If you earn from affiliate links, you’ve probably been promised that AI will do the work for you.
It won’t.
But it can take over the jobs around a recommendation: the reports, the DMs, the research.
In July 2025 I asked eight marketers how they use AI in affiliate marketing. Four of their answers fit creators, and between them they named three AI tools for affiliate marketing: ChatGPT, ManyChat and Surfer.
Here’s what each of them did, what those tools cost now, and which others do the same jobs.
Contributors’ picks
The picks are the four contributors’, and the rest are alternatives for the same jobs. I’ve used all nine tools on this page myself, but none of them has been through a proper test for a review, so there are no ratings or verdicts.
Key takeaways
- The contributors use AI for the work around a recommendation: combining reports, answering questions in DMs, writing answers for AI search and finding what buyers ask.
- ChatGPT came up most often. Surfer and ManyChat were each named once, for a specific job.
- The biggest reported change came from DM automation: one contributor saw opt-in rates above 50% instead of about 5% on a landing page.
- AI doesn’t change the rules. Disclose every affiliate link next to the link, and check every fact it gives you.
Who uses which AI tool, and for what
The four of them sent me these examples in July 2025. The results are theirs, as they reported them then. I haven’t audited anyone’s numbers.
| Contributor | Job | AI tools | Reported result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edwyn McFarlane, Tree Hub | One report for every affiliate network | ChatGPT, with Google Apps Script | Clicks, earnings per click and conversions in one sheet, refreshed hourly |
| Joren Wouters, Chatimize | Instagram chat funnels instead of landing pages | ManyChat | Opt-in rates above 50%, against about 5% on landing pages |
| Lauren Patrick, Infinite Giving | Answers written for AI search | ChatGPT | A first customer who found them through an AI answer |
| Mark Richards, Mark Richard Handmade Cues | Finding the questions buyers search for | ChatGPT and Surfer | 25% more organic traffic |
Edwyn McFarlane: one dashboard for every affiliate network
AI has not just saved me time. It feels like an analyst working quietly in the background.
Edwyn runs Tree Hub, a directory of farms to visit in the UK and Ireland, and earns from affiliate offers on it. Each of his networks exported its own report, so he couldn’t see which of his pet-friendly farm offers actually paid.
He had ChatGPT write Google Apps Script that pulls Skimlinks, BrandReward and MRGE data into one Google Sheet. It refreshes every hour and puts clicks, earnings per click and conversions side by side.
You don’t need code for most of this.
Give every link its own sub-ID (one per platform and post), export the reports once a month and ask an assistant to merge them. Check its totals against the networks’ dashboards before you believe them.
I’m not neutral here.
I build Straycy, an attribution plugin for WordPress, and it answers the same question for sign-ups that Edwyn’s sheet answers for commissions: which link actually brought them in?
ChatGPT
ChatGPT (opens in new tab) was the tool three of the four contributors named. It searches the web, reads files you upload, and writes the formulas and short scripts that join reports together.
Facts are where it slips: Google’s own guidance on AI content (opens in new tab) warns that these tools produce inaccuracies and tells publishers to fact-check everything.
Price: a free plan with limits; paid plans from €8 a month (Go, as shown in Europe; checked October 2026 on ChatGPT’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
Joren Wouters: chat funnels instead of landing pages
Instagram chat funnels feel personal, convert higher, and happen entirely inside the app.
Joren saw affiliate landing pages convert around 5% of visitors, so he moved the sign-up into Instagram.
A Reel or carousel offers a free guide that fits the affiliate offer. When someone comments, an automated DM confirms they want it, asks for their name and email, and delivers the guide inside Instagram, followed by an email. From there the automation can follow up or send the affiliate link.
He reported opt-in rates above 50%, and one funnel that brought in more than €12,000.
My favorite detail is the cookie insurance: he always sends the same affiliate link by email as well.
Links tapped in Instagram open in its in-app browser. If the buyer comes back days later in Safari or Chrome, the affiliate cookie isn’t there and the sale may not be credited to you. A click from an email lands in the browser people actually shop in.
And a list is the audience you keep when your reach drops, which is why the guide to making money on Instagram calls it the income Instagram can’t take away.
ManyChat
ManyChat sends a DM when someone comments a keyword or replies to a Story, using Meta’s official messaging tools. It charges by active contacts: the people you message through it in a month, by automation or by hand, whatever your follower count.
Price: a free plan for 25 active contacts a month; Essential from $14 a month billed yearly, with 250 active contacts (checked October 2026 on ManyChat’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
-
Pick one product and one keyword
A product you’ve used, and a word nobody types by accident.
