FAQ & Fraud Ground Rules

How earnings work, and the rules that protect users and advertisers.

Last updated: August 1, 2026

1. How do I earn?

Install the extension, sign in, and keep coding as normal. While your AI assistant is working, a short sponsored line appears in or alongside its "thinking…" indicator, and you accrue credit for qualifying activity. The current revenue split is an estimated 50% of the net ad revenue attributable to your qualifying activity — the Terms of Service, §6 control the split, eligible activity, and how either can change. You don't have to do anything differently — there is nothing to click, refresh, or run on a schedule. Supported editors and surfaces are listed in §5.

2. What counts as a real impression?

Qualifying activity must be genuine and human-initiated, meet the applicable display-duration criteria (currently at least ten continuous seconds on screen during a live wait-state), come from a properly installed and signed-in extension, stay within the applicable activity caps, and pass our fraud controls. The Terms, §6 control the exact criteria and may change. We apply per-user spacing rules and hourly/daily caps; we don't publish the exact values because they move with abuse patterns.

3. When do I get paid?

Earnings accrue to your balance. Eligible earnings are transferred periodically via Stripe Connect after your balance exceeds the then-current payment threshold, you've completed Stripe onboarding (including any required tax forms), and any fraud or activity verification is complete. Balances are estimates until reconciled. The Terms, §6 control the payout mechanics, thresholds, and timing.

Which countries can get paid? (Stripe Connect)

Payouts use only the payment methods we expressly make available — currently Stripe Connect (see the Terms of Service, §6.5). Because every payout runs through Stripe Connect, we can pay you only in a country Stripe lets us send payouts to.

Countries currently available for payouts — this list renders from the same country data the product itself enforces, so what you see here is what sign-up and payouts actually allow:

What if my country isn't on the list?

You still earn normally and your balance remains credited — we simply can't disburse it until Stripe Connect supports payouts in your country. We pay only through the methods we expressly make available, currently Stripe Connect (see Terms, §6.5). If support becomes available for your country, transfer remains subject to the then-current threshold, completed onboarding, and the other conditions in Terms, §6. Your portal shows a notice when your saved payout country isn't supported — that's the country you picked in the payout-country card on your dashboard, so if it's wrong you can change it there yourself (or email us if it's locked to a Stripe account already).

Stripe onboarding shows the wrong country / only US banks / no IBAN

If you're in a supported country but Stripe's onboarding only offers US bank fields (routing and account number, no IBAN), the Connect account was started under the wrong country. A Stripe Connect account's country can't be changed after it's created, so the fix is to start over: use the Reset control in the payout card on your dashboard and reconnect with the correct country selected at the very first step. Your accrued earnings are unaffected. If the reset control isn't showing for you, email us.

4. Troubleshooting — ads, earnings & sign-in

The single most useful first step for almost anything below: open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P) and run “Kickbacks: Diagnose”. It runs a self-check and tells you what Kickbacks.ai found — sign-in state, the compatible targets it detected, and which serving surfaces are currently active. Most “it's not working” reports are answered in that one readout.

I don't see any ads in the spinner

Work through these in order — they're the usual causes, most common first:

• Is the Claude Code extension installed? Kickbacks.ai works by patching the Claude Code VS Code extension — if that extension isn't installed there's nothing for it to patch, so you'll see no ads (and the status bar may read “incompatible (unknown)”). Install Claude Code first, then reload. (The Codex VS Code surface is currently paused — see §5.)
• Are you signed in? Run Kickbacks: Show status (or check the status-bar item). If it says signed out, run Kickbacks: Sign in. You'll see real sponsored lines even before signing in, but you only earn while signed in.
• Is Claude Code actually thinking? Sponsored content only appears during a genuine wait-state. If a turn finishes instantly there's no spinner to sponsor.
• Is Kickbacks.ai enabled? If the status bar reads “Kickbacks: Off”, click it and re-enable. After a VS Code or Claude Code update, run Kickbacks: Diagnose — a new editor version occasionally needs Kickbacks.ai to re-apply its patch.
• Restart the window. A full reload of VS Code (or restarting your terminal session) clears most transient states.

If Diagnose reports it can't find a compatible target, Kickbacks.ai is doing nothing on purpose — it never patches something it doesn't recognize, so it can't break your editor. See §5 for version requirements.

Status bar says “incompatible (unknown)”, or “Sign in” says “command not found”

This means Kickbacks.ai half-loaded or can't find its target — not that your editor is broken. The usual fixes:

• Confirm the Claude Code VS Code extension is installed — Kickbacks.ai patches it, so it has to be present.
• A Claude Code update can break compatibility. Reinstall the latest Kickbacks.ai (kickbacks.ai/install or kickbacks.ai/vsix), fully restart the editor, then run Kickbacks: Diagnose.
• Linux Flatpak/snap VS Code keeps extensions in a non-standard path (e.g. ~/.var/app/…); if Diagnose can't find Claude Code there, symlink your real extensions directory into the expected location.

