If the friend you referred cancels before finishing two full monthly billing cycles, you don’t get the referral reward. Their referral stays “pending” and never matures into an eligible one, and only eligible referrals pay. If they cancel after those two cycles, the referral has already matured and your reward is paid. The date they leave, measured from the day they activated, decides everything.
Below: the rule, the three timing cases with real dates, what your friend keeps, and how to handle it like a decent person.
The rule
The minimum stay sits in the terms’ list of conditions for the new customer:
“The Referred Subscriber must maintain continuously subscribed and in good standing for two full monthly billing cycles in order for a Pending Referral to mature to an Eligible Referral.”
The help center’s version for the sender is shorter: rewards are issued after the friend has subscribed for two months, and rewards are issued as soon as 60 days after the friend activates.
There’s no partial credit for one month. Each successful referral pays once, and it’s paid only for an eligible referral.
The three timing cases
Starlink’s billing help page says a billing cycle starts on the day the kit is first activated. Take a friend who activates on October 10:
| Friend leaves | Cycle | Their free month | Your reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before Nov 10 (or returns the kit) | Cycle 1 | Not reached | No |
| Nov 10 to Dec 9 | Cycle 2 | Already on bill 2 | No |
| After Dec 9 | Cycle 3 or later | Had it | Yes, about Dec 10 |
Case 1: they leave in the first cycle
They never reach bill two, so they never get one free month of service on the eligible plan picked at sign-up. You get nothing either. This includes returning the kit: Starlink’s return page says that to return a kit you have to cancel your subscription, and a kit cancelled within the 30-day return period gets a full hardware refund. Returned the kit during the trial covers that case in detail.
Case 2: they leave in the second cycle
This is the case that stings. Their free month is credited on the second monthly bill, and bill two is issued at the start of cycle two, November 10 in the example. So by the time they decide to leave in, say, late November, they’ve already had the credit. The minimum stay doesn’t end until December 9, so your referral never matures.
Does Starlink take the free month back? Nothing it publishes says so. The terms describe the free month as applied to the second invoice, and the only clawback clause is about fraud, abuse or terms violations: a reward can be limited, delayed or revoked, even after it's issued, for fraud, abuse or a terms violation. A friend who simply finds Starlink isn’t for them isn’t abusing anything.
Case 3: they leave after two full cycles
The referral matured on December 10. Your reward is paid as normal, as credit unless you switched to cash, and their later cancellation doesn’t touch it.
One caveat: the terms also require the new customer to be actually uses the service and intends to keep it; SpaceX compares retention against the national average. A friend who stays exactly two cycles and leaves is within the wording, but it’s the kind of pattern that review is there to spot. One genuine change of mind isn’t a pattern; a string of short stays from the same link might be.
What about Standby instead of cancelling?
If your friend pauses with Standby during the first two cycles rather than cancelling, the effect on your referral is the same. The new customer stays on a high-speed plan (not Standby) for two full monthly billing cycles. Standby is not a high-speed plan. Two full billing cycles shows why pausing in cycle two breaks the count.
How you’d find out
Starlink doesn’t publish a “your referral was cancelled” notice. What the help center describes is an email when someone orders through your link and a Referrals area where you can track successful referrals and rewards. So you might only notice when the expected date passes with nothing issued. If that happens and you don’t know why, work through stuck pending: what to check before contacting support.
Don’t ask your friend for their account details to check. The terms bar referrers from handling a prospect’s personal data: don't collect a prospect's personal data; share only the link and send them to starlink.com. If they tell you they cancelled, that’s your answer.
They want to come back later
They can come back as a customer, but not with a referral. The help center says existing and returning customers are not eligible. A friend who cancelled in month two and reorders next year pays the normal price, and your link can’t earn anything from it. The never-subscribed rule covers former customers in full.
Handling it with your friend
The honest position is simple: it’s their service and their money. The referral program pays you for introducing a customer who stays; it doesn’t make you their account manager. The terms say the referrer's role is limited to sharing the link; all quoting and billing happens between SpaceX and the customer.
What’s fine:
- Explaining how it works if they ask before ordering. “You’ll get month two free; the referral only counts for me if you keep it at least two full billing cycles, but don’t keep it for my sake.”
- Answering questions about setup or billing with “Starlink support can see your account; I can’t.”
What to avoid:
- Pressuring them to stay past the point they want to.
- Offering to cover their bill for the minimum period. Paying someone to stay so you can collect a reward drifts toward the “ways around the eligibility rules” the terms ban: no extra accounts or other ways around the eligibility rules. It also undercuts the “genuine intent to remain subscribed” condition.
- Asking them to switch to Standby instead of cancelling “until the referral clears”. It doesn’t clear on Standby anyway.
When it might not be their choice
Sometimes the exit isn’t voluntary: the dish doesn’t get a clear view of the sky at their home, service isn’t what they needed, or money gets tight. That last case connects to another rule. The terms say the new customer is not experiencing financial hardship, domestic or family violence, or another vulnerability, and the sharing rules forbid targeting vulnerable people. If a friend is under financial pressure, the right thing is to tell them to cancel if they need to, and not to have encouraged the sign-up in the first place.
What each case is worth, in numbers
Using the national list prices in our data file and Starlink’s US reward example, here’s what’s at stake in each case for a friend on Residential 100 Mbps ($55/mo):
| Friend leaves | Friend paid for service | Friend’s free month | Your reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| In cycle 1 (no return) | Month one, $55 | None | None |
| In cycle 2 | Month one, $55; month two covered by credit | Worth $55 | None |
| After cycle 2 | Month one, month three onward | Worth $55 | $100 |
Two things stand out. A friend who leaves in cycle two has paid for one month and used two; that’s the program working as designed for them, not a loophole. And your reward isn’t a share of anything they paid: it’s a separate incentive from SpaceX, paid only for a customer who stays. Prices at their address can differ; checkout shows the real figure.
If it keeps happening
One friend leaving early is ordinary. If several people you refer leave inside two cycles, it’s worth asking why, because the terms give SpaceX room to look at it. The new customer has to be a genuine, active user, and you certify every referral: by submitting a referral you certify it meets every eligibility rule. Repeated short stays can look like the pattern the sharing rules are written to stop, even when every person acted in good faith.
The fix is in how the link reaches people. Give it to people who asked for it, who have checked that Starlink suits their location and budget, and who would order anyway. The program explainer is a good thing to point them to first, so they know they pay month one, the kit, and every month after the free one. If they still want it, the referral is far more likely to mature.
Common mistakes
- Assuming one month earns half a reward. There are no partial rewards.
- Counting from the order date. Cycles start at activation, so a friend who ordered in September and activated October 10 isn’t done until December 9.
- Expecting their free month to be taken back. Nothing published says it is, and it doesn’t help you either way.
- Pausing your own plan while chasing it. If you go to Standby, all your other pending referrals are cancelled too.
- Treating a second order as a fresh referral. A returning customer can’t use a link.
What we don’t know
As of our Oct 5, 2026 check, Starlink doesn’t state:
- Whether the sender is notified when a pending referral is cancelled.
- Whether a cancellation scheduled during cycle two, effective at its end, counts as completing two full cycles.
- Whether the free month is ever reversed when a friend leaves in cycle two. Nothing published says so.
What to do next
- Want to see where each referral stands? What a pending referral means explains the stages and what protects them.
- Thinking about your own plan? Read pausing or cancelling your own plan before you change anything.
- Need a term defined? The glossary explains pending and eligible referrals.
- Want the owner’s view in one place? The owner’s guide covers what earns the reward and what cancels it, and the sharing rules cover what to say and not say to friends.
