Referral Program Terms

Any contributor who holds a rustLabs Experts account (“Referrer”) may share their referral link and refer others. Referrals are recorded and shown on the Refer tab from the moment the referred contributor applies.

Payment is separate. To receive a referral bonus, a Referrer must have at least 1 approved, paid task of their own on any project at the time the bonus would be paid. A Referrer who has not met that bar keeps the recorded referral and becomes payable on it once they do — nothing is forfeited for referring before your own first task is approved.

To be a “Qualified Referral,” the referred contributor must:

• be new to rustLabs Experts (no prior application or account);
• apply using the Referrer's unique referral link, or name the Referrer in the “Referred by” field on the application;
• be accepted onto the platform; and
• earn a minimum of $1,000.00 from approved, paid tasks on any project within 30 days of their application date.

A referred contributor who creates an application without using a referral link or naming the Referrer is not a Qualified Referral.

Each Referrer has a unique referral link, available from the Refer tab on the rustLabs Experts platform. Referred contributors may be placed on any project on the platform. Project placement is based on qualifications and project availability, at RustLabs' discretion. RustLabs does not guarantee project placement, and the inability to place a referred contributor does not extend or reset the referral window described below.

Bonus structure. The referral bonus is a single fixed payment of $100.00, paid to the Referrer once the referred contributor has earned $1,000.00 from approved, paid tasks on any project. It is not a percentage of pay and is paid at most once per Qualified Referral.

How earnings are counted. A referred contributor's earnings are the sum of their approved tasks at each project's stated per-task rate, as shown on their own Payments page. The referral threshold and the Payments page read the same figure.

No cap on referrals. There is no limit to the number of Qualified Referrals a Referrer may earn a bonus for.

Paid, approved work. A task counts toward these threshold only once it has been approved and paid. Work that has been submitted but not yet approved, or that is later reversed or disputed, does not count.

A referral must become a Qualified Referral — meaning the referred contributor earns $1,000.00 from approved, paid tasks — within 30 days of the referred contributor's application date. Referrals that have not resulted in a Qualified Referral within this window are not eligible for a bonus. This window is not reset or extended for any reason, including delays in project placement.

Referral bonuses are reviewed and paid at RustLabs' discretion. RustLabs reserves the right to withhold or delay a referral bonus in cases of suspected fraud, referral gaming, or a violation of these terms. Referral bonuses are subject to applicable taxes and reporting requirements.

Referring yourself, an alternate account you control, or any account that is not a genuinely new, distinct individual is not a Qualified Referral and forfeits any bonus. RustLabs reviews signals including duplicate resumes, LinkedIn or GitHub profiles already on file, matching IP addresses, and lookalike email addresses before paying a referral bonus, and may ask a Referrer or referred contributor to verify their identity or relationship.

The primary safeguard against referral gaming is the qualification bar itself: a referral only earns a bonus once the referred contributor has real, client-approved work on the platform.

Rustlabs LLC, doing business as RustLabs, reserves the right to modify, pause, or terminate the referral program at any time without prior notice. Continued participation in the program after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Questions about the referral program can be sent to team@rustlabs.ai. See also our Expert & Applicant Privacy Notice.