I'm coding but my earnings / event count isn't moving

First, this is usually a display lag, not lost money. A few things to know:

• Your portal balance can trail live serving by a few minutes. Reload your dashboard before assuming anything is stuck.
• Earnings are credited for charged ten-second impressions, not for every flicker of the spinner — so the number moves in steps, not continuously. A counter that looks “frozen” for a short stretch of light usage is normal.
• If it's genuinely flat for a long active session, run Kickbacks: Diagnose to confirm you're signed in and ads are serving, then reload the dashboard. Still wrong after that? Email us your account email and we'll audit the ledger by hand.

How are my earnings counted? (and why the number can look small)

• You earn per qualified impression. Each impression requires the ad to remain on screen continuously for at least 10 seconds; hiding or switching away resets that continuous-view clock.
• Earnings come from qualifying activity under the rates and controls currently in effect — see Terms, §6. Clicks are recorded for measurement and fraud screening; qualifying engagement may also be earning-eligible under those Terms.
• Only your own genuinely visible, human-initiated activity counts — background sub-agent / multi-agent waits don't accrue.
• There's no background earning — accrual pauses when your editor is closed.

I get a “no ads — please reload” popup

If you see this while you're reading code rather than actively prompting, it's almost always a false alarm — the check just fired during an idle stretch, and it's safe to dismiss (idle time itself doesn't accrue earnings; only qualifying activity does). If it persists during active coding, reload the window and run Kickbacks: Diagnose.

Ads stopped after I got my first payout

A payout doesn't change your earning status — your account keeps serving and accruing exactly as before. If ads stop around that time it's almost always unrelated and transient: update the extension to the latest version, reload the window, and confirm you're still signed in (and not showing an “Account blocked” indicator — see §9). If it sticks, contact support.

It keeps signing me out / asking me to re-authenticate

• Re-run Kickbacks: Sign in from the command palette. In the extension, sign-in is via Google; the website sign-in at /login also offers an emailed magic link.
• On Windows, the browser didn't open? Some setups don't auto-launch the sign-in page — copy the URL from the Kickbacks.ai notification or output panel and paste it into your browser manually.
• The dashboard opened inside the editor (the webview) keeps its own session, separate from your normal browser. Signing in there once is expected; it isn't a bug.
• If you're bounced out repeatedly across restarts, send us your account email and roughly when it happens — that detail helps us pin it down fast.

The advertiser link in the spinner isn't clickable

Most terminals require Cmd+click (macOS) or Ctrl+click (Windows/Linux) to open a link — try that first. Some terminals don't treat the sponsored line as a link at all; you can always open the advertiser from the Kickbacks.ai activity panel / your dashboard instead — the link is live there.

Running two editor windows at once

Concurrent windows on the same account are handled, but if you see credit gaps or a spurious “no ads” popup with several signed-in windows open, a single active window is the most reliable setup while we harden concurrent-window handling.

“Prior activation didn't complete cleanly — skipping automatic patch”

This safety warning means a prior activation didn't settle cleanly — usually after an editor crash or an interruption during patching — so Kickbacks.ai skipped its automatic patch rather than act on an unstable state. Once your editor is stable, click the status-bar item to re-enable, or reload the window.

5. Editors, CLIs & platforms

Kickbacks.ai runs in two places — the editor panel and the terminal. Sign in once and your earnings follow your account across every supported surface:

• VS Code — Claude Code panel. The spinner overlay. This is the primary, fully-supported surface.
• Claude Code terminal CLI. Supported. The status-bar line works on any Claude Code version; the sponsored spinner verb needs Claude Code 2.1.143 or newer. On older CLIs nothing breaks — you simply keep the stock verbs.
• Codex. The Codex VS Code panel surface is temporarily paused, and the Codex terminal CLI is not currently supported.

Because the VS Code build is a standard extension, the same surfaces also load over Remote-SSH, WSL (install Claude Code and Kickbacks.ai inside the WSL host via Remote-WSL — not on the Windows side), and in devcontainers. VS Code Insiders works too — the install page at kickbacks.ai/install shows the steps, just run them against your Insiders setup (e.g. code-insiders instead of code). If a remote/WSL/container setup shows nothing, confirm the extension is installed in that host (remote and local extension lists are separate), then run Kickbacks: Diagnose.

