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Free Affiliate Link Checker

Paste an affiliate link and we follow every redirect from a server, then tell you whether your affiliate tag or click id is still on the final URL. Broken tracking is invisible until payday, so test it first.

Affiliate link to test *

Try:

We follow every redirect from a server, then compare the affiliate parameters on your link against the ones still present on the final URL. Nothing is stored on our side. Some large merchants treat automated requests differently from a real browser, so if a destination canonicalises or blocks our request, check that link with a real click too.

Shorten a link for free while you are here

Flyn short links forward your full query string, so the affiliate tag you just verified stays intact. Free accounts get 25 new links a month, and every link gets a click count that already has bots and crawlers filtered out, so your numbers mean something.

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How to Check an Affiliate Link in 3 Steps

Paste your affiliate link

Drop in the URL you want to test. Short links, cloaked links and network deep links all work, because we resolve the chain from a server instead of in your browser. That is the reason a client-side affiliate link validator can never tell you whether a link is actually live.

Read the parameter verdicts

Every affiliate parameter we recognise is labelled preserved, dropped, changed or added by the network, with the value on your link shown next to the value on the final URL. Commission-critical parameters are marked so you know which failures actually cost money.

Fix the chain and re-test

Remove the hop that strips your query string, replace the id that got overwritten, or swap the dead destination, then run the check again. The full redirect chain with status codes and timings is right there, so you know exactly which hop to blame.

What an Affiliate Link Checker Actually Tests

Most tools that call themselves an affiliate link tester do one of two things. Either they parse the URL in your browser and tell you the syntax looks fine, which cannot prove the link is live because browsers block cross-origin requests, or they draw the redirect chain and stop there. Neither answers the question that actually matters to a publisher: after all those hops, is my affiliate tag still attached to the page the visitor lands on?

This checker answers that directly. We resolve the chain server side, collect the query parameters from the link you pasted, collect the query parameters from the final URL, and diff them. Recognised affiliate keys get named with their network and a plain-English note about whether losing them costs a commission or only costs reporting detail. Everything we do not recognise still appears with the same verdict, so a custom parameter your own program uses is never silently ignored.

The redirect chain is still there, hop by hop, with status codes and response times, because you need it to work out which hop to blame. If you only want the chain itself, the redirect checker and the URL expander are lighter tools for the same job. For the theory behind all of it, our affiliate link tracking guide covers how attribution works end to end.

Affiliate Parameters by Network: What Has to Survive

Not every parameter is worth the same. These are the keys we recognise, and the one that usually carries the attribution. Ambiguous keys such as sid, aid, u, m and tag are only attributed to a network when a hostname in the chain matches that network on a registrable-domain boundary, so a stray parameter on a blog is never mislabelled.

Network	Parameters we detect	Usually attributes on	Note
Amazon Associates	`tag, ascsubtag, linkCode, linkId`	`tag`	Amazon help tells Associates to click the link and look for the Store or Tracking ID in the URL, usually as &tag=. The rest is reporting detail.
Awin	`awc, awinmid, awinaffid, clickref`	`awc`	Awin documentation calls awc the click identifier it needs to attribute a click and transaction to a partner. clickref2 to clickref6 are documented as non-public and never reach the advertiser page, so we never fail a link for losing them.
CJ Affiliate	`PID, AID, SID, cjevent`	`cjevent`	cjevent is generated at redirect time and CJ advertisers are asked to store it and return it on conversion. PID and AID identify you and the advertiser on the click URL.
Impact	`irclickid, irgwc, irmp, sharedid, SubId1`	`irclickid`	Impact appends irclickid to the landing page URL when it redirects through its tracking domains, and the stored click id is what a conversion is matched against. SubId1 is case sensitive.
ShareASale	`u, m, afftrack, sscid`	`sscid, or u plus m on classic links`	sscid is the click id the network appends for cookieless matching. u and m are your affiliate id and the merchant id on a classic ShareASale click URL.
Rakuten Advertising	`ranMID, ranEAID, ranSiteID`	`ranMID plus ranEAID`	ranEAID is the publisher id and ranMID the merchant. ranSiteID only splits your own reporting.
ClickBank	`affiliate, vendor, extclid, tid, hop`	`affiliate nickname on the hoplink`	extclid is the external click id ClickBank added on 4 June 2024 for third-party trackers, up to 256 characters. tid still works but ClickBank now recommends the newer parameters. hop has been hidden by default since affiliate id encryption in March 2023.
Digistore24	`aff, cid, campaignkey`	`aff`	cid carries a click id for a third-party tracker. campaignkey is a reporting split you control.
PartnerStack	`ps_partner_key, ps_xid`	`ps_partner_key`	The vendor site reads the partner key to open a tracked session. ps_xid ties the visit to one specific click.
eBay Partner Network	`campid, mkcid, mkrid, mkevt, customid`	`campid`	campid is your EPN campaign id. mkcid and mkrid flag the traffic as partner traffic, customid is your own sub-id.
Booking.com	`aid, label`	`aid`	aid identifies your partner account on the link. label is a free-text reporting split, not an account identifier.
Post Affiliate Pro	`a_aid, a_bid`	`a_aid`	The merchant tracking script reads a_aid on the landing page. a_bid names the creative.
Refersion, Skimlinks, FlexOffers	`rfsn, skimlinks_id, xcust, fobs`	`rfsn, skimlinks_id`	Refersion reads rfsn on the landing page and sets its own cookie. xcust and fobs are sub-ids.
Generic and in-house programs	`ref, aff, aff_id, affiliate, partner, subid, click_id`	`varies`	Shopify apps, SaaS partner programs and self-hosted scripts all use these. Bare ref and partner are also common non-affiliate source tags, so we report them without assuming they drive a payout.

