Instacart Affiliate Program
The Instacart affiliate program pays $10 per new customer with a 7-day cookie window, and is available to LinkApprove creators and publishers in the US and Canada without a separate application.
- Free to join
- No separate Instacart application
- Decision usually within 2 business days
Last reviewed by the LinkApprove partnerships team
01Overview
About the Instacart affiliate program
Instacart is the default same-day grocery delivery layer in North America, connecting shoppers to Costco, Kroger, Aldi, Publix, Wegmans and thousands of regional chains rather than holding inventory itself. For creators, that breadth is the pitch: almost any recipe, pantry haul or back-to-school list can be turned into a shoppable moment without the brand ever feeling like a detour from the content.
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The catch is that Instacart pays a flat new-customer bounty rather than a share of the basket, so an $85 first order and a $300 stock-up are worth exactly the same to you. Its US account base is also already deep, and a large share of the traffic you send will be people who signed up years ago and generate nothing no matter how much they spend. Add a 7-day cookie and an app-first checkout that can break web attribution, and this becomes a program that rewards audiences skewing younger or newly independent.
Instacart draws the highest raw click volume of any grocery program in the LinkApprove network and, at the same time, the lowest click-to-approval ratio in the category. Most of that traffic is existing account holders who cannot trigger a new-customer bounty no matter how large their basket is.
Program fit score
Weighted against 21 food & beverage programs
2.2/ 5
| Factor | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Commission per conversion | 40% | 0.84 |
| Cookie window | 25% | 0.28 |
| Average order value | 20% | 0.72 |
| Region breadth | 15% | 0.39 |
Cookie window
23 days shorter than the median
7days
Shorter than most food & beverage programs, so content works best close to the moment of purchase. Dots are the 21 programs in food & beverage; the range is 7–45 days.
02Conversion
Why Instacart converts
- The standing offer is usually a stacked first-order discount plus free delivery, which is a low-risk yes for someone who has never tried it
- Grocery is a weekly habit, so the call to action fits naturally inside recipe, meal-prep and budgeting content instead of interrupting it
- Retailer choice is local, readers see the stores they already shop at, which removes the trust hurdle most delivery services have to clear
- Signing up costs nothing upfront, so the conversion event is far cheaper for the reader than committing to a subscription box
03Audience fit
Which creators this suits
- Recipe and meal-prep creators who can attach a full ingredient list to every post
- Budgeting, student and first-apartment content aimed at people setting up a household for the first time
- Accessibility and parenting publishers writing about time-saving services
04Getting started
How to join the Instacart affiliate program
- 1Create a free account on LinkApprove and submit your content channels for review.
- 2Get approved, usually within two business days, then find Instacart in the program directory.
- 3Generate a deep link to any Instacart product page, adding sub-IDs for the platform or campaign.
- 4Publish and track clicks and validated commission in one balance alongside every other program you run.
LinkApprove already holds the upstream approval, so you don’t submit a separate application to Instacart.
Create a free account05Attribution
When you get paid on this program
- ClickDay 0
- PurchaseWithin 7 days · cookie
- ValidatedAdvertiser confirms · 30–60 day hold
- PaidNext payout run
- Minimum (wallets)
- $100
- Minimum (wire)
- $1,000
- Schedule
- Monthly → daily
EPC isn't published yet: our sample on this program is too small to mean anything. Full thresholds, rails and schedules are on the payouts page.
Food & beverage
How Instacart compares in its category
Food and beverage programs are dominated by first-order acquisition bounties rather than percentage commission, which suits creators with high reach and a low-friction call to action. Payouts are flat per new customer and validate quickly.
- Factor$3530 days$150
- Gousto$2830 days$45
- Green Chef$3530 days$70
- HelloFresh$2030 daysn/a, bounty model
- Home Chef$1214 days$95
- Instacart$107 days$85
- Misfits Market$1030 days$55
- Naked Wines$4030 days$110
- Nespresso6%45 days$130
- Olipop€3.437 days€81
- Omaha Steaksup to 7%30 days$165
Showing 11 of 21 programs. Commission and cookie figures are indicative and set by the advertiser.
Compare all 21 programs06FAQ
Common questions
Something else? Contact the partnerships team.
How much does the Instacart affiliate program pay?
The Instacart affiliate program pays $10 per new customer (paid only on a first order from a household with no prior Instacart account). Average order value on the program is $85, so commission per conversion is calculated against that basket rather than a single item price.
What is the cookie duration for the Instacart affiliate program?
The Instacart program has a 7-day cookie window. A purchase made after that window has closed is not attributed to you, which is why content timing matters on this program.
How do I join the Instacart affiliate program?
You can join the Instacart affiliate program through LinkApprove without applying to Instacart directly. LinkApprove already holds the upstream approval, so once your LinkApprove partner account is approved you can generate tracked links to any Instacart product page immediately.
Which countries does the Instacart affiliate program accept?
The Instacart program accepts traffic from US, CA. Traffic from outside these regions may not be attributed even when the click is tracked, so check your audience geography before committing content to it.
Related programs
Programs partners often run alongside this one
For creators
Creators and publishers
Promote Instacart and every other program in the directory from one account, with a single payout. Free to join, from 1,000 followers.
- Free to join
- From 1,000 followers
- One payout
For brands
Advertisers
Recruit vetted creators across the UK, EU and US without managing hundreds of individual partner relationships.
Promote Instacart from today
Join LinkApprove free and generate your first tracked Instacart link once approved. No separate application, and no advertiser approval queue.