Free tool
Affiliate Link Checker
Paste any link — a bit.ly, an amzn.to, a redirect you did not recognise — and see where it actually goes, which network is tracking it, and whether somebody earns a commission when you buy. No account, no clicking the link.
What the checker tells you
The full chain
Every hop, with the HTTP status each one returned — including the meta-refresh redirects that hide inside a page instead of a header.
Who is tracking it
The company behind the redirect domain, named. anrdoezrs.net is not malware, it is CJ Affiliate, and knowing that is the whole answer.
Every parameter, explained
What tag, campid, irclickid, cjevent, gclid and utm_medium each actually do, and which of them mean money rather than measurement.
Destinations hidden in the URL
Networks such as Awin, Rakuten and Partnerize carry the real target inside the link itself. We decode it, so you can read it without following anything.
How to tell whether a link is an affiliate link
The tool above does this for you, but the method is worth knowing — it takes about ten seconds by hand once you know what to look at.
- 1
Follow the redirects, do not trust the first host
A link is only as honest as its last hop. Shorteners and trackers chain into one another, and the affiliate parameter is usually added at the end, on the merchant's own domain.
- 2
Read the hostname you land on
Certain domains exist for one purpose only. awin1.com, anrdoezrs.net, click.linksynergy.com, pxf.io, prf.hn and shareasale.com are click trackers: a link passing through them is an affiliate link, full stop.
- 3
Read the parameters on the final URL
tag on Amazon, campid on eBay, awinaffid on Awin, cjevent from CJ, irclickid from Impact, sscid from ShareASale. Each one names an account that gets credited for a purchase.
- 4
Separate money from measurement
utm_source, utm_campaign, gclid and fbclid tell somebody where traffic came from. They pay nobody. Treating them as affiliate tracking is the single most common mistake in this genre.
The parameters that mean somebody gets paid
These are the ones whose presence settles the question. Each belongs to a single identifiable program, which is why they are worth memorising — unlike ref or partner, which every other site uses for something else.
| Parameter | Program | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| tagon amazon.com | Amazon Associates | Amazon Associates tracking ID — the account credited for a purchase. |
| awinaffid | Awin | Awin publisher ID — the account credited for the click. |
| awinmid | Awin | Awin advertiser ID: which merchant program the click belongs to. |
| cjevent | CJ Affiliate | CJ Affiliate click identifier, set so a later purchase can be attributed. |
| sscid | ShareASale | ShareASale click identifier for the visit. |
| irclickid | Impact | Impact click identifier — proof the visit came through a partnership link. |
| irgwc | Impact | Impact flag marking the visit as partner-referred. |
| ranMID | Rakuten Advertising | Rakuten merchant ID on the destination URL. |
| ranEAID | Rakuten Advertising | Rakuten publisher ID — the account credited for the click. |
| ranSiteID | Rakuten Advertising | Rakuten site ID for the placement. |
| campid | eBay Partner Network | eBay Partner Network campaign ID — the account credited for the click. |
| wgcampaignid | Webgains | Webgains publisher campaign — the account credited for the click. |
| wgprogramid | Webgains | Webgains advertiser program the click belongs to. |
| camref | Partnerize | Partnerize campaign reference identifying the publisher. |
| hopon clickbank.net | ClickBank | ClickBank hoplink identifier for the affiliate account. |
| a_aid | Post Affiliate Pro | Affiliate account ID used by Post Affiliate Pro programs. |
| sca_ref | — | Shopify affiliate reference (UpPromote and similar apps). |
| aff_short_key | AliExpress Portals | AliExpress affiliate reference in its compact shared form. |
| aff_trace_key | AliExpress Portals | AliExpress affiliate click identifier. |
| aff_fcid | AliExpress Portals | AliExpress affiliate click context identifier. |
| idon linksynergy.com | — | Publisher account ID on this network's tracker. |
| uon shareasale.com | ShareASale | ShareASale affiliate ID — the account credited for the click. |
| keyon viglink.com | Sovrn Commerce | Sovrn Commerce publisher key. |
| aon tradedoubler.com | Tradedoubler | Tradedoubler affiliate ID. |
Affiliate, advertising, analytics: three different things
Affiliate tracking identifies an account that gets paid a share of what you spend. It survives the redirect because it has to: the merchant needs it at checkout, hours or days later.
Advertising click IDs — gclid, fbclid, msclkid, ttclid — say the visit came from a paid ad. The advertiser already paid for the click; nobody earns a commission on your purchase.
Campaign parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) are labels the destination site reads in its own analytics. They are the least interesting thing in a URL and the most often mistaken for something sinister.
A link can carry all three at once. The checker separates them, because “this link is tracked” and “this link pays somebody” are different statements and deserve different answers.