Last reviewed 1 August 2026. The Amazon, Awin, ClickBank and Impact rows were checked against those networks' own published documentation: Amazon Associates help on checking that links are tagging, Awin's click appends and dynamic parameters reference, ClickBank's affiliate tracking parameters guide and its hop parameter notice, and Impact's click id integration docs. The other rows describe the pattern we see on live links rather than a payout promise. Networks change tracking keys without telling publishers, so confirm against your own network documentation and click log before you rewrite links.

Building the links in the first place? The UTM builder and UTM parser handle the analytics half of the same URL, and URL cleaner strips the junk parameters that pile up when a link passes through several platforms.

Worked Example: An Amazon Link That Loses Its Tag

Here is the exact failure that costs Amazon Associates the most money, traced end to end. The link looks perfect. It resolves. It returns a 200. And it pays nobody.

What you published

https://links.example.com/go/headphones

The chain

301links.example.com/go/headphones
302amzn.to/3xAbCdE
200amazon.com/dp/B08N5WRWNW

The verdict

tag is Dropped. The cloaking redirect at hop one was configured with a bare destination, so it forwarded the path and threw away the query string. Amazon returns a healthy 200 for the product page whether or not a tag is attached, which is why this failure is invisible until a payout report comes back empty.

The fix is to make the first hop forward the full query string, or to point the cloaked link at the tagged Amazon URL directly. Re-run the check and tag should come back Preserved. If you cloak links for readability, our guide on how to cloak affiliate links covers the redirect settings that keep parameters intact.

Why Affiliate Links Stop Working: 6 Common Causes

If your affiliate link is not working, it is almost always one of these. The checker distinguishes between them so you are not guessing.

A redirect drops the query string

The most common killer. A hop redirects to the bare path instead of forwarding ?tag=, so everything after the question mark vanishes. Server rules written as a plain destination rather than a pass-through cause this on nearly every platform.

A plugin rewrites your id

Link monetisation plugins and some themes swap affiliate ids on outbound links. You see the parameter arrive, but the value belongs to somebody else. This shows up as Changed in the report and is the most expensive failure because everything looks fine on the surface.

The offer is paused or geo-blocked

The chain stops on a network redirector instead of a merchant page. That normally means the merchant paused the offer, the offer is not available in the location the request came from, or a required parameter is missing from the deep link.

The merchant moved the landing page

Deep links rot. Product pages get retired, category URLs get restructured, and the chain ends on a 404 or a soft redirect to the homepage. Homepage redirects are the sneaky version: the status looks healthy but conversion collapses.

An insecure hop in the middle

A plain HTTP hop can have parameters rewritten by proxies or carrier gateways, and browsers drop the referrer across the downgrade. Any chain with an http:// hop deserves a second look even when the parameters survive our trace.

A meta refresh or JavaScript jump at the end

Some landing pages move the visitor again after the HTML loads. That final jump happens after a server-side trace ends, so parameters can still be lost there. We flag both patterns when we spot them on the final page.

Redirect type matters too. Our explainer on 301 versus 302 redirects covers which one to use for affiliate hops, and what smart links are explains the conditional routing that makes some offers resolve differently for different visitors.

Preserved, Dropped, Changed, Added: Reading Each Verdict

Five possible outcomes per parameter, and what each one should make you do next.

