> AffiliateOS Help Center. Index of every article for AI tools: https://www.affiliateos.ai/help/llms.txt

# What is AffiliateOS?

Getting started · For everyone · Updated 30 October 2026
Web version: https://www.affiliateos.ai/help/getting-started/what-affiliateos-does

AffiliateOS is an offer platform. Advertisers pay for an install, for a step inside their app or a percent of each sale. Publishers show those offers to their users. We record every tap, check it, match the conversion the advertiser reports and pay the publisher.

## Three roles

| Role | What they do here | How they join |
|---|---|---|
| Advertiser | Lists an app, site or store and sets what it pays: per install, per in-app event or a percent of each sale. | Sign up and start a campaign. Test events are free. |
| Publisher | Shows offers in an app, site or newsletter, often for a reward in its own currency. | By request for now. We reply by email. |
| Network | Runs its own publishers on AffiliateOS, with its own rates and its own offers. | Book a demo. From $500 a month. |

Everyone sees their own side only. A publisher sees what it earns; an advertiser sees what each channel cost, under a code instead of the publisher's name.

## How one install moves

The example below follows one [click](https://www.affiliateos.ai/glossary#click-id) from a rewarded app to a paid [conversion](https://www.affiliateos.ai/glossary#conversion).

> Figure: Example: Tidewater Games pays for a Harbor Blocks install, AffiliateOS records the tap from Pebble Rewards, matches the install, sends Pebble Rewards a signed postback with payout 4.20, and Pebble Rewards credits the player 1,500 pebbles.

1. **2:04 PM.** Harbor Blocks, a puzzle game by Tidewater Games, shows in Pebble Rewards' own offer screen, built on the Offer API. The install pays Pebble Rewards $4.20.
2. **2:06 PM.** Player `u_48213` taps it on an iPhone in Texas. We record the tap as `clk_7Q2f81` and run our traffic checks before the player reaches the App Store.
3. **2:09 PM.** The player installs Harbor Blocks and opens it. The game's tracker reports the install, and we match it to `clk_7Q2f81`.
4. **Next.** We send Pebble Rewards a signed [postback](https://www.affiliateos.ai/glossary#postback) with `sub_id=u_48213`, the action ID, `payout=4.20` and `user_payout=1.50`, the install reward Tidewater Games set. Pebble Rewards checks the signature and credits the player 1,500 pebbles, at 1,000 pebbles per $1.
5. **Later steps.** When the player reaches level 10 and level 40, each step posts back with the player's reward in `user_payout` and `payout=0`, so Pebble Rewards can keep crediting the player.

> **Games paid per install pay the publisher once, at install.** Later steps reward the player, not the publisher. Offers paid per event list what each step pays the publisher, step by step.

## Four ways to show offers

| Option | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted Offerwall | A wall we host. Open it with your user's ID in a link, an iframe or a webview. | Rewarded apps. Start here. |
| Offer API | One call returns every offer your account can run. You build the screen. | Teams with their own offer screens |
| Top Offers Feed | The same call with `segment=top`: our picks and offers proven in the last 30 days, in an order we set. | A short list without ranking it yourself |
| Offer Links | Our team picks offers for your audience and sends you a tracking link for each. New offers are posted in your Slack channel. No code. | Sites and newsletters |

All four send conversions to the same postback URL. On Hosted Offerwall postbacks, `revenue` is your earnings and `payout` is the player's reward, so read `revenue` first whenever it's present.

## What we check on every tap

Each tap passes our traffic checks before it reaches the advertiser. A tap we refuse shows the player "This offer isn't available for your account" and never reaches the advertiser's store page, so nobody pays for it. The offer stays live for everyone else.

When an offer ends, its old links still get taps from saved lists and cached walls. Those players see "This offer has ended" instead of an error.

## The offers

Publishers can run 10,000+ offers, counting direct offers and AffiliateOS marketplace offers. When the same app is listed more than once, the Offer API returns at most one install-paid listing and one event-paid listing for each app and platform, so a wall doesn't show the same game three times.

## Networks and the glossary

- Networks: [book a demo](https://www.affiliateos.ai/demo), then read the [Network API reference](https://www.affiliateos.ai/help/developers#network-api)
- The terms on this page, one line each: [the glossary](https://www.affiliateos.ai/glossary)