Understanding your Zendesk session time

By default, when you sign into Zendesk, your session remains valid as long as user activity occurs. Also, by default, a session will timeout after 8 hours of inactivity. 

• User activity is defined as when you click something explicitly in the Zendesk user interface, or when the application pulls information automatically in the background. Information pulls happens often to keep the Zendesk interface up to date, but pulls don't occur uniformly across all Zendesk pages.
• The Zendesk timeout countdown starts when you close your browser, or quit the browser tab where the Zendesk session is running. The timeout countdown can also be triggered when you put your computer to sleep or turn it off. When the timeout limit is reached, Zendesk terminates your sign in session, and you have to sign in again to use Zendesk.
• An individual session is immediately terminated once you explicitly sign out of Zendesk.

Staff members have a configurable session duration, but end users have 8 hours set by default.

There are other technical differences and edge cases, but the main idea is that if a user is active, they will never be signed out. If they are inactive, the session will last 8 hours.

Another factor that can impact session timeout is:

• A Zendesk administrator can extend the 8 hour timeout for staff members and set a custom session expiration as part of the Advanced > Authentication security policy
.  Reach out to your Admin if you have questions around the session duration.