Put a number on the motion before you sign the percentage. Referral is a year-one fee. Revenue share compounds. Co-sell costs enablement, not margin. Same deals, three different P&Ls.
A 20 percent revenue share on a €24k ACV book of ten deals is €48k in year one and €144k over three years if those customers stay. A 20 percent referral fee on the same book is €48k once. Those are not similar contracts. Founders sign the first because it "feels like a real partnership" and then wonder why the P&L looks rented.
Co-sell looks free on this calculator because there is no contractual cut. The cost is real: enablement, account mapping, deal registration, time in the partner's deals. Pay that in people, not in margin, when the partner is already in the room.
Use the GTM picker to choose the motion, then this calculator to see whether the payout still leaves a channel worth running. Referral vs reseller vs co-sell is the full explainer.
There is no typical that you should copy. Referral fees of 10 to 20 percent of year-one ACV are common because they are a known CAC. Recurring rev share is heavier: you are renting distribution. Set it from your margin and how much of the sale the partner actually does.
Referral if you want to own the customer and keep this light. Revenue share if the partner will carry the product in their offer for years. Co-sell if they are already in the deal and you do not want to give up margin.
No. Cloud and app marketplaces have their own cut. Model that separately. This calculator is the partner payout, not the platform tax.
They should see a number that hits their world: a spiff, a credit, a fast fee. Company-level rev share often never reaches the person in the deal. See partner incentives.
The tools tell you what to do. A Partner Audit tells you who to approach, how to get paid, and how to run the relationship.
Book a Partner Audit