Where to install: kickbacks.ai/install or the raw VSIX at kickbacks.ai/vsix. It is not distributed through Open VSX, so editors that pull only from Open VSX (such as VSCodium) can't find it in their built-in marketplace.

Terminal-only setups: the VS Code extension is currently required even to earn from the terminal CLI — it's the piece that reports impressions. A sponsored line may render in other standalone terminals (Warp, iTerm2, tmux, over SSH), but those don't earn yet, and there's no VS-Code-free installer.

Is macOS supported?

Yes. If something looks off on a Mac, make sure you're on the latest version, then reload the window.

6. Managing & uninstalling

You can manage or remove Kickbacks.ai at three levels:

• Pause it. Click the Kickbacks.ai item in the status bar and choose Disable Kickbacks. The spinner returns to normal and the bar reads “Kickbacks: Off” — click again to re-enable.
• Fully revert. Run Kickbacks: Restore Claude Code from the command palette. Every edit Kickbacks.ai made is undone byte-for-byte, back to stock Claude Code.
• Uninstall. Remove the extension from your editor's Extensions panel like any other — its uninstall cleanup automatically reverts the editor patches. Running Kickbacks: Restore Claude Code first is a safe extra step, not a requirement.

Other handy commands (command palette → type “Kickbacks”): Sign in, Sign out, Show status, Menu, Edit Config, and Diagnose.

Can I use it on a work machine?

That's between you and your employer. If your company manages your dev environment, make sure you're allowed to install third-party extensions and run a sponsored line before you do. When in doubt, use a personal machine.

How do I delete my account and data?

Use the request form at kickbacks.ai/privacy-choices, or email support@kickbacks.ai from your account address. We'll close the account and delete your personal data; eligible balances are handled first, and some records may be retained or de-identified where the law or our financial, tax, fraud-prevention, or dispute obligations require it. The Privacy Policy is the authoritative description of retention and deletion.

7. Fraud ground rules

These are the lines that, if crossed, make activity non-billable and can get an account blocked. They exist to protect the honest majority — every fake impression dilutes a real developer's share and overcharges an advertiser.

• One account per person. Creating or operating multiple earning accounts — alone or in coordination with others — is prohibited.
• Real usage only. No automated clicking, scripted prompts, bots, click farms, paid-to-click schemes, or any setup whose purpose is to manufacture impressions or clicks.
• No collusion or account networks. Pooling devices, machines, or identities to aggregate earnings is prohibited.
• No tampering. Don't modify, spoof, replay, or otherwise falsify the telemetry the extension reports.
• No circumvention. Don't try to evade caps, account limits, or other controls — including by rotating networks or devices.

These rules are part of your agreement with us. Under the Terms of Service, §9 (Fraud Prevention, Abuse & Enforcement) and §12 (Termination & Account Suspension), Kickbacks.ai may withhold or reverse payouts, void fraud-associated entries, recover amounts already paid, and suspend, restrict, or permanently bar any account for violating these ground rules or otherwise breaching the Terms. Termination for breach may forfeit unpaid earnings — the Terms control the scope.

8. How fraud detection works

We use automated, continuously-tuned systems alongside human review to analyze activity patterns and account relationships. They look at the shape of activity, not the content of your work. We don't publish the specific signals, thresholds, or windows — they move with abuse patterns — and the Terms, §9 carry the controlling description. Honest, ordinary coding — even across a laptop, a desktop, and the occasional coffee-shop Wi-Fi — is what the limits are calibrated to protect.

9. What happens if an account is flagged

Depending on confidence, our systems either flag an account for human review or block it automatically. A blocked account stops future earning. Depending on the circumstances, we may void some or all fraud-associated entries, withhold or reverse payouts, and recover amounts already paid. You'll see a clear "Account blocked" indicator in the extension if this happens. Full detail is in the Terms, §9 and §6.

10. What we collect (and never do)

Kickbacks.ai uses limited account, device/network, and ad-event data to operate the service, credit earnings, deliver ads, and prevent fraud. The two advertising modes have different collection and sharing rules — signing in and enabling earning opts you into Private Mode, and Boosted Mode is a second, separate opt-in that shares more (including cleaned session context and a derived interest profile) in exchange for higher earning potential. The Privacy Policy is the authoritative description of exactly what each mode collects, processes, and shares, and what we never collect; the Terms, §10 govern the data-sharing agreement itself.

11. Appeals & contact

If you believe your account was flagged in error, contact us — we weigh the evidence in good faith. Where a significant enforcement decision was made solely by automated processing, you can request human review (see Terms, §9.7 for the mechanics and timing); a person re-examines the decision and the evidence, though protective measures can remain in place during the review.

Email: support@kickbacks.ai
More: Terms of Service · Privacy Policy