How we are paid

What we are paid for

One thing: a referral fee or a commission from a provider when a visitor we sent activates a service. Nothing for a click, a listing, a logo or a position. Every hand-off goes through our /go page, which shows the dated price and then sends you to the provider. The link carries a reference so the sign-up can be traced back to the visit; where the link goes through a network it is marked rel="sponsored".

Who pays today

Our registry holds 72 affiliate rows, one per brand. 0 of them are tracking links and 72 are placeholders: the brand's own page, recorded while no program has accepted us, which pays nothing. So as of today no link on the site is an affiliate link: every hand-off lands on the provider's own page, with our reference in the address.

A provider can also agree a flat fee per activated service in writing. Our standard proposal is on the partners page. Paying never changes the order: every plan is ranked by price whether or not its provider pays, as the methodology says.

Link networks

A link network turns ordinary links to a brand into tracking links for that brand's program. Our code holds 2 such networks; each loads only on the pages listed for it and only when switched on.

• Skimlinks: off, allowed on the home page. Declined 2026-11-02 ("not suitable for Skimlinks at this time"; merchants' publisher criteria); script off. They re-evaluate applications periodically; no appeal filed.
• Sovrn Commerce: off, allowed on the home page. Applying 2026-10-30 (Commerce product, not Ad Exchange); add its script URL here and its hosts to the CSP when issued.

None is switched on today. The hand-off code knows the link format of 7 networks so a network link can carry our reference; a network is listed above once we have applied to it.

Insurance leads

The insurance check asks for a first name, email and phone and says they may be passed to an insurer who can contact you about cover. A buyer may pay OpenStream for such a lead. Forwarding is switched on only when a buyer's address is set at deploy: today it is off, so no lead leaves the site. No insurer pays OpenStream for a health listing or a link; the health comparison is the regulator's data, ranked by premium.

What we are not paid for

• Visitors never pay. Comparing is free and nothing on the site takes a payment.
• The API and the MCP server have no key at the public tier; keys for higher limits are self-serve.
• No display advertising and no advertising networks (see privacy).
• No provider pays for placement, a label or a ranking.

Questions about any of this: support@openstream.com.au. Wrong or out of date? The corrections page says what happens next.