If the person whose referral link you used cancels Starlink, gets suspended, or pauses with Standby, their pending referrals are cancelled, so they won’t earn a reward for you. What the terms don’t say directly is whether that affects your free month. They describe your free month as received “upon activation” and applied to your second bill, with no condition about the sender, so our reading is that you should still get it. Check your bill preview before bill two; if it’s missing, ask support once.
The sender’s side is clear
The terms spell out what happens when the referrer’s own service changes:
“If Referrer cancels their Starlink subscription, has their Starlink subscription suspended, or otherwise fails to maintain at least one high-speed service plan Starlink subscription (excludes Standby Mode), all Pending Referrals will be cancelled and Eligible Referrals will be paid on the terms at the time such Eligible Referral matured.”
Your referral is “pending” until you’ve been subscribed for two full billing cycles. So if your friend cancels or pauses before then, your referral is one of the “all Pending Referrals” that get cancelled. If they cancel after your two cycles, the referral had already matured and they’re still paid.
Your side is less clear
Here’s everything the terms and help center say about your reward:
- What and when: One free month of service on the eligible plan picked at sign-up, credited on the second monthly bill. The terms phrase it as “Upon activation, the Referred Subscriber will receive one free month of service… applied to their second monthly subscription invoice.”
- Confirmation: Starlink emails the new customer when the free month is confirmed; the account's bill preview shows month 2 as free.
- Independence from the sender’s choices: The new customer still gets the free month if the referrer takes cash.
What’s missing is a sentence saying what happens to your free month if the referrer’s referral is cancelled. Our reading, labeled as ours:
- The terms tie your reward to your activation and your second invoice, not to the referral maturing. The sender’s reward, by contrast, depends on maturity.
- The help center already treats the two rewards as separate (“they still receive this even if you choose cash”).
- So a cancellation on the sender’s side most likely doesn’t remove your free month.
But “most likely” is the honest limit. If the free month matters to your budget, check it rather than assume it.
What to check, and when
Your second bill is issued at the start of your second billing cycle, one month after activation (Starlink’s billing page says the cycle starts on the day the kit is first activated). Before then:
- Preview your next invoice. Starlink’s billing page says “Preview Next Invoice” in your account shows charges due as of that day. The help center says your second month will show as free once the credit is confirmed.
- Look for the confirmation email from Starlink about the free month.
- If neither appears close to bill two, contact support once.
Copy and edit
Hello. I ordered on [date] using a referral link and activated on [date]. I understand the referrer has since changed their service. Could you confirm whether the one free month from the referral will still be applied to my second invoice? Thank you.
Don’t include the sender’s personal details; support can see your order.
A worked example
You order through your neighbor’s link on March 2, the kit arrives March 9, and you activate the same day. Your cycles run March 9 to April 8 and April 9 to May 8; bill two is issued April 9.
On March 25 your neighbor tells you they’re moving to an apartment with fiber and have cancelled Starlink, effective at the end of their billing period in early April.
- Their side: once their service ends, they no longer have a high-speed plan, and every pending referral they have, yours included, is cancelled. Your two cycles wouldn’t finish until May 8, so your referral was still pending. They won’t get the $100 reward for you.
- Your side: on about April 1, open Billing and use “Preview Next Invoice”. If month two shows as free, or you’ve had Starlink’s confirmation email, nothing more to do. If not, send the short message above to support before or just after April 9, and keep the reply.
- After that: stay or leave on your own terms. Nothing about your neighbor’s move obliges you to keep Starlink to May 8, and nothing you do now can rescue their referral.
The timing doesn’t change the answer much. If your neighbor had cancelled in June, after your two cycles were complete, their referral would already have matured and they’d still be paid. Either way, your service carries on unchanged.
What doesn’t change for you
- Your price and plan. The referral never changed your kit price or monthly price. In our reading of the terms, the referral gives no money off the kit, rental activation or any surcharge; it is one month of service creditour reading.
- Your service. Billing, support and your contract are between you and Starlink. The terms say the referrer's role is limited to sharing the link; all quoting and billing happens between SpaceX and the customer.
- Your eligibility for anything else. The sender’s choices don’t make you any less of a customer.
What you can’t do
- Switch to another person’s link. The terms say the new customer orders the kit using the referrer's own link; no other referral method counts. There’s no transfer process.
- Reorder to start again. After activation you’ve been billed for service and are, in our reading, a past subscriber. Before activation, it’s an open question. Cancel and reorder to use a referral link? goes through the risks; it’s rarely worth it for one month of credit.
- Ask the sender to “undo” their cancellation for your sake. Their plan is their decision. If they resume service, the terms don’t say cancelled referrals come back.
Different versions of “the referrer changed their service”
| What the sender did | Their pending referral (yours) | Your free month |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled their only plan | Cancelled | Not stated; likely unaffected (our reading) |
| Paused their only line with Standby | Cancelled | Not stated; likely unaffected (our reading) |
| Suspended for non-payment | Cancelled | Not stated; likely unaffected (our reading) |
| Paused a second line, kept one high-speed | Continues (our reading of “at least one”) | Unaffected |
| Switched between Residential and Roam | Continues | Unaffected |
| Moved abroad after you activated | Not stated; cancelled if they end US service | Not stated |
| Removed from the program for a rule breach | Can be cancelled | Not stated |
The last row is worth a word. If SpaceX finds that a sender broke the sharing rules (for example by running ads to their link), it can cancel their referrals: a reward can be limited, delayed or revoked, even after it's issued, for fraud, abuse or a terms violation. The terms don’t say what that means for a customer who used the link in good faith. If you found the link the normal way, through someone you know who you asked, this is very unlikely to come up.
Your minimum stay now
The two-full-cycle minimum is there for the sender’s reward: the new customer stays on a high-speed plan (not Standby) for two full monthly billing cycles for the referral to mature. If the sender’s referral is already cancelled, that condition no longer protects anything for them. Keep Starlink as long as it suits you, and no longer. Two full billing cycles explains the minimum in more detail, if you’re curious about the dates anyway.
If the sender moved abroad
The same-country rule says the new customer activates with a service address in the same country as the referrer's. It’s checked against your activation, and Starlink doesn’t say what happens if the sender moves country afterward. If they cancel their US service when they move, the plan rule above cancels their pending referrals. If they keep a US service line running, nothing in the terms addresses it. For friends who are abroad from the start, see friend outside the US.
Common mistakes
- Assuming your free month is gone. Nothing says so; check your bill preview.
- Trying to switch referrers. Not possible.
- Cancelling your own order in frustration. You’d lose shipping and time, and likely any future referral too.
- Feeling you owe the sender two months. Their referral was already cancelled; your stay is your choice.
What we don’t know
As of our Oct 5, 2026 check, Starlink doesn’t state:
- Whether a cancelled pending referral on the sender’s side affects the new customer’s free month.
- What happens when a sender moves to another country after the new customer activates.
- Whether a sender who resumes service gets cancelled referrals back.
What to do next
- Before bill two: preview your invoice and keep the confirmation email if it arrives.
- Want the full picture of how the link works? See what a referral link does, from click to credit and the program explainer.
- Anything else odd about your order? The after-ordering guide covers the other situations, and the owner’s guide shows the sender’s side.
