What changed
Starlink republished the US Referral Program Terms (document DOC-1882-84808-83). We have no archived copy of the previous version, so we can’t list word-level edits. The current text spells out the 24-hour information-request duty, the ban on paid ads that lead to a link “directly or indirectly”, the five-year consent-record rule for any contact, and the payment processor’s role in cash rewards.
When
Published Oct 3, 2026, per the date in Starlink’s own legal-documents list. Under the terms, changes apply after 30 days’ notice, and referrals already pending keep the old terms during that time.
Who is affected
Everyone who has shared a referral link, since sharing a link is what accepts the terms. New customers aren’t directly affected: the free month on bill two is unchanged in the help center.
What it means for you
A republished date is a signal to re-read, not proof that a rule changed. Because we have no archived copy of the earlier text, we describe what the current document says and treat it as the baseline for future comparisons: from now on, any word-level edit will show up in our weekly check.
For owners, the clauses most likely to cost a reward are the practical ones. An information request from SpaceX has a 24-hour clock, paid ads that lead to a link are banned even indirectly, and any contact with a prospect needs consent you can show for five years. None of these are new ideas, but the current text spells them out.
What to do now
Owners: read the sharing rules against how you actually share, make sure your Starlink email reaches you (information requests have a 24-hour clock), and finish the payment processor’s ID check if you chose cash.
What stays the same
The new customer’s free month on the second bill, the two-billing-cycle minimum stay, credit as the default reward, and the same-country rule.
What we don’t know yet
Which sentences, if any, changed on Oct 3, 2026. Starlink doesn’t publish a revision history, and the previous version wasn’t archived where we could find it. If a reader has a dated copy of the earlier text, we’d like to compare it and will correct this post if it shows a change.
How to check it yourself
Open starlink.com, go to the legal documents for the United States and find the Referral Program Terms. The document list shows a published date; on our check it read Oct 3, 2026. Read section 6 (sharing) and the cash-reward clauses in full rather than relying on a summary, including ours. If the date in the list moves again, the text may have changed, and our weekly check should catch it within a few days. You can also compare your own saved copy, if you keep one, against the current text; if you find a difference we missed, the contact page explains how to tell us.