What Karma does on your store
Karma looks for promo codes and applies the best ones at your checkout, and it earns affiliate commission that it shares with shoppers as cash back. Its terms say it looks for publicly available codes.
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In short
- Its Chrome listing says it scans for promo codes and applies the best ones at checkout automatically.[Chrome Web Store, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
- Its terms say it looks for publicly available coupons, which gives you something to point to if a private code turns up in it.[Karma, Sep 2026] (opens the source)
- It earns affiliate commission from merchants and shares part of it with its users as cash back.[Chrome Web Store, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
- Partnerize lists it as a coupon partner, so it may already be in your affiliate program.[Partnerize, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
Where does it get your codes?
Karma's Chrome Web Store listing says an AI scans for promo codes and applies the best ones at checkout automatically.[Chrome Web Store, Oct 2026] (opens the source) Its terms say it searches online for the best publicly available promotions and coupons.[Karma, Sep 2026] (opens the source) If a code you never published turns up in Karma, that's the line to quote back to it.
How does it make money from your orders?
Karma's listing says merchants may pay it affiliate commission when shoppers use it, and that it shares that commission with its users as cash back.[Chrome Web Store, Oct 2026] (opens the source) Partnerize lists Karma as a coupon partner with a Partnerize account and an Ascend (formerly Pepperjam) ID, so brands on those networks may already have it in their program.[Partnerize, Oct 2026] (opens the source) If it's in your affiliate program, an order where it applied a code can be credited to it under last-click attribution, whoever actually sent the shopper.
Karma also sells brands paid placements, such as its newsletter, email banners, featured and trending offers and blog content, through [email protected].[Karma, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
What does it do in a shopper's session?
For cash back, Karma sets its affiliate cookie when the shopper clicks an activate button and is sent to the retailer.[Karma, Sep 2026] (opens the source) Its terms say the cookie lasts up to 24 hours, after which the offer has to be activated again.[Karma, Sep 2026] (opens the source) The terms say that when a shopper buys products they saved in Karma, it scans for coupons once they open the checkout page. They don't describe what it does for products that weren't saved.[Karma, Sep 2026] (opens the source) Its Chrome Web Store listing showed 500,000 users in October 2026.[Chrome Web Store, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
What does it cost you?
Every order where it applies a code gives away the discount, and the shopper was usually already at your checkout with a full basket. If it's in your affiliate program, the same order can also pay it commission under last-click attribution, on top of the discount, whoever actually brought the shopper.
So the cost is the discount plus any commission on orders that would have happened anyway, and the codes it spreads keep working until you replace them.
Work out what extensions cost your store with your own numbers
Check your store
See which of your codes Karma and the other big extensions hold for your store. Codes are masked.
What Benson does about it
- Sees Karma sessions on your storefront, and measures their conversion rate, order value and discount depth against everyone else's.
- Hides Karma's pop-up on your storefront pages, by rules you set.
- Checkout Policies: in sessions where a coupon extension was seen, only the codes on your allowlist work at Shopify checkout.
- Attribution integrity: flags orders where an extension's affiliate click landed after the shopper arrived from someone else.
Add Benson from the Shopify App Store
Can you get your store removed?
No published route. Karma publishes no merchant opt-out or code-removal process; its only business contact, [email protected], sells placements.[Karma, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
Questions merchants ask
- Does Karma override other affiliates' links?
- Karma publishes no stand-down policy, and no test or filing we found shows it overriding other affiliates. A law firm named it in a 2025 investigation of coupon extensions and affiliate commission. The page now says the firm is no longer accepting clients, and no case against Karma was found.[Seeger Weiss LLP, Jul 2025] (opens the source)
- How does Karma make money?
- From affiliate commission merchants pay when shoppers use it, which it shares with its users as cash back.[Chrome Web Store, Oct 2026] (opens the source) It also sells brands paid placements.[Karma, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
- Can a brand advertise on Karma, and what does it cost?
- Its partnerships page lists newsletter, email banner, featured and trending offer and blog placements, with no prices. Enquiries go to [email protected].[Karma, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
Sources
- 1Chrome Web Store, “Karma | Online shopping, but better”, Oct 2026. chromewebstore.google.com (opens the source)
- 2Karma, “Terms of Service”, Sep 2026. karmanow.com (opens the source)
- 3Partnerize, “Karma Shopping (partner profile)”, Oct 2026. partnerize.com (opens the source)
- 4Karma, “Partnerships”, Oct 2026. karmanow.com (opens the source)
- 5Seeger Weiss LLP, “Browser coupon extension commission theft lawsuit (investigation page)”, Jul 2025. seegerweiss.com (opens the source)
