No caps, no expiry, and a leaderboard that's still wide open.
The part nobody mentions
Most referral programs expire. Six months, a year, maybe two — then the commission quietly disappears and you're left promoting something for free.
teum's referral doesn't work that way. The percentage you earn on a referred seller's sales doesn't reset, doesn't decay, and doesn't have a ceiling. It just keeps running.
That's the thing worth noticing.
What the program actually is
teum is an AI software assets marketplace — developers sell prompts, bots, agents, plugins, and toolkits there. The referral program sits on top of that marketplace and pays people who bring new participants in.
Bring in a seller: you earn 5% of every sale they make, forever. Bring in a buyer: you earn 3% of every purchase they confirm, once they've crossed $30 in total confirmed buys. No complicated tiers. No application process described on the site.
The math is straightforward enough that you can sanity-check it yourself.
Why it matters right now
The leaderboard at teum.io/leaderboard currently shows $0.00 in total referral payouts over the last 30 days. That number sounds discouraging until you read it the other way: nobody has claimed the top spots yet.
For newsletter operators, devrels, and community builders who regularly point developers toward new tools, that's a real opening. The compounding effect of a forever-commission on a seller who goes on to have consistent sales is significant — and that effect only grows as the marketplace grows.
The people who get in early on a leaderboard like this tend to stay near the top. That's not a guarantee, but it's a reasonable pattern.
A concrete example
Say you run a weekly AI tools digest with 2,000 subscribers. You mention teum in an issue, include your referral link, and three people sign up as sellers. One of them builds a solid prompt toolkit that earns $400/month on the platform.
That one seller, at 5%, is $20/month from a single mention — indefinitely. The other two sellers are quieter, but they still contribute. A referred buyer who spends $80/month adds another $2.40/month.
None of those numbers are dramatic on their own. But they don't stop. And they stack across every issue you've ever sent that included the link.
This is why "forever" is the operative word, not "5%".
What to try next
If you're curious whether early leaderboard positions are still up for grabs — they are, at least right now. Check the current standings and see where the threshold sits. The soft launch window won't last indefinitely.
Refer sellers: 5%. Refer buyers: 3%. Forever.
See who's leading (and where the open space is) at teum.io/leaderboard.
"Forever" is the operative word, not "5%".