How we calculate a Tesla referral link's total dollar value

Competitor sites tend to assert a number ("claim the latest perks!") without showing how they got it. We'd rather show the receipts. This post is the audit trail behind the figures on our benefit table and our general formula post — three full scenarios, start to finish, plus where every input comes from.

Step 1 — start from the fixed, sourced inputs

• FSD (Supervised) monthly subscription price: $99/month (Tesla Support).
• Referral FSD trial length: 3 months, all Model 3 / Y / Cybertruck orders (Tesla Support, Electrek).
• Solar referral credit: flat $400 off, separate order from a vehicle.
• Federal loan-interest deduction: up to $10,000/year of interest, US-assembled personal vehicles, tax years 2025–2028, phases out near $100,000 single / $200,000 married filing jointly modified AGI (see our deduction post for full detail).

None of these are invented — each one traces back to a primary source listed at the bottom of every post, and we re-check them whenever Tesla or the IRS changes a term, updating the "verified" date you see across the site.

Step 2 — run three real scenarios

Scenario A — cash Model 3 buyer, no financing, no solar. Only the FSD trial applies: 3 × $99 = $297. Total: $297. No deduction, because there's no loan interest to deduct.

Scenario B — financed Model Y, $40,000 loan, 6.5% APR, 60 months, 22% marginal tax rate. FSD trial: $297. First-year loan interest (amortized): roughly $2,450. Deduction value: $2,450 × 22% ≈ $539. Combined total: $297 + $539 = $836.

Scenario C — Cybertruck + Solar, financed, 24% marginal rate. FSD trial: $297. Solar credit: $400 (separate order). Assume the same $40,000 loan segment at 6.5%/60 months for the vehicle portion: first-year interest ~$2,450, deduction value at 24% ≈ $2,450 × 24% = $588. Combined total: $297 + $400 + $588 = $1,285.

Step 3 — state what we deliberately exclude

We never add back the federal $7,500 purchase credit, because it ended 30 September 2025 and does not apply to a 2026 order (see life after the $7,500 credit). We never guess a state incentive, because those vary by state and utility and we won't publish a number we can't source for your specific location. We never assume you'll finance — Scenario A shows the honest, smaller total for a cash buyer.

Step 4 — verify, don't just calculate

A number is only as good as the mechanism behind it. Every link in our rotation pool is checked the same way described in how we verify: it has to resolve to a live ts.la/… owner link, and we confirm it applies the current benefit in Tesla's own configurator before it enters the pool. The dollar figures above are re-run on the same cadence as that verification — whenever a term changes, not on a fixed schedule that could go stale.

Run it yourself

You don't have to take our scenarios on faith. Swap in your own loan amount, APR, term and marginal tax bracket into Step 2's method, and you'll get your own number — that's the entire point of publishing the method instead of a single headline figure.

The referral relationship is disclosed in full on our disclosure page; every outbound referral link on this site is rel="nofollow sponsored", and the buyer never pays anything extra.

Related reading: the reader-facing formula, or exactly how we verify every link.