Cookie Duration

Cookie duration is the length of time during which a user who clicked an affiliate link can still register and have the resulting account credited to that affiliate. After the click, an Affiliate Cookie is stored in the user's browser; if they sign up within the window, the referral counts, but if the window expires first, the affiliate earns nothing on that visitor. Typical durations vary widely by operator, with thirty, forty-five, and ninety days being common, and some programmes offering far longer. Worked example: an affiliate sends a reader to an operator that uses a thirty-day cookie. The reader does not deposit immediately but returns and registers on day twenty-eight, comfortably inside the window, so the affiliate is credited and earns their CPA or revenue share. Had the same reader signed up on day thirty-five, the cookie would have expired and the conversion would be lost, even though the affiliate's content was what prompted the sign-up. A longer window — for instance the multi-year cookies some operators offer — meaningfully helps affiliates whose audiences research extensively before committing. Cookie duration matters because it directly affects how many of an affiliate's referred visitors actually convert, and therefore how much a programme is worth. The common mistake is comparing programmes on commission rate alone while ignoring the cookie window: a generous percentage paired with a short duration can earn less than a modest rate with a long one. A further caveat is that cookies are inherently fragile — users clear them, switch devices, or trigger last-click overwrites from another affiliate — which is precisely why operators increasingly rely on server-side tracking keyed to a Click ID rather than the browser cookie alone. Read both the rate and the duration before choosing where to send traffic.