If Starlink changes the referral rules after you order: which version applies

If Starlink changes its referral terms after you order, the terms themselves say that referrals already pending when the change is announced keep the old rules during the 30-day notice period. Starlink republished its US referral terms on Oct 3, 2026, and the terms and rewards can change on 30 days' notice. For most people that’s enough: your free month lands on bill two, about a month after you’re billed for month one, so you’re usually done within any notice period.

Two caveats. Those clauses are written to the person who shared the link, not to you, so applying them to your free month is our reading. And Starlink keeps the right to decide eligibility and to cancel rewards for fraud or abuse. Here’s the text, what it means in practice, and how to keep a record.

What the terms say about changes

Section 5.1.2 of Starlink’s US Referral Program Terms reads:

SpaceX may terminate, cancel, suspend, or modify the Program or these Referral Terms (including the Reward set forth in Schedule A) at any time in its sole discretion, with 30 days prior notice to Referrer. For Pending Referrals as of the date of this notice, the terms of unmodified Referral Terms shall apply during the notice period. For referrals submitted after the date of this notice, SpaceX may apply the modified Referral Terms to such referrals.

Two definitions make that concrete:

• A Pending Referral is “a Referred Subscriber who is an Eligible Referral in all respects except for completion of the Minimum Subscription Duration.” In plain words: you ordered correctly and are working through your first two billing cycles.
• The Minimum Subscription Duration is two full monthly billing cycles on a high-speed plan, continuously, with Standby Mode not counting. Schedule A says “two full monthly billing cycles.”

So if you’ve ordered and a change is announced, you’re a pending referral, and the old terms apply during the 30 days after the notice.

Why the timing usually works out

Your free month is applied as a credit to your second monthly bill; you pay the first month. Bill two comes one month after your Payment Due Date: later bills come on the same day each month (the anniversary of the Payment Due Date).

If notice of a change arrived the day after you ordered, the 30-day notice period would cover your order through most of month one. Whether the old terms still apply to you after that is where the text runs out. The clause covers “the notice period,” and says modified terms may apply to “referrals submitted after the date of this notice.” Our reading is that a referral submitted before the notice isn’t in that second group, but the terms don’t say so in plain words.

Who the clauses are written for

The referral terms are an agreement with the referrer, the existing customer who shares the link. The notice in section 5.1.2 goes “to Referrer,” and section 4.1 describes your side in one sentence: “Upon activation, the Referred Subscriber will receive one free month of service on the eligible service plan of their selection, applied to their second monthly subscription invoice.”

That means:

• The terms don’t promise you, the new customer, a notice of their own.
• The pending-referral protection is about the referral, which includes your order, but its wording is aimed at the referrer’s reward.

We read the protection as covering the whole referral, including your free month. Starlink hasn’t said so separately. If a change ever affects you mid-way, ask support, and quote the section.

Can the free month be taken back?

Three clauses give Starlink room:

• Section 3.1: the “final determination of whether a referred customer constitutes an Eligible Referral rests exclusively with SpaceX in its sole discretion.”
• Section 4.5: Starlink “reserves the right to withhold, delay, or refuse issuance of any Reward pending verification of eligibility or investigation of potential fraud or abuse.”
• Section 5.1.4: Starlink “may limit, change, cancel, delay, or revoke a Reward (including after issuance)” in “the event of fraud or abuse of the Program or violation of these terms.”

“Reward” in these terms means the referrer’s benefit. The terms don’t describe reversing a new customer’s credit, and we haven’t seen Starlink say it does. What the clauses make clear is that staying on the right side of the rules matters: be a genuinely new customer, order through the link, and activate your kit and stay subscribed for at least 2 months. The terms also expect you to be you're an active user who means to stay; Starlink reviews retention patterns.

Changes to your plan or price

The referral terms aren’t the only document that can change. Starlink’s Terms of Service, section 6.1, say Starlink “may change or discontinue Service Plans, prices, these Terms, Kit versions” and “will provide you with notice at least one month prior before materially adverse changes come into effect,” by email, with your right to cancel.

Plan renames and price changes have both happened in 2026; our news page has the dated items. We don’t know how the credit lines up with a prorated or plan-changed billunverified, so if your plan or price changes before bill two, check the bill preview. Our guide to the bill preview shows where to look.

Keep a dated record

On the day you order, save:

1. The referral terms, from starlink.com/legal, with the publish date visible. Print to PDF.
2. The help article “How do I use a referral link?” with its list of eligible plans.
3. Your order confirmation, with the date and plan.
4. The checkout page showing the plan you picked.

If bill two shows full price and the rules changed in between, that record lets you ask a precise question. Our guide to writing to support shows how to lay it out.

How we track changes

We re-read the referral terms and help article weekly and log every change on our news page, with dates. Our editorial policy explains how. The most recent item: the terms were republished on Oct 3, 2026, and every rule this site relies on still matched when we re-read them.

A worked example

Chris orders through a referral link on Nov 2, 2026, activates on Nov 6 (the Payment Due Date) and pays bill one. On Nov 20, suppose Starlink announced a change to the referral terms, with the new version taking effect 30 days later.

• Nov 20 to Dec 20 (notice period): Chris is a pending referral, so the unmodified terms apply.
• Dec 6 (bill two): inside the notice period. The credit should follow the terms Chris ordered under.
• Jan 6 (bill three): two full cycles done. The referral matures.

Chris saved the Nov 2 terms as a PDF, so there’s no doubt which version applied.

If the rules change before you’ve ordered

If you haven’t ordered yet and Starlink announces a change, the simplest approach is to read the new version before you open the link. The terms say referrals “submitted after the date of this notice” may get the modified terms. Check three things in the new text: whether the free month is still one month on bill two, whether your plan is still on the list, and whether the two-cycle rule is the same. Our news page will say what changed when we can tell.

What a change could look like

We can’t predict what Starlink will change, but the terms show which parts can move. Section 5.1.2 lets Starlink “terminate, cancel, suspend, or modify the Program or these Referral Terms (including the Reward set forth in Schedule A).” Schedule A is where the two-cycle rule sits, and Starlink says it “may update Schedule A from time to time without amending the body of these Referral Terms.” The list of eligible plans lives in the help article, not the terms, and that article has its own modified date.

So the parts most likely to change are the reward, the waiting period and the plan list. If any of them change while you’re pending, the notice-period clause is the one to point to.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a change announced after you ordered applies to you at once. Pending referrals keep the old terms during the notice period.
• Relying on a screenshot without a date. Make sure the date is visible.
• Assuming a change protects you from your own actions. Standby, cancelling or an ineligible plan still end the free month.

What we don’t know

• Whether the unmodified terms keep applying to a pending referral after the 30-day notice period ends.
• Whether Starlink would tell new customers directly about a change.
• How a plan price change before bill two affects the credit’s value.

What to do next

1. Note your Payment Due Date and work out bill two with our timing tool.
2. Save a dated copy of the terms and help article when you order.
3. Check our news page before ordering for any recent change, and the eligibility page for the current rules.