Starlink Mini rental for Residential Max: how to claim and keep it

The offer, as Starlink's legal document words it

Starlink's US Special Offers document lists one offer, "Residential Max: Mini Rental + Discounted Roam Service Plan". Its terms set out who gets it, where, and what keeps it.

Starlink's help page Optional Mini Kit for Travel, checked November 2026, calls the rental "a no-cost hardware rental tied to your active Residential subscription". It says "You must also keep an active Residential plan on your home kit.", and if the rental ends, "You must return the Mini Kit, or you will be charged the retail price." Its "Residential" is wider than the legal document's Residential Max, and the two pages side by side show where they part.

The offer's row on the offers page sits among Starlink's other offers, and the table of Starlink's US cost lines puts the rental beside the kit, the fees and the service.

How it's claimed: an email, a survey, up to a week

The help page starts the claim on Starlink's side, with an email:

1. "If you are eligible, Starlink will email you a “Claim Mini” button."
2. "Complete the short survey in that email to redeem."
3. The Mini order and its confirmation email "can take up to a week to appear after you submit the survey".
4. "If no Mini order appears within a week" and you have an active Residential Max plan, the help page says to "contact Starlink Support with your shipping address, service address, and the Roam plan you want so the $0 Mini order can be placed." That figure is for the order. The Mini on it is still a rental with a plan you pay for, kept while Residential Max and the Mini's plan stay active and sent back when either ends (what ends it).

The email can't be sent again: "Claim Mini emails are sent automatically, and Starlink Support can't resend them." An order also needs your yes: "a Mini order is only placed for you if you confirm you want one."

The claim email, the survey and the account's Orders page weren't read for this page. Each needs an invitation or a sign-in.

Who qualifies, and the two plans it is tied to

Special Offers gives the eligibility as "Residential Max Subscribers Only", and both Starlink pages say "The Mini Kit may not be transferred. Limited to one per customer."

The rental is tied to two plans at once: Residential Max on your home kit, and "an active service plan on your Mini Kit" (Special Offers). Leaving Residential Max or cancelling the Mini's plan ends it (what ends it).

The help page words eligibility more widely, "available only to customers in select countries with an active Residential plan", and where the two pages disagree sets its lines beside the legal document's. Neither page says, for the US, whether someone who has just subscribed to Residential Max qualifies at once, or how soon the claim email arrives.

What you keep paying for while you have the Mini

Two plans stay on your bills for as long as you keep the Mini. Residential Max stays on your home kit, as the offer's terms require, and the Mini carries a plan of its own. If either ends, the Mini goes back (sending it back). What Residential Max includes, beside Starlink's other Residential plans, is on the plans and prices page.

The help page names the plans the Mini can begin on: "You can start on Roam 100GB, Roam 300GB (United States and Canada), or Roam Unlimited at the discounted Roam rate for your Residential plan." With Residential Max, both Starlink pages put that discount at 50% (the offer's terms). The price itself is on neither page: "Your price is shown in the claim email and in your account." The plans and prices page has the Roam label file's two monthly prices, before any discount, and none for Roam 100GB or Roam 300GB, and Starlink's own US site listed other Roam plans and prices than that file when this site checked in November 2026. This page works out no discounted figure.

One more help page says when the discount begins. How do I know if a promotion has been applied?, checked October 2026, says "If this is about the Optional Mini Kit for Travel, the coupon is applied only after a full month of Roam service."

To keep the rental, "the Mini must stay on a Roam plan or Standby Mode."

Leaving Residential Max or cancelling the Mini's plan ends it

Special Offers ends the rental in one sentence: "If you cease to subscribe to Residential Max, including by activating Standby Mode or changing to any other service plan, or cancel the service plan on your Mini Kit: (1) you must immediately return your Mini Kit rental, and (2) you will immediately lose the discount on your associated Roam service plan on your next billing date." The help page puts the second part as "You will lose the Roam discount on your next billing date."

Pausing the home kit and pausing the Mini don't have the same effect. The Standby Mode page quotes the help page's line on each. The help page also lists the end in its own words, which the comparison below sets beside Special Offers'.

Sending the Mini back within 30 days

Once you go ahead with cancelling, the help page says "you will receive a return label and packing instructions by email." Both Starlink pages give the same deadline: "If you do not return the Mini Kit within 30 days of this event, your payment method will be charged for the purchase of the Mini Kit." The help page's shorter line is that you "will be charged the retail price".

"Normal wear and tear is expected on return." The Mini you receive may not be new, either. Special Offers says "Rentals may be fulfilled with refurbished equipment.", and the help page says "If your Mini is refurbished, your support ticket says so."

The activation fee page lists, among the charges an order can bring, the charge for a rented kit that isn't returned.

Where Starlink's two pages disagree

Starlink's legal document and its help page word three things differently: who keeps the rental, the Roam discount, and what ends it. Each line below is quoted as its page has it, and this page doesn't say which one applies.

The $100 referral credit goes only to new customers

Residential Max is one of the eight plans Starlink's referral help page, checked November 2026, lists for the referral credit. The credit goes to someone who "is not, and has never been, a Starlink subscriber" (section 3.1(a) of the US Referral Program Terms, version published October 2026) and orders on starlink.com through an existing customer's referral link. The help page gives the amount "(for example, $100 in the US)", and the terms apply it "on their second monthly subscription invoice" (section 4.1).

The help page also says "Existing or returning customers are not eligible.", so a current Residential Max subscriber can't receive it as a new customer. Starlink's two pages on the rental say nothing about the referral credit, or about when a new subscriber's claim email comes.

The sign-up page lists the eligible plans by name and sets out when the $100 lands, and the offers and credits page has the rest of the conditions. The referral link is in the promo after this page's answer and again at its end.

What this page doesn't cover

Which Mini is rented: neither Starlink page names a model. A Mini 2 preorder is by invitation, and the Mini 2 page has how that works.

How soon a new Residential Max subscriber in the US qualifies, and when the claim email comes: the help page's US text doesn't say.

The discounted Roam price in dollars, and any shipping or activation charge on a claimed Mini order. Neither page gives one, and the claim email and the account, where the help page says the price is shown, weren't read.

Which countries the help page's "select countries" are (Special Offers lists five), and the terms in the four outside the US.

Renting a kit without Residential Max.