/
Klarna's Creator Platform: How the BNPL Company's Own Affiliate and Brand-Deal Marketplace Works
Guide
Platform & Automation
Both
Klarna Creator Platform is Klarna's own marketplace connecting 500,000+ vetted creators worldwide with brands and retailers for affiliate deals, gifting activations and brand campaigns. The retailer sets its own commission level per product, and Klarna handles the creator's payout automatically each month. Important to keep separate: Klarna also runs a completely different, consumer-facing shopping browser extension, which has faced a US lawsuit since February 2025 alleging it diverts affiliate commission away from creators.
Klarna Creator Platform is Klarna's own marketplace connecting more than 500,000 vetted creators worldwide with brands and retailers that want affiliate deals, gifting activations and brand campaigns. The platform launched in the US in October 2022 and has since rolled out to more of Klarna's markets — built on Klarna's acquisition of the Stockholm-based influencer marketing company APPRL in July 2021. The retailer connects its own store, chooses which products to promote and sets its own commission level; Klarna handles the creator's payout automatically each month. Important to keep separate: Klarna also runs a completely different, consumer-facing shopping browser extension, which has faced a US lawsuit since February 2025 alleging it diverts affiliate commission away from creators — a case about a different Klarna product than Creator Platform itself.
Klarna Creator Platform is a marketplace where a retailer connects its own online store to Klarna and can then find, brief and pay creators for affiliate collaborations — a different thing entirely from Klarna's better-known "buy now, pay later" checkout feature, which is what most consumers actually know Klarna for. The platform builds on Klarna's July 2021 acquisition of APPRL, a Stockholm-based influencer marketing company that, per several independent sources (Tech.eu, Inside Retail, Retail Dive), described itself as a facilitator of relationships between content creators and retailers. Klarna's then-CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said at the time of the acquisition that the combination would create "an enriching and informative shopping experience" and accelerate growth for retailers — the deal's financial terms were never disclosed.
Creator Platform launched in the US in October 2022 and rolled out to more markets over that same autumn, including the UK in November 2022. Per several independent industry sources, the platform has since gone live across Klarna's active markets more broadly. This research could not confirm Denmark specifically as a market where a Danish creator can apply, or where a Danish retailer can connect its store — see the Denmark section below for what actually is, and isn't, confirmed.
Per Klarna's own documentation (klarna.com/business and merchant-help.creator.klarna.com), the setup works like this: the retailer connects its ecommerce store to Klarna, chooses which products to promote, and sets its own preferred commission level per product — there's no fixed, published standard rate across the platform. The retailer can then find creators via filters or an AI-generated list of brand-fit creators, and view profile data such as reach, conversion rate, audience demographics and best-performing products. A dashboard shows real-time data — traffic, sales and conversion rate — and Klarna handles the actual payout to the creator automatically; the creator receives payment via a single monthly statement.
Per Klarna's own merchant help page, there are two access tiers for a retailer: an "affiliate-only" tier, where the retailer is visible and discoverable to creators but can't interact with them directly, and a full "influencer marketing platform" tier with creator search, gifting, messaging, performance dashboards and campaign-management support. Access is arranged through a demo request to Klarna's own sales team — there's no self-serve sign-up for a retailer, unlike for a creator.
A retailer that already runs an affiliate program through an established network doesn't necessarily need a brand-new integration: Klarna's own documentation confirms that a retailer already connected to Awin, CJ, Impact, Partnerize, Rakuten, Adtraction or Tradedoubler can opt in to Klarna Creator Platform using its existing partner ID instead of building a new integration from scratch. That makes Klarna a layer on top of an existing network relationship for a retailer that's already chosen one of the networks covered in our affiliate tracking network comparison — not necessarily a replacement for it.
Sign-up happens through an application, not automatic admission. Per Klarna's own Content Creator Help Center, Klarna's team reviews each application within a few days and looks for consistently high-quality content posted regularly, a highly engaged following on at least one social platform, and content aesthetics that match Klarna's portfolio of brands. The platform is free for a creator to use. Once approved, a creator can use Klarna's Creator app, a web app, or a dedicated browser extension to generate commissionable affiliate links directly on connected retailers' product pages, track their own performance, and get paid monthly directly to their bank account. Klarna's own marketing copy states the platform continuously "analyzes the market" to offer "the highest commission levels" — that's Klarna's own phrasing, not a published, fixed rate, and should be read as marketing language rather than a guaranteed percentage.
This is the most overlooked detail in the whole product: Klarna runs two entirely different browser extensions, both commonly called "Klarna's browser extension" in casual conversation, but built for two completely different user groups:
The two extensions are built for opposite purposes — one finds savings for a shopper, the other generates income for a creator — but because both get called "Klarna's browser extension" in everyday conversation, it's easy to conflate them. That conflation has real consequences, because it's the consumer extension, Klarna Shopping, that's the subject of the lawsuit described below — not Creator Platform itself.
In February 2025, a group of US content creators, including Rachel Thompson, filed a proposed class action against Klarna Inc. (the case Ahntourage Media LLC, et al. v. Klarna, Inc., case No. 2:2025cv00124, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio). The allegation: that the Klarna Shopping extension, once installed in a consumer's browser, overwrites a creator's existing affiliate tracking cookie with its own at checkout — so that Klarna gets credited for a sale actually driven by a creator's content, and the creator loses the commission. The mechanism, as described by the plaintiffs, structurally resembles the allegations in the lawsuit against PayPal's Honey extension — both cases concern a browser extension allegedly overwriting an affiliate link right at checkout, not a cookie set with no genuine prior click at all.
