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Creator Desk
Can you put affiliate links on Mastodon? We read 60 servers’ rules
On Mastodon the answer depends on which server your account lives on, and on 27 September 2026 the 60 largest servers split three ways: 15 had no rule at all, 19 banned advertising, and 12 limited only excess.
Part of: For creators
Mastodon has no platform-wide affiliate rule. Each server sets its own, and your server’s rules are the ones that bind you. We downloaded the published rules of every server in the joinmastodon.org directory on 27 September 2026 (278 of 308 answered) and read the rules of the 60 largest, one server at a time, together 2.75 million accounts.
The short version: 19 of the 60 ban advertising (7 of them allow promoting your own work, which an affiliate link to someone else’s product is not), 15 have no rule on advertising or spam, including mastodon.social, and only one server of all 278 mentions referral links by name.
How Mastodon rules work
Mastodon is not one site. It is thousands of independently run servers that talk to each other, and each server’s admins write that server’s rules. They are published in a standard place: the About page of every server, and a public API endpoint, /api/v1/instance/rules, that returns the same list.
- Your server’s rules apply to your posts. If your account is on mastodon.scot, its rule against commercial advertising is the one you answer to, even when your post is read on another server.
- Other servers can still act. An admin elsewhere can hide or block content that breaks their rules from their own users. We did not measure how often that happens.
- There is no platform company to appeal to. The moderators are the server’s volunteers or staff.
So “can I post affiliate links on Mastodon?” is really “can I post them on this server?”, and the answer changes when you pick a different one.
What the 60 largest servers say
We read every rule of the 60 largest servers that answered (from mastodon.social with 921,100 accounts down to 4,311) and put each server in one class, the strictest rule deciding. The table is the whole result.
| What the server’s rules say about promotion | Servers | Share of the 2.75M accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing on advertising, promotion or spam | 15 | 52.8% |
| Bans advertising or commercial promotion | 12 | 14.3% |
| Bans advertising, but allows promoting your own work | 7 | 6.9% |
| Limits only excessive, repetitive, off-topic or unmarked promotion | 12 | 6.6% |
| A bare “no spam” rule, advertising not mentioned | 8 | 15.4% |
| Rule is about accounts (no brand, pure-ad or backlink accounts), not posts | 5 | 3.7% |
| Commercial use needs the admins’ written permission | 1 | 0.3% |
| Total | 60 | 2,752,055 accounts |
Rules read from each server’s /api/v1/instance/rules on 27 September 2026, 15:28 local time. Each server was classed by reading its rules one at a time; the list and the class of every server are kept with the page’s script.
Three things stand out when you read the rules themselves rather than the counts.
The biggest server says nothing
mastodon.social, a third of these accounts on its own, publishes six rules: sensitive media, discrimination, violence, harassment, false information, and attribution plus AI disclosure. None mentions advertising, promotion or spam. Four more of the top 60 publish no rules through the endpoint at all.
“Your own work” does not cover an affiliate link
Seven servers ban ads but carve out self-promotion, in words like “Promoting your own work is fine” or “Do not post ads for 3rd parties!”. Our reading: a commission link to a brand’s product is promotion of a third party’s product, so the carve-out protects your art prints and your newsletter, not your affiliate links. Two German servers define the line most precisely, banning commercial advertising where the content has no personal connection and is clearly meant to earn money directly or indirectly.
Only one server names referral links
Across all 278 rule lists, four contain the word “affiliate” or “referral”, and three of those mean “affiliated with”. The only one about links is sueden.social, whose admins say they will contact you if your account is used only to share links or for referral links. Everywhere else, affiliate links fall under whatever the server says about advertising.
Keep reading
Reading the rule on your server
The wording varies, but the rules we read fall into patterns you can test your posting habits against:
- “No advertising” or “no commercial advertising” (for example mstdn.social, mastodon.scot, nerdculture.de). A post whose point is a product link is at risk. Keep affiliate links off this server.
- “No excessive promotion” or “no unmarked advertising” (mstdn.ca, mathstodon.xyz, mastodontech.de). An occasional, clearly marked link inside an otherwise normal account reads as allowed. mathstodon.xyz even invites you to ask the admins first.
- “No brand or business accounts” (theblower.au, infosec.exchange). About who runs the account, not about links in a person’s posts.
- A bare “no spam” (mastodon.world, universeodon.com). What counts as spam is the moderators’ call; a link-only account is the classic case.
