All offers / Cash back / Rakuten / Do Amazon purchases count?
Rakuten deep diveDo Amazon purchases count for Rakuten? No. Not one dollar of them.
Part of the Rakuten series: the full referral guide has the payout table and the quarterly payment schedule.
The exclusion is written twice: once as a clause bolted to the end of the Qualifying Purchase definition, once as a plain sentence on Rakuten's own Amazon store page.
Rakuten referral bonus$50 to each side · Worth it Read the full Rakuten guide → Does it count toward your $50?
| Amazon.com purchases | No, written exclusion |
|---|---|
| music.amazon.com | Not excluded, but no published rate |
| Gift cards, vouchers, store credit | No, earns no cash back |
| Digital purchases and subscriptions | No, cash back not offered |
| Bought without clicking through Rakuten first | No, earns nothing |
| Order later cancelled, returned or exchanged | No, un-qualifies retroactively |
| $50 total at any other store, in 90 days | Yes |
The exclusion, in Rakuten's own words
Section 2 of the Refer-A-Friend Program Terms defines a Qualifying Purchase. The Amazon carve-out is bolted onto the end, after a semicolon:
Quoted from Rakuten
“Make purchase(s) that earn Cash Back through www.rakuten.com, the Rakuten App or the Rakuten browser extension (each a ‘Qualifying Purchase’) within ninety (90) days from sign-up according to the applicable bonus terms made available to you on the Referral Site or otherwise; provided, however, that purchases made on Amazon.com, other than those made on https://music.amazon.com/, shall not be considered Qualifying Purchases”
Rakuten says the same thing in plain English on its Amazon store page:
Quoted from Rakuten
“Amazon orders do not qualify as eligible purchases for any bonuses from the Rakuten Refer-A-Friend Program or the Welcome Bonus program.”
Why Rakuten pays you cash back on the very orders that don't count
Rakuten runs an Amazon offer aimed at new members, on the same store page:
Quoted from Rakuten
“Earn $5 Cash Back on each of your first 3 eligible Amazon orders of $25 or more through the Rakuten browser extension or the Rakuten app.”
So the day you join, Rakuten offers you up to $15 for shopping at Amazon, inside the same ninety days you're supposed to be spending $50 elsewhere. Two $30 Amazon orders and your cash back balance shows $10, earned and real. Your referral progress is still zero. The footnote to that same offer says so:
Quoted from Rakuten
“Amazon orders do not count toward purchases for any Rakuten Refer-A-Friend or Welcome bonuses.”
- Cash back you earn on two $30 Amazon orders$10
- Progress those orders make toward the $50 thresholdZero
One store page offers the cash back and, in its own footnote, takes those orders out of the bonus.
The commercial logic: Amazon isn't paying Rakuten a commission on these orders, Rakuten is funding the cash back itself, and it isn't willing to also pay a $50 bonus on a transaction that earns it nothing.
Three things Rakuten won't say
| Is the $50 measured before or after tax and shipping? | Not stated |
|---|---|
| Does in-store or dining cash back count toward it? | Not stated |
| What is music.amazon.com's cash back rate? | Not published anywhere |
On the first: Rakuten's Terms and Conditions define cash back generally as earned on the NET PURCHASE AMOUNT, WHICH EXCLUDES TAXES, FEES, SHIPPING, GIFT-WRAPPING, DISCOUNTS OR CREDITS, RETURNS OR CANCELLATIONS, AND EXTENDED WARRANTIES
, in Rakuten's own capitals, from its Terms and Conditions. Whether the referral threshold uses that net figure isn't stated. The safe move: aim comfortably past $50 on item prices alone. On the third, don't build a $50 plan around music.amazon.com.
The payout clock, once you qualify
From Rakuten's When Will I Get Paid page, read July 27, 2026. A purchase made in early October realistically lands on the following February 15 payment.
Already spent your first $50 on Amazon? Nothing is broken.
Nothing in the terms punishes you for shopping at Amazon. Those orders just don't advance the counter.
- Find your sign-up date and count ninety days from it. That's your real deadline.
- Keep the Amazon cash back you already earned. It's still paid on the normal schedule, it just doesn't count toward the bonus.
- Spend $50 through Rakuten at any other store inside the window. Two or three ordinary orders will do it.
- Don't return it. A cancelled, returned or exchanged order stops being a qualifying purchase, and the bonus goes with it.
Ninety days already up? That bonus is gone, and no ticket revives it. A second account to try again is exactly what Sections 7 and 8 exist to catch.
the 50 United States, District of Columbia, or Canada. The offer terms on the referral page itself say
the 50 United States or District of Columbia, no Canada. Both read July 27, 2026. We can't resolve it, and the narrower wording is the one attached to the money, so Canadian readers should confirm with Rakuten before counting on this offer.
Quick answers
Does Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh or an Amazon gift card count?
No. The exclusion covers anything transacting on Amazon.com, and gift cards separately fail the earns-cash-back test on their own.
Does the person who referred me lose their bonus too?
Yes. The referrer's $50 depends on you being a Qualified Referral, which depends on the same qualifying purchase.
Is there any way to appeal it?
No. This is the written definition of the thing you were trying to qualify for, stated in two places, and Section 9 reserves all interpretation to Rakuten.
Other definitions that decide whether you qualify
Every one of these is read from the company’s own document and dated. See all 59 questions we have answered.