Tesla Referrals Now Pay in FSD in the US: Europe Status, Nov 2026

On October 30, 2026, Tesla quietly rebuilt its US referral program. Buying a car through a friend's link no longer earns anything in the United States. Referrals now reward one thing: getting an existing owner to subscribe to Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Since then, European readers have been asking whether the same switch applies to them, and whether "free kilometres" has become "free FSD". We checked Tesla's own support pages for Italy, Germany and Switzerland on November 4. Short answer: no, not yet. Here is exactly what changed, what did not, and why Europe is likely to be next, but not soon.

What changed in the US on October 30

Tesla's US Refer and Earn page now opens with a notice stating that, as of October 30, 2026, purchases of new Tesla vehicles are no longer eligible for buyer and referrer benefits. In the same notice, Tesla says referrer benefits can now be earned by sharing a link that gives an existing customer a one-month FSD (Supervised) trial.

The mechanics, from Tesla's dedicated FSD (Supervised) referral page (checked November 4, 2026):

Three limits are worth knowing. Rewards are capped at 12 per calendar year, so the ceiling is a year of free FSD or about 1,188 dollars in credit. Owners who received FSD through Tesla's one-year grant cannot refer at all. And owners who got an FSD trial with a new car cannot be referred until 12 months after that trial ended. The program lives in the Tesla app (version 4.62.0 or later) and the trial can only be accepted there.

The logic is easy to read. Tesla stopped selling FSD outright in the US in February 2026, so FSD is now a 99 dollar monthly subscription business. A referral that converts a trial into a subscriber is worth recurring revenue. A referral discount on a car that would probably have been bought anyway is not. Electrek, which first reported the change, noted that Tesla did not announce it and that the main terms page still carries a February 24, 2026 update stamp.

Europe and Switzerland: unchanged as of November 4

We opened the official Refer and Earn support pages for Italy (it_it), Germany (de_de) and Switzerland (it_ch) on November 4, 2026. All three:

• carry no October 30 notice and no mention of FSD;
• still show terms "effective October 3, 2024, updated June 4, 2025";
• still describe benefits earned when a friend buys a qualifying Tesla product through your link;
• still say referrer benefits are added as Supercharging credits or Tesla credits, depending on the vehicle purchased;
• still cap referrals at 10 orders per calendar year (the US FSD program uses 12).

The clearest signal: Tesla's FSD referral page exists at tesla.com/support/fsd/refer for the US, but the Italian and Swiss versions of that URL return a 404. There is simply no FSD referral program in those markets today.

Do not confuse it with the European FSD trials

Part of the confusion comes from timing. Over the past weeks, Tesla has sent free multi-month FSD (Supervised) trials to owners in EU countries where the system is approved, with reports from the Netherlands and Denmark among others. That is a promotional campaign aimed at owners who already have a compatible car. It has nothing to do with referral links, and it does not mean the referral program has moved to FSD in Europe.

Will Europe follow? Our read

This section is analysis, not news. Nothing from Tesla says a European switch is planned.

The direction is obvious: Tesla is turning referrals from a car-sales tool into an FSD-subscription tool. But the US model only works where FSD can actually be sold to the person you refer. In Europe that is still a patchwork. At our latest FSD status check (November 4), FSD (Supervised) was approved in ten EU countries following the Dutch RDW approval in April, and an EU-wide vote at the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles is possible in December at the earliest. Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the markets where most referred cars are bought, are not on that list. An FSD-only referral program in Europe today would leave most of Tesla's European buyers with nothing to refer.

So the more likely sequence is: an EU-wide FSD decision first, then, possibly, a European version of the US program. If the TCMV approves FSD in early 2027, a switch during 2027 would be consistent with what Tesla did in the US. Until then, expect the car-purchase program, with Supercharging or Tesla credits, to stay. We will update this page the day the European terms change.

What to do if you are ordering now

• Ordering in the EU or Switzerland: referral links still apply to car purchases. Open the link before you order: Tesla does not apply it after the order is placed.
• Verify the benefit in the app or on the referral landing page, on the day you order. That is the only place the current amount is reliable.
• Check the referrer's link is active. Each European referrer is limited to 10 referral orders per year. A capped link shows a "referral limit reached" message.
• Already have credits from an older program? They stay redeemable in the app until their expiry date, which is 12 months after the grant date.
• Living in the US? A referral link no longer saves you anything on a new car. If you own a Tesla and have never paid for FSD, a friend's link gets you a free month to try it.

FAQ

Sources

• Tesla: Refer and Earn, US (October 30, 2026 notice; checked Nov 4)
• Tesla: Full Self-Driving (Supervised) Referral Program, US (checked Nov 4)
• Tesla: Segnala e guadagna, Italy (checked Nov 4)
• Tesla: Empfehlen und Verdienen, Germany (checked Nov 4)
• Tesla: Segnala e guadagna, Switzerland (checked Nov 4)
• Electrek: Tesla drops car referral rewards, now pays owners in FSD (Oct 30)
• Tesla Oracle: up to 12 months of free FSD via the referral program (Nov 3)
• Not a Tesla App: Tesla sends out free FSD trials in Europe