What the February 2026 Terms Revision Did to the Eligible-Model List
By David · Published
The current Refer and Earn terms carry a revision date of 24 February 2026. Weeks later, in March 2026, Model S and Model X left the referral programme. Those two facts are normally reported apart from each other; read together they are the clearest statement available of how narrow referral eligibility now is — and this is one of the few stories where the news is the referral programme.
What a revision date is good for
It is a boundary. Any referral guide written before 24 February 2026 is describing a rulebook that has since been rewritten — not necessarily wrongly on every point, but without authority on any of them. When you find a page confidently listing rewards with no date on it, the revision date is the reason to distrust it. It is also the reason this desk stamps its own pages.
The eligibility list as it now stands
- Eligible: Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck in Premium AWD and Cyberbeast trims.
- Not eligible: Model S and Model X (removed March 2026), and Cybertruck Dual Motor AWD.
The Cybertruck exclusion is the instructive one: it proves eligibility is decided at trim level, not model level, which is why a new variant is never automatically covered — a question raised again by the six-seat Model Y L.
The wasted-link scenario
The most common way a referral produces nothing is not a broken code. It is a valid code applied to an ineligible car. A Model S order placed through a live referral link pays nobody and gives the buyer no benefit; nothing in the flow stops you. Since a referral cannot be added after the order is placed, there is also no recovery — the error is only visible on the order summary, before payment, where the benefit line simply does not appear.
How to date-check any referral page, including this one
The test is short. Does the page state a verification date? Does it name the rulebook revision it is describing? Does it distinguish the buyer's benefit from the referrer's, and the North American reward from the European one? A page that does none of those is not necessarily wrong, but it gives you no way to tell — and referral terms have now moved twice in a single year.
What did not change in February
The parts of the rulebook that matter most to a buyer survived the revision intact: the benefit attaches at checkout, one referral applies per transaction, vehicle and energy purchases count separately, and the referrer's side is capped at the first 10 successful referrals per calendar year. The referrer's credit amount is quoted inconsistently across sources — $250 in some, $500 in others — and this desk states it as Tesla Credits of a disputed amount rather than pick a side.
If you are ordering an eligible car
The benefit for a Model 3, Model Y or eligible Cybertruck order in North America is 3 months of free FSD (North America) or free Supercharging (Europe), applied when you order through a referral link and visible in the order summary before you pay. The how-it-works guide covers the rest of the mechanics, and the pre-order checks cover proving it attached.
For the full mechanics of where the code goes and when, see how the referral program works.
Disclosure: I'm an independent Tesla owner writing this myself. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Tesla, Inc. If you eventually order through the referral link in the site header or footer I may earn Tesla Credits — that costs you nothing and changes nothing about your benefit.