Our position, from the rules as written: on Mastodon, pick your server before you pick your links. If product links are part of what you post, a server with no advertising rule or an “excess only” rule is the honest home for that account. Posting them from a server that bans advertising is breaking a rule you agreed to when you joined.
Mechanics: 23-character links, 4 profile fields
We also read each of the 60 servers’ published configuration (/api/v2/instance). Three numbers matter to anyone posting links:
| Setting | What the 60 servers report | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Characters per post | 500 on 37; more on 23 (up to 20,000); none lower | Room for a sentence, a disclosure and a link |
| Characters a URL costs | 23 on all 60 | A long tracking link costs the same as a short one, so shortening buys no space |
| Profile link fields | 4 on 51; 6 on 2; 8 on 3; not reported on 4 | Your “link in bio” slots |
| Pinned posts | 5 on 59; 8 on 1 | Where a standing “my picks” post can live |
The 23-character rule is worth knowing. On Mastodon a shortener gives you no extra characters, and it adds a redirect hop and hides the destination from a reader deciding whether to click. Profile fields also support verification: a link back from your own site with rel="me" turns the field green, which is how readers tell your site from an impostor’s.
Disclosure on Mastodon
No server we read sets a wording for affiliate disclosure, and Mastodon has no paid-partnership label. Two servers require marking of advertising in general (mastodontech.de: no unmarked advertising; lou.lt: accounts advertising products must say so in their bio). Your legal duty does not depend on either: in the US the FTC expects a clear disclosure next to the link, and a commission is a material connection.
On Mastodon that means a few plain words in the post, such as “affiliate link, I earn a commission”. Two practical notes: a content warning hides the whole post behind a click, so do not put the disclosure inside one; and hashtags like #ad are searchable on servers that index them, which is a courtesy to readers who filter them out.
What we could not verify
- Enforcement. A rule list is not a moderation record. We did not see how any server acts on an affiliate post.
- Other servers’ reactions. A post allowed on your server can be hidden elsewhere by admins with stricter rules. We did not measure it.
- Longer documents. Some servers keep fuller terms or policies on a separate page (sfba.social links a spam policy; toot.wales and pouet.chapril.org point to external terms). We read the rule lists only.
- Smaller servers. The class split is for the 60 largest; the 218 smaller servers we downloaded were only keyword-searched.
- Reach. Mastodon has no algorithmic feed on most servers, and we did not measure how link posts travel.
What to do this week
- Open your server’s About page and read its rules for the words advertising, promotion, spam, commercial.
- If it bans advertising and you post product links, either stop or move: Mastodon’s account migration moves your followers to a new server.
- Put the disclosure in the post, outside any content warning, and link the retailer directly rather than through a shortener.
- Use a verified profile field for your own site, and keep link posts a small part of an account people follow for something else.
Frequently asked
Are affiliate links allowed on Mastodon?
Mastodon has no single rule. Each server writes its own. Of the 60 largest servers we read on 27 September 2026, 15 had no rule on advertising or spam, 19 banned advertising (7 of those allow promoting your own work), and 12 limited only excessive or repetitive promotion.
Which Mastodon server allows affiliate links?
None of the 60 largest servers we read permits affiliate links by name. mastodon.social, the largest, has no rule on advertising or spam in its six server rules. Read your own server's rules at <server>/about before posting a link.
Do long affiliate URLs use up Mastodon's character limit?
No. All 60 servers we checked count every URL as 23 characters, whatever its real length, so a long tracking link costs the same as a short one.
Do I need to disclose affiliate links on Mastodon?
Mastodon sets no wording. Your legal duty (for example the FTC in the US) does not depend on the platform, so write the disclosure in the post itself next to the link.
Method and sources
- Server list: api.joinmastodon.org/servers, the directory behind joinmastodon.org, 308 servers, read 27 September 2026.
- Rules:
https://<server>/api/v1/instance/rulesfor each, 15:28 local time; 278 answered (7 with empty lists), 30 failed (timeouts, 403s, one 500). - The 60 largest by the directory’s account count were read in full, one server at a time, and classed; the other 218 were searched for affiliate, referral and advertising words in eight languages.
- Limits:
/api/v2/instancefor the same 60 servers. Mastodon’s own documentation: docs.joinmastodon.org. - We did not post on any server or contact any admin. This page is not legal advice.
Last verified 27 September 2026 against the published rules of 278 Mastodon servers and the configuration of the 60 largest
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How this page was made. Drafted with AI (Claude); not yet independently re-checked. How we work