We use cookies
We use essential cookies to keep you signed in, plus optional analytics and marketing cookies. Affiliate referrals use browser storage and need your consent. Cookie policy
Free tool
The cookie window is the time between someone clicking your link and their purchase still counting as yours. It quietly decides how much of your traffic can ever pay you: a 24-hour window monetises impulse buyers only, while a 90-day window catches the researchers too. Here is where the major programs stand.
| Program | Window | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Lesso affiliate programme | Never expires | Referrals attach to your account, not a browser cookie. A creator who signs up through your link is attributed to you permanently. |
| Amazon Associates | 24 hours | Items added to the cart inside the 24-hour window stay attributable for roughly 90 days if the cart is checked out. |
| eBay Partner Network | 24 hours | Auction bids placed inside 24 hours still count if the auction closes within 10 days. |
| Walmart affiliate program | 3 days | |
| Target Partners | 7 days | |
| Shopify Affiliate Program | 30 days | |
| ClickBank | 60 days | Standard tracking window; some sellers configure longer. |
| PartnerStack programs | 90 days, typical | Set per program. Many SaaS programs on PartnerStack use 90 days or account-based attribution. |
| Semrush affiliate program | 120 days | |
| Awin / ShareASale merchants | Set per merchant | 30 days is a common default. The merchant profile shows the exact window before you join. |
| CJ Affiliate advertisers | Set per advertiser | Listed on each advertiser detail page as the action referral period. |
| Impact brands | Set per brand | The contract terms show the referral window; 30 days is common. |
Verified July 2026. Windows change and some programs vary them by product or region; always confirm in the program's current terms before you build around one.
When someone clicks your affiliate link, the program drops a small tracking file in their browser stamped with your ID. If they complete a purchase before that stamp expires, the sale is attributed to you and you earn the commission; a day later and the same purchase pays you nothing. The window is set by the program, not by you, and it interacts with real buying behaviour: cheap impulse products get bought inside any window, while considered purchases, software, courses, anything discussed with a partner first, routinely take days or weeks.
Short windows are not automatically bad; Amazon converts brilliantly inside its 24 hours because people arrive ready to buy. The mismatch to avoid is promoting a slow-decision product through a fast-expiring cookie: your content does the convincing, the reader sleeps on it, and the commission evaporates. For considered products, favour programs with 60-day or longer windows, recurring commissions, or account-based attribution, where the referral attaches to the person rather than the browser and cannot time out. That last category is rare and worth seeking out; it is also how Lesso's own programme attributes referred creators.
Twenty-four hours from the click. There is one important extension: items the shopper adds to their cart inside that window stay attributable to you for roughly 90 days, as long as the order is eventually placed from that cart. Anything they buy after the 24 hours without having carted it first earns you nothing.
Among cookie-based programs, SaaS offers tend to be the most generous, with 90-day windows common and some, like Semrush, at 120 days. Beyond cookies entirely, some programs attribute by account rather than browser: Lesso’s affiliate programme works that way, so a creator who signs up through your link is credited to you permanently, whether they convert the same day or a year later.
Usually not. A cookie lives in the browser where the click happened, so someone who clicks on their phone and buys on their laptop is typically lost to you, unless the program does logged-in, account-level attribution. This quietly matters more than the window length for products people research on one device and buy on another.
In most programs the last click before purchase wins and earlier cookies are overwritten. That is the standard, not a universal rule; a minority of programs credit the first click. It is worth checking, because it changes whether early-funnel content or last-step comparison content earns the commission.
Every row was checked against the program's published terms or help documentation in July 2026. Programs change windows without much announcement, so treat the table as a fast reference and confirm in the current terms before you build a strategy around a specific number.
For affiliates
Refer creators to Lesso and earn 50% of our net platform revenue on everything they sell, for as long as they sell. The referral link is free and instant.
Get your affiliate link