discussions than those whose referrals churn quickly.
Negotiation is where most creators leave money on the table. Almost every affiliate program has a published rate and an actual rate. The actual rate is higher for any creator willing to ask, provide their performance data, and make a specific case. If you've been driving 15 funded accounts per month for three months and haven't asked about your rate, that's a conversation worth starting.
How Volume Tiers Work
Above-portal rates come from cumulative volume, not a formal tiered structure. MM moves collective volume across its creator roster, which creates leverage on rates that individual creators applying direct cannot replicate. That aggregate volume is what gives creators access to above-floor rates that aren't published on the standard portal.
A 200K subscriber creator who joined Money Matchup put it plainly: "That's a much better payout than what I have now." The difference isn't about finding a new program; it's about getting properly compensated for the volume they were already delivering.
Some above-portal arrangements apply rate improvements retroactively to the full month's referrals; others apply going forward. Which structure you're under affects your total monthly payout, so it's worth clarifying when you set up your arrangement.
How to Get Above the Floor Rate
Track everything. Know your monthly click volume, funded account count, and the conversion rate from click to funded account before you reach out about a rate increase. Walking into a negotiation without data is walking in unprepared. Affiliate managers want to see numbers, not just confidence.
Ask about above-floor rates directly. The question is straightforward: "What do rates look like for creators driving higher consistent volume?" Most programs have this flexibility built in. Most creators never ask.
Consolidating your volume helps. Spreading 30 funded accounts across four different platforms makes you a small partner to all of them. Concentrating 30 accounts with one platform makes you a meaningful partner worth investing in. Volume concentration gives you negotiating leverage that fragmentation removes.
Review your rate every six months. Platforms adjust their acquisition budgets based on their own growth targets. A rate that was fair a year ago might be below market today if Public.com has increased their acquisition spending. Creators who revisit their rates consistently tend to earn more than those who set it and forget it.
One structural advantage worth knowing about: Money Matchup gives creators access to Public.com's above-floor rates alongside a consolidated dashboard and a dedicated agent who handles the negotiation on their behalf. For creators who'd rather spend time making videos than managing affiliate contracts, that's a real time-to-money improvement.