Networks and shorteners we recognise
The checker names the company behind a redirect domain. If you arrived here because one of these showed up in your address bar, its page explains exactly what it does.
Affiliate networks
They run programs for many merchants at once and redirect through their own tracking domains.
Merchant programs
Shops that run their own affiliate program, with their own parameters.
Creator platforms
Built for creators: they wrap a link and attach the creator's own affiliate id.
URL shorteners
They hide the destination and add no affiliate tracking of their own.
Also detected without a page of their own: digidip, ShopMy, CreatorLink, URL shortener, Link-in-bio page, plus the usual shorteners (t.co, ow.ly, buff.ly, cutt.ly, is.gd, rebrand.ly, short.io and others) and link-in-bio pages.
If you publish the links: disclosure
Every major regime asks for the same thing in different words: a viewer should be able to tell that a link is commercial before they click it. The US FTC endorsement guides require a disclosure that is clear and conspicuous, not buried at the bottom of a description. EU consumer law requires the commercial intent to be apparent. Amazon's operating agreement goes further and prescribes the wording of the statement Associates must display.
In practice that means the disclosure belongs where the link is, in plain language, in the same language as the content — not in a link to a page nobody opens. This is a summary, not legal advice; the programs you are enrolled in set the binding terms.
Frequently asked questions
How can I tell if a link is an affiliate link?
Expand it and read the final URL. If the chain passes through a tracking domain such as awin1.com, anrdoezrs.net, pxf.io or shareasale.com, or the destination carries a parameter like tag, awinaffid, campid, cjevent or irclickid with a value, somebody earns a commission on what you buy. Parameters like utm_source or gclid measure traffic but pay nobody.
Does this checker open the link?
It requests the URL from our server, follows the redirects and reads the headers. Nothing is loaded in your browser, no page is rendered, and the destination is shown as text rather than as a clickable link.
Is there anything wrong with affiliate links?
No. They are how a great deal of independent reviewing gets paid for, and clicking one costs you nothing extra. What matters is that the commercial relationship is disclosed, so you can weigh the recommendation knowing it exists.
Why does the checker say 'probably' sometimes?
Because some parameters are ambiguous. A ref= or partner= parameter is often an affiliate credit and just as often plain analytics, and no honest tool can tell the two apart from the URL alone. We say so instead of guessing.
Can I check a bit.ly or TinyURL link?
Yes, and that is the most useful case. A shortener adds no affiliate tracking of its own but hides whatever is behind it, which may well be an affiliate link, another shortener, or something you would rather not open.
The checker could not reach the link. What happened?
Large retailers often refuse requests that do not come from a real browser, so the last hop can answer 403 or time out. The redirect chain up to that point is still accurate, and it is usually the part that answers the question. If a link cannot be checked at all, we say so without explaining why — the explanation would leak more about other people’s networks than it would help you.
Do you keep the links I check?
The resolved chain is cached for six hours so the same link is not fetched twice, and the cache holds the URL and its destination — never who asked. It then deletes itself.
Can I use this to remove someone's affiliate tag?
Technically, yes: the destination is right there. Worth remembering that the commission is normally what paid for the review that led you to the product, and it does not cost you anything.
Is a link with a tag in it dangerous?
An affiliate parameter is not a security problem. The genuine risk with a short link is that the destination is hidden — which is exactly why expanding it before clicking is a good habit.
Related reading
- Affiliate Link Cloaking: What It Is, When It's Fine, and When It Gets You Banned
Shortening, redirecting, and cloaking are three different things that get used as synonyms. Knowing the difference is the difference between a tidy link and a closed account.
- How to Add Your Amazon Affiliate Tag to Every YouTube Link (Automatically)
Forgetting your Amazon Associates tag means unpaid commissions. Learn the manual SiteStripe workflow, where it breaks down, and how to inject your tag automatically on every link.
- Amazon Associates Link Rules: What's Allowed in 2026 (and What Closes Accounts)
The Operating Agreement is long, and most account closures come from a handful of rules: disclosure, offline promotion, email, prices, and cloaking. Here they are in plain English, quoted.
- UTM Parameters for Creators: Know Which Video Actually Sells
UTMs are five query parameters that tell you where a click came from. Learn what each one does, a naming convention that survives two years, and why Amazon needs tracking IDs instead.
- Why Your Clicks Don't Become Commissions: 7 Leaks in a Creator's Link Funnel
A healthy click-through rate and near-zero earnings usually means the leak is after the click. Here are the seven places affiliate revenue disappears, in the order worth fixing them.
Looking for something narrower? See how to unshorten a URL, or pick a network: Amazon Associates, Geniuslink, CJ Affiliate, Awin, Rakuten Advertising, ShareASale.