-
Write the DM yourself
Who it’s for, one thing you learned using it, the link, and “I earn a commission if you buy through this link”.
-
Ask for an email address
Offer a checklist in return, and send the link again by email.
-
Tag the link per post and test it
One sub-ID per Reel, then comment from a second account and click through to checkout.
Meta sets the limits. A comment lets you send one private reply within seven days, and after that you can only write again once the person answers, within 24 hours of their reply (checked October 2026 in Meta’s docs on private replies (opens in new tab) and its messaging policy (opens in new tab)).
Tools that log in with your password, or message people who never contacted you, break Instagram’s terms. Instagram for bloggers walks through a comment-to-DM setup.
Lauren Patrick: answers written for AI search
Write for ChatGPT like you once wrote for Google. That single tweak delivered our first customer straight from an AI answer box.
Infinite Giving used to rely on classic keyword articles to reach nonprofit finance teams. Lauren rewrote the site’s FAQ answers so they read like direct replies to the questions people type into ChatGPT, and put the product right where it answers the question.
Visitors started arriving after asking ChatGPT how to accept stock donations, and one of them became a paying customer within the first month.
For an affiliate creator, that’s an FAQ that answers “Is [tool] worth it for [use]?” in its first sentence, with your own reason.
What doesn’t work is dozens of unchecked AI-written pages. Google’s spam policies (opens in new tab) have a name for that: scaled content abuse.
Mark Richards: finding the questions buyers ask
AI spots the question gaps real players search for, leaving us free to focus on better cue design.
People shopping for pool and snooker cues ask very specific questions, from tip hardness to weight tolerances. Mark uses ChatGPT and Surfer to find the questions his pages don’t answer yet, outline a guide and write a first draft.
Then he adds his own hands-on knowledge before anything goes live. He reported 25% more organic traffic since switching to that workflow.
Surfer
Surfer compares a draft with the pages that rank for a keyword and shows the topics they cover that yours doesn’t. Its higher plans also track whether AI assistants mention you.
It tells you what to cover. Whether any of it is true is still your job.
Price: no free plan listed; Discovery €49 a month billed yearly (checked October 2026 on Surfer’s pricing page (opens in new tab), which shows euro prices).
The tools and their prices at a glance
The first three are the contributors’ picks. The other six do the same jobs, but nobody in this roundup named them and I’m not recommending them.
Prices are per month, in the currency each vendor’s own pricing page showed me in October 2026, so yours may differ by country.
| Tool | Job | Picked by | Free plan | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Research, drafts, scripts | Edwyn, Lauren, Mark | Yes, with limits | €8 in Europe (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| ManyChat | DM automation | Joren | 25 active contacts | $14 billed yearly (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| Surfer | SEO and AI search | Mark | None listed | €49 billed yearly (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| Claude | Drafts from your notes | Alternative | Yes | $17 billed yearly (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| Perplexity | Research with sources | Alternative | Yes | $17 billed yearly (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| Descript | Video editing | Alternative | 1 hour of media a month | $16 billed yearly (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| OpusClip | Shorts from long videos | Alternative | Yes, with a watermark | $15 billed monthly (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
| Kit | Alternative | Up to 10,000 subscribers | $33 billed yearly, at 1,000 subscribers (pricing (opens in new tab)) | |
| Geniuslink | Link management (not AI) | Alternative | 14-day trial | $6 with 1,000 clicks (pricing (opens in new tab)) |
Other tools for the same jobs
Nobody in this roundup named these. They do the same jobs, so here’s what each one does and what it costs. I haven’t tested them, and they aren’t recommendations.
Claude
Claude (opens in new tab) is a general AI assistant like ChatGPT. It works from material you bring, such as the transcript of a product walkthrough, and Projects keep your style notes and past posts in one place.
Price: a free plan; Pro $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly (checked October 2026 on Claude’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
Perplexity
Perplexity (opens in new tab) answers with numbered sources, which helps when you research a product’s current price, complaints and alternatives, as long as you open the sources. A cited page can be old, or a competitor’s sales page.
Price: a free plan; Pro $17 a month billed yearly (checked October 2026 on Perplexity’s Pro page (opens in new tab)).
Descript
Descript edits a video or podcast through its transcript: delete a sentence and it’s gone from the video. Its AI tools clean up the sound, remove filler words and suggest short clips.