Verdict	What it means	What to do
Preserved	The parameter is on your link and on the final URL with exactly the same value.	Nothing to do. This is the outcome you want for every payout parameter.
Dropped	The parameter was on your link but is gone by the time the chain finishes.	Find the hop that strips the query string. If the network is cookie based, confirm with a real click before rewriting anything.
Changed	The parameter exists on both ends but the value is different.	Something in the chain is overwriting your id. Audit link plugins, monetisation scripts and any second affiliate tool on the page.
Added by network	The parameter only appears on the final URL, added somewhere in the chain.	Healthy. Networks like CJ, ShareASale and Impact mint a click id at redirect time, so an added parameter never counts against the overall verdict.
Dropped by design	The parameter is gone, and the network documents that it is never passed to the advertiser landing page.	Nothing to do. Awin clickref2 to clickref6 and ClickBank hop behave this way, and they never count towards a failure.

When a Dropped Parameter Still Pays You

This is the part most affiliate link checkers leave out, and leaving it out makes them wrong. A redirect chain can drop your parameter and the commission can still land, because a large share of affiliate networks attribute with a cookie set at an intermediate hop rather than with a value on the final URL. The network redirector receives the click, writes its own cookie, and forwards the visitor to a clean merchant URL on purpose. Nothing is broken. The tag was never supposed to arrive.

So treat a Dropped verdict as a strong lead, not a verdict on your income. The parameters that genuinely have to arrive are the ones the merchant page itself reads: Impact's irclickid, Refersion's rfsn, PartnerStack's ps_partner_key, Amazon's tag, and any parameter your own postback integration depends on. We mark those Commission critical in the results. Everything else deserves a confirming test click and a look at your network click log before you rewrite anything.

If you run your own program rather than promoting somebody else's, the reliable answer is a server-to-server postback instead of a parameter that has to survive a browser journey. Our postback URL tracking guide explains the pattern, the postback URL tester lets you fire a test call against your endpoint, and tracking which posts drive sales shows how to attribute revenue back to a specific placement.

What This Affiliate Link Tester Cannot Do

It cannot test by country

We check from one server in one location. A geo-targeted offer can resolve to a different page for your audience than it does for us. We do not route through proxies or multiple regions and will not claim otherwise.

It cannot test by device

We send one desktop-class user agent. A smartlink that routes iOS traffic to the App Store and desktop traffic to a landing page will only show you one of those branches here.

It cannot see cookies the network sets

We report what is in the URL. A cookie written at an intermediate hop is invisible to a redirect trace, which is exactly why a Dropped verdict is a lead rather than a conclusion.

It cannot confirm a payout

Only your network dashboard can. Use this to catch broken chains fast, then confirm the important ones with a real click and the network click log.

Need device-specific behaviour tested? The deep link tester is built for app URL schemes, and the deep links documentation covers how Flyn routes iOS and Android traffic on Pro.

Free Forever, and What Pro Adds

This checker is free with no account. Flyn short links are the other half of the job: a link you control, that forwards your query string, and that counts every click. Here is the honest split.

Free: 25 links a month

Create 25 new short links every month on the free plan, edit any of them at any time, and keep them for as long as your account is open. No card, no trial clock.

Free: real click counts

Every link gets a click count that already has bots and crawlers filtered out, and your analytics page shows the account-wide human versus bot split, so an affiliate post that looks busy is not just crawlers. Breakdowns by country, device and referrer are Pro.

Pro: routing that fits offers

Per-country geo routing (country level), iOS and Android device routing with deep links, A/B split testing, click limits with a fallback URL, and password protection. Pro starts at 9 dollars a month billed annually, or 12 dollars month to month.

Pro: revenue attribution

Conversion tracking with server-to-server postbacks and a 30-day attribution window, retargeting pixels on your links, custom branded domains, and full analytics breakdowns.

Read the detail on conversion tracking, geo targeting and custom domains, or the setup steps in the conversion tracking docs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check if my affiliate link is working?

Paste the link into the checker above and hit Check link. We request the URL from a server, follow every 301, 302, 303, 307 and 308 in the chain, and compare the affiliate parameters on your original link against the parameters that are still present on the final URL. A working link ends on a live merchant page with your tag or click id intact, and the report names every parameter that did not make it.

Why is my affiliate link not tracking?

The four usual causes are a redirect that strips the query string, a plugin or theme that rewrites the link with somebody else's id, a merchant that moved the landing page so the chain now ends on a 404, and a network that retired the offer. This tool separates those cases for you: a dropped parameter points at a stripping redirect, a changed value points at an overwrite, and an error status points at a dead destination. Start with the report, then confirm with a real click and your network dashboard.

How do I check if my Amazon Associates tag is working?

Paste any amazon.com URL that carries a tag parameter, or an amzn.to short link, and read the row for tag in the results. Amazon's help pages describe the manual check the same way: click the link and look for your Store ID or Tracking ID in the URL, usually as &tag=(store/tracking ID). Amazon also runs a Link Checker inside Associates Central, but Amazon states it is meant for links you created or modified yourself outside Associates Central, and that it does not work correctly with links created in Associates Central or copied from SiteStripe. Two honest caveats on our side: we check with a server request rather than a browser, and some Amazon URLs are canonicalised for automated clients in a way a real visit is not, so treat a surprising result as a prompt to test with a real click. Reporting in Associates is separate again, and only your Associates account can confirm a click was recorded.