The case is still active and unresolved. A March 31, 2026 order dismissed the plaintiffs' tortious-interference-with-business-relationships claim (without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled), while claims under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, plus tortious interference with contract and unjust enrichment, survive. Everything about the mechanism above is therefore the plaintiffs' allegation, not a court finding of wrongdoing — the same treatment the Academy already applies to the PayPal Honey case.
The key point for a retailer or creator considering Klarna Creator Platform: the lawsuit concerns a different Klarna product — the consumer extension Klarna Shopping, not Creator Platform's own infrastructure, which by design is built to pay commission to the creator, not divert it. The two products should be assessed separately, not lumped into one "Klarna risk."
Partially unconfirmed. Klarna itself is a well-known, long-established "buy now, pay later" provider for Danish consumers at ordinary online checkouts — that's not what this article is about. This research could not find Danish-language application copy for creators, a confirmed DKK payout mechanism specific to Creator Platform, or an explicit list of which of Klarna's roughly 45 markets Creator Platform has actually rolled out to today. Treat Creator Platform's availability in Denmark as unconfirmed, not as ruled out — and confirm directly with Klarna before a Danish retailer or creator invests time in an application.
| Klarna Creator Platform | Whop's built-in affiliate feature | A dedicated tracking network (e.g. Awin) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who sets the commission | The retailer, per product — no fixed standard rate | The seller, defaulting to 30% — see Whop | The retailer, freely negotiated; the network takes its own fee on top |
| Does the retailer need to already sell through a specific platform | No — the retailer connects its own store directly | Yes — only products sold through Whop itself | No — works across ecommerce platforms |
| Built-in creator matching/AI list | Yes, per Klarna's own documentation | No | No — the network connects, but doesn't actively match |
| Confirmed Danish availability | Not confirmed in this research | Partially — the buyer side is confirmed (MobilePay/DKK) | Only Awin has a documented Danish platform, since 2019 |
IF you're already running an affiliate program through Awin, CJ, Impact, Partnerize, Rakuten, Adtraction or Tradedoubler and just want to explore Klarna's creator pool as an extra layer → check whether you can opt in via your existing partner ID before building a new integration from scratch.
IF you're a Danish retailer or creator and Danish availability is decisive for your decision → confirm it directly with Klarna first; this research found nothing that either confirms or rules out Denmark specifically for Creator Platform.
IF you're considering Klarna because you've heard about a lawsuit against the company → confirm which Klarna product the case actually concerns; the current case concerns the consumer extension Klarna Shopping, not Creator Platform's own infrastructure.
IF you've already decided a built-in affiliate layer like Whop's fits your product type better → see Whop and the rise of creator-owned digital commerce for the full comparison of that model.
The figures below are hypothetical and illustrate only how a commission payout through Creator Platform might work mechanically — they are not a documented creator income figure and not a real Make Influence customer case.
A retailer sets commission at 12% on a product category and, in a given month, gets $2,000 in tracked sales from three creators combined. Total commission: 2,000 × 0.12 = $240, which Klarna pays out to the three creators collectively via the monthly statement — split according to each creator's own tracked sales, not evenly. If one creator alone drove $1,200 of the $2,000, that creator receives 1,200 × 0.12 = $144 of the total $240.
Make Influence has no agreement of its own with Klarna Creator Platform, so the following is our own operational assessment, not a restatement of a Klarna policy. A marketplace built on an acquired, already-established influencer marketing company like APPRL has a different "maturity" than a feature built entirely from scratch — in our experience, that's a reasonably positive signal that the underlying infrastructure (tracking, payment, matching) has been battle-tested. But that doesn't change the fact that a retailer should still assess each individual creator's relevance to their specific product — an AI-generated match list is a starting point, not a substitute for the assessment you'd otherwise make when you verify an influencer's audience before a collaboration. And however promising the platform looks on paper, we'd always recommend confirming Danish availability and payout mechanics directly with Klarna before building a campaign around it — the same discipline we'd recommend for any new affiliate network or marketplace, before locking in a budget.
No. "Buy now, pay later" is a checkout payment method for the consumer. Creator Platform is a separate marketplace where retailers and creators enter affiliate and campaign collaborations.
No. The case (Ahntourage Media LLC, et al. v. Klarna, Inc.) concerns Klarna Shopping, Klarna's consumer-facing discount-and-cashback browser extension — a different product than Creator Platform's own infrastructure, which is built to pay commission to the creator.
Per Klarna's own Content Creator Help Center, the platform is free for a creator to use. Commission is set by each individual retailer, per product.
Not confirmed in this research. Klarna itself is an established payment provider in Denmark, but that's a different part of the business than Creator Platform — confirm directly with Klarna before building a campaign around the platform.
Yes, per Klarna's own documentation, a retailer already connected to Awin, CJ, Impact, Partnerize, Rakuten, Adtraction or Tradedoubler can opt in using its existing partner ID instead of a brand-new integration.
Not necessarily — it can function as a supplementary layer on top of an existing network relationship rather than a replacement. See the comparison of Awin, Impact.com, Everflow and Refersion for what the four dedicated networks offer by comparison.
Make Influence
Find creators with real audience data, run collaborations in one place, and see clicks and sales per creator while the campaign is live.
Book a demoCreate accountMake Influence
Apply to campaigns from brands that are actively looking, follow your own clicks and sales, and get paid without chasing invoices.
Create creator profileMore creator guidesMake Influence
Briefs, agreed terms, tracking links and results sit together — so brands and creators see the same numbers.
See how it worksBrowse the Academy
