Between 24 hours and 90 days, depending entirely on the programme. That range is so wide it is almost useless as an answer, and the number matters far more to what you earn than the commission rate most creators pick programmes by.
Here is what the window actually is, what the common durations are, and how much money the short ones quietly cost you.
What the cookie is doing
When someone clicks your affiliate link, the merchant or its network drops a small file in that person’s browser recording that the visit came from you. If they buy before it expires, the sale is credited to you and you are paid.
If they buy after it expires, you get nothing. Not a reduced share. Nothing. The merchant keeps the full margin and the sale is recorded as direct traffic.
That is the whole mechanism, and it explains why the duration is the single most consequential term in an affiliate agreement. If the mechanics are new to you, start with what affiliate cookies actually are.
The durations you will actually meet
| Window | Typical of | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | Very large retailers with huge organic demand | Only impulse buys count. Considered purchases are lost. |
| 7 days | Fast-moving consumer goods, fashion | Covers a weekend’s thinking. Workable, not generous. |
| 30 days | The most common standard across networks | The realistic default. Covers most purchase decisions. |
| 60 to 90 days | Software, subscriptions, high-value goods | Generous, and usually reflects a long sales cycle. |
| Lifetime | Some SaaS and referral programmes | Rare. Read the terms — it usually means first purchase only. |
What a 24-hour window costs you
Work it through with your own content. You publish a review. Someone reads it on Tuesday evening, thinks it over, mentions it to their partner, and buys on Saturday.
On a 30-day window you are paid. On a 24-hour window you are not, and nothing about your work was different. The reader was persuaded by your content either way — you simply were not paid for it.
Now scale that. If most of your audience buys within a day, a short window barely hurts. If most take a few days, a 24-hour window can cost you the majority of the sales you actually caused. You cannot know which without measuring, which is why the window deserves attention before you commit content to a programme.
Things that end the window early
Another affiliate’s link. Most programmes credit the last click. If your reader later clicks a coupon site’s link before checkout, that site takes the commission and you lose it, however much of the persuading you did.
A different device. Click on a phone, buy on a laptop, and the cookie is not there. Cross-device purchases are largely invisible to affiliate tracking.
Browser settings. Safari and Firefox restrict third-party cookies aggressively, and private browsing discards them at the end of the session. A meaningful share of clicks never produce a durable cookie at all.
In-app browsers. Links opened inside a social app often sit in a sandboxed browser whose cookies do not carry over when the reader opens their normal browser later.
Where to find the window before you join
On a network, the programme’s detail page lists it, usually as “cookie duration”, “referral period” or “validation window”. On a direct programme it is in the affiliate terms, and if it is not published, ask before applying.
A programme that will not tell you its cookie duration is telling you something. Reputable merchants publish it because it is a selling point when it is good.
How to work with short windows
Sometimes the merchant is worth promoting anyway. If so, change what you publish rather than hoping.
Short windows favour content aimed at people already deciding — comparisons, “best X for Y”, posts that answer the last question before a purchase. Long windows suit awareness content that introduces something new, because the reader has weeks to come back.
Matching content type to window is a genuine lever, and almost nobody uses it deliberately.
The short version
Thirty days is the realistic standard. Under seven days, check whether your audience buys that fast before committing content. Over sixty days is generous and usually signals a long sales cycle you should write for accordingly.
Reporting the gap between what you caused and what was credited is covered in our piece on handling attribution honestly. And check the window before the commission rate, every time. The rate decides what a sale pays. The window decides whether it counts at all.