Does a short link break my affiliate tag?

A well-behaved shortener sends a 301 or 302 to your destination with the full query string intact, so the tag survives. Problems appear when a shortener, a social platform, or a security scanner rewrites the destination instead of forwarding it. Run the short link through this checker: if the tag shows Preserved on the final URL, shortening is safe for that program.

My affiliate parameter was dropped. Did I lose the commission?

Not necessarily, and this is the single most misunderstood part of affiliate testing. Many networks record the click and set a first-party or third-party cookie at an intermediate hop, so the final URL never needs to carry your id at all. Some parameters are documented as never reaching the advertiser page: Awin states that clickref2 to clickref6 and pref2 to pref6 are non-public values that are not transmitted to the advertiser landing page, and ClickBank has hidden the hop parameter by default since it encrypted affiliate ids in March 2023. We label those Dropped by design and they never count towards a failure. For everything else a dropped parameter is a strong signal to investigate, not proof of a lost commission, so verify with a real test click and the click log in your network dashboard before you rewrite hundreds of links.

What does it mean when the checker says a parameter was changed?

Changed means the parameter exists on both your link and the final URL, but the value is different. That almost always means something in the chain is overwriting your id, commonly a link-monetisation plugin, a browser-extension-style rewriter on the publisher side, or a second affiliate tool installed on the same site. Changed values are worth fixing quickly because the click is still being credited, just to somebody else.

Why did a parameter get added that I never put in the link?

Networks such as CJ, ShareASale and Impact generate a unique click id at redirect time and append it to the destination URL, so values like cjevent, sscid and irclickid appear even though you never typed them. That is normal and healthy: it is the network confirming it saw and recorded the click. We label these Added by network, and an added parameter never downgrades the overall verdict, because nothing of yours was lost.

Can this tool test affiliate links by country or device?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. We check from one server, in one location, with one user agent, so a geo-targeted offer or a device-specific smartlink can resolve differently for your real audience than it does here. Tools that advertise country and device simulation are routing requests through proxies or several cloud regions, which we do not operate. Treat this checker as a parameter and redirect audit, and pair it with a real click from your target market.

Which affiliate networks does this affiliate link validator recognise?

We name parameters for Amazon Associates, AliExpress, Awin (including awc), CJ Affiliate, Impact, ShareASale, Rakuten Advertising, ClickBank (including extclid), Digistore24, PartnerStack, Refersion, Skimlinks, FlexOffers, eBay Partner Network, Booking.com and Post Affiliate Pro, plus generic patterns such as ref, aff, aff_id, affiliate, partner, subid and click_id. Ambiguous keys are matched against the hostnames in the chain on registrable-domain boundaries, so a stray sid on a blog is not mislabelled as a CJ publisher id and a tag on a non-Amazon site is not called an Associates tag. Anything we do not recognise, including UTM parameters, still appears in the Other query parameters list with the same preserved, dropped or changed verdict.

How often should I test my affiliate links?

Test every link when you first publish it, then re-test your highest-earning links monthly and after any site change that touches redirects, such as a theme update, a new caching layer, or a migration. Merchants retire landing pages and networks change tracking domains without telling publishers, so a link that worked in January can quietly die in March. Re-checking your top twenty links takes a few minutes and protects most of your revenue.

Can I check someone else's affiliate link with this tool?

Yes. The checker works on any public HTTP or HTTPS URL, which makes it useful for auditing links your partners submit, for verifying that a publisher is using the id you issued them, and for spotting unauthorised link hijacking on your own program. Private and internal addresses are blocked for security reasons.

Does the affiliate link checker store the links I test?

We keep a short history in your own browser using localStorage so you can re-run recent checks, and that history never leaves your device. On the server we rate limit by IP at eight checks per minute and do not persist the URLs you submit. The destination will see a request from Flyn-Bot/1.0 in its access logs, exactly as it would from any other HTTP client.

Still stuck? The Flyn help center has step-by-step walkthroughs, including connecting a custom domain.

Stop finding out at payday

Verify the tag survives, then publish the link on a domain you control. Free accounts get 25 new links a month with a bot-filtered click count on every one, and Pro adds branded domains, country routing and conversion tracking with server-to-server postbacks.

Start free, no card required See pricing

No card on the free plan. Pro is 9 dollars a month billed annually, or 12 dollars month to month, or 249 dollars once for lifetime access.