Price: a free plan with one hour of media a month; Hobbyist $16 a month billed yearly, or $24 billed monthly (checked October 2026 on Descript’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
OpusClip
OpusClip (opens in new tab) takes a long video, picks moments likely to work as shorts, and cuts them into vertical clips with captions. You still choose which clips to post.
Price: a free plan whose exports carry a watermark; Starter $15 a month, billed monthly only (checked October 2026 on OpusClip’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
Every clip needs its own disclosure
The FTC wants the disclosure in the video itself, said out loud or shown on screen. A line in the description isn’t enough.
The “I earn a commission” line at the start of a walkthrough probably didn’t make it into a 40-second clip, so add it to every clip that mentions the product.
Kit
Kit is a newsletter tool built for creators, with landing pages, forms and tagging on the free plan. It’s one way to send Joren’s “same link by email”, though any newsletter tool can do that job.
Price: free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33 a month billed yearly ($390) at 1,000 subscribers (checked October 2026 on Kit’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
Before you email affiliate links, check each program’s rules. Amazon Associates, for example, allows its links in emails and social DMs only to people who opted in (checked October 2026 in its Program Policies (opens in new tab)).
Geniuslink
Geniuslink (opens in new tab) isn’t AI. It sends each visitor to the right product in their own country’s Amazon store, and on phones it opens the Amazon app when it can.
Price: $6 a month including 1,000 clicks, then $3.50 per 1,000, after a 14-day trial (checked October 2026 on Geniuslink’s pricing page (opens in new tab)).
The rules don’t change when AI does the work
Watch out
- Disclose next to the link. The FTC’s influencer guidance (opens in new tab) wants a clear disclosure right by the recommendation, and in the video itself. One in your bio isn’t enough. It applies outside the US too when US consumers see the post.
- Only describe experience you have. The same guidance tells creators not to talk about using a product they haven’t tried. AI can research a product. It can’t use it for you.
- No AI-made reviews. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials (opens in new tab), in force since 21 October 2024, bans fake reviews, including AI-generated ones from people who don’t exist.
- Check every fact. AI tools state old prices and features with full confidence. Take them from the vendor’s own page.
- Label realistic AI media. YouTube asks creators to disclose realistic altered or synthetic content (opens in new tab), and on Instagram Meta may require a label on photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio made with AI (checked October 2026 on Meta’s help page (opens in new tab)).
- Automated DMs only to people who asked, inside Meta’s messaging window.
How this roundup was made
For the July 2025 version of this post, I asked eight marketers how they use AI in affiliate marketing. The four examples that fit creators stay, with names, roles and quotes.
I rewrote the rest in October 2026 and checked each contributor’s role (on their company’s site, or for Tree Hub in the UK company register) and every price on the vendor’s own page. None of these tools has been through my How we test method, so there are no ratings or verdicts.
The first version also asked whether you were ready to “plug into the pipes and watch commissions climb”.
I’ve left that out.
Affiliate programs
Which creator tools pay to be recommended?
The affiliate program database compares commission, cookie window and payout terms, so you know what a recommendation is worth before you make it.
AI tools for affiliate marketing: frequently asked questions
Which AI tools do affiliate marketers use?
In this roundup, ChatGPT came up most, for research, drafts and scripts. One contributor uses ManyChat to send links and lead magnets by Instagram DM, and another uses Surfer to find the questions buyers search for.
Can I use AI to write affiliate reviews?
Use it to sort and edit your own notes. Don’t let it write the review.
A review is only worth something if you used the product, and the FTC tells influencers not to describe experience they don’t have.
Do I have to disclose that I used AI?
You always have to disclose the affiliate relationship, next to the link.
Using AI for scripts, captions or ideas doesn’t need a label on YouTube. Realistic video made or altered with AI does, on YouTube and on Instagram.
Is it allowed to send affiliate links by automated DM on Instagram?
Yes, through tools that use Meta’s official messaging tools, to people who commented or messaged you first, within Meta’s messaging window. Disclose the affiliate link in the DM, and check that the program allows links in private messages.
Are there free AI tools for affiliate marketing?
Yes. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity all have free plans, ManyChat’s free plan covers 25 active contacts a month, and Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers (all checked October 2026).
That’s enough to try one workflow before you pay for anything.
Where to start
Pick the job you keep putting off and copy one contributor’s approach to it: a combined report like Edwyn’s, a comment-to-DM flow like Joren’s, or an FAQ rewritten for AI answers like Lauren’s.
One is plenty for the first month.
For the bigger picture, see how to make money on Instagram, and the free tools and data page.
