---
title: "What Is an Attribution Window? — SealMetrics Glossary"
description: "The attribution window is the period after a touchpoint during which a conversion is credited to it. Default values, EU implications and the ITP collapse."
canonical_url: "https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/attribution-window/"
lang: "en"
content_type: "glossary"
owner: "content"
llm_priority: "useful"
last_verified: "2026-08-16"
source: https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/attribution-window/
publisher: SealMetrics
---

Definition

# Attribution Window

The time period after a marketing touchpoint during which a subsequent conversion is credited to that touchpoint. Outside the window, the touchpoint receives no credit.

## Default windows by channel

Every channel ships an opinionated default. Google Ads attribution windows default to 30 days for clicks and 1 day for view-through. Meta Ads defaults to 7 days click + 1 day view. GA4 defaults vary by attribution model — 30 days for paid search and social, 90 days for organic. These defaults are configuration choices, not facts; the “real” window depends on your customer’s actual decision cycle.

## Why the window collapses on Safari

Cookie-based attribution windows assume the cookie that recorded the original touchpoint survives until the conversion. [Safari ITP](https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/intelligent-tracking-prevention/) caps first-party analytics cookies at 7 days. Any window longer than that is fictional on Safari: the conversion fires after the cookie is gone, the channel attribution defaults to “direct”, and your dashboard under-counts the original source. Firefox ETP applies the same cap.

## Last-click on observed events

SealMetrics applies [last-click](https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/last-click-attribution/) at the event level: each conversion is attributed to the channel observed on the pageview where it happened, not to a touchpoint days earlier. There is no window to collapse and no cookie to expire. This produces a different number than a 30-day window — typically simpler and closer to the channel that actually drove the action.

An attribution window only works on data you actually captured. See last-click attribution running on 100% of your traffic.

[Book a demo](https://sealmetrics.com/demo/)[See pricing](https://sealmetrics.com/pricing/)

### Related concepts

- [Attribution Model A rule or algorithm that determines how credit for conversions is distributed across marketing touchpoints. Common models include first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay, and data-driven attribution.](https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/attribution-model/)
- [Last-Click Attribution An attribution model where 100% of the conversion credit goes to the final marketing touchpoint observed before the conversion event. SealMetrics applies last-click on 100% of data — aggregate, anonymous, at channel level.](https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/last-click-attribution/)
- [Multi-Touch Attribution An analytics model that distributes conversion credit across multiple touchpoints observed for the same identified visitor. Requires per-user tracking and is not part of SealMetrics' last-click, anonymous architecture.](https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/multi-touch-attribution/)
- [Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) Apple Safari's privacy feature that limits cookie lifespan and blocks cross-site tracking. ITP reduces first-party cookie life to 7 days (or 24 hours for some) and blocks all third-party cookies.](https://sealmetrics.com/glossary/intelligent-tracking-prevention/)

Learn more: [Complete Data Pillar](https://sealmetrics.com/complete-data/) · [SealMetrics vs GA4](https://sealmetrics.com/vs-ga4/)

Quick answer

An attribution window is the configurable period — typically 1 to 90 days — during which a conversion gets credited to a prior marketing touchpoint. Google Ads default is 30 days click / 1 day view; Meta is 7 days click / 1 day view; GA4 varies 30 to 90 days by model. Windows are configuration choices, not facts: the “right” length depends on the buyer’s actual decision cycle and on whether the tracking technology can survive that long.

On Safari (20%+ of EU mobile traffic), Intelligent Tracking Prevention caps first-party analytics cookies at 7 days, so any longer window collapses in practice — the cookie disappears and the original channel attribution defaults to “direct”. Cookieless first-party server-side measurement removes the dependency entirely: each conversion is attributed last-click to the channel observed on the page load where it happened, with no cookie to expire and no window to misrepresent.