Journal · July 18, 2026 · updated July 13, 2026
My Delivery-Day Checklist for Claiming the Referral Benefit
The referral trial is supposed to activate on its own at delivery — no paperwork, Tesla says. I still check it every time, mine and a friend's, because "supposed to" and "did" aren't always the same thing. Here's the short checklist I actually run.
Before delivery day: the paper trail
I go back to my order confirmation email and the order summary in the Tesla app and confirm the referral line is still listed — the 3-month FSD (Supervised) trial, or the $400 solar discount for an energy order. If it was there when I ordered, it should still be there. This takes two minutes and rules out a whole category of delivery-day surprise.
At delivery: what I look for in the app
Confirm delivery is marked complete
The FSD trial is tied to delivery, not to the order date, so it won't show until the car is officially delivered in Tesla's system — usually the same day you drive off, sometimes the next.
Open the car's profile in the Tesla app
Check the software / Full Self-Driving section for a trial or subscription entry. On my own Model Y it appeared within about a day of delivery.
Check the in-car software menu too
The car's own touchscreen (Controls → Software, or the Autopilot/FSD settings) sometimes reflects it before the app does, so I check both rather than assuming one is wrong.
If it doesn't show up within a few days
This is the part nobody's delivery-day checklist mentions: a short delay isn't automatically a lost benefit. In my experience these things sometimes take a couple of days to sync after delivery. What I actually do is keep the original order-summary screenshot (see step one) as my proof, wait about a week, and if it's still missing, contact Tesla support directly with the order number and a note that the referral was applied before ordering. That paper trail is the entire reason I check the order summary before delivery, not just after.
Solar delivery is different
If the referral was for Tesla Solar rather than a vehicle, there's no "delivery day" moment in the same sense — the $400 off shows as a line-item discount on the solar order itself, before installation. I check that at contract signing, not afterward. More on how that one works in do referral codes work on solar?
The habit that actually matters
None of this replaces getting the timing right in the first place — referral first, then configure, then confirm before you pay. I've written the full sequence, with an annotated order-summary mockup, in how to apply a referral code at checkout. Delivery day is just where I make sure the thing I checked at order time is still true.
Sources:
- Tesla Support — Refer and Earn
- Electrek — Tesla referral program guide
- Not a Tesla App — referral FSD incentives