Cookie checker
See which cookies a page sets before anyone consents to anything. Free, no account, one page at a time.
See which cookies a page sets before anyone consents to anything. Free, no account, one page at a time.
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It opens the address you enter in a real browser (headless Chrome) and records every cookie the page sets: its name, which domain set it, whether that domain is the site itself or a third party, how long it lasts, and what kind of cookie it is. It then accepts the cookie banner, if it can find one, and records which cookies were set before that click and which only after it.
Under the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, cookies that are not strictly necessary — analytics, advertising, most embedded third-party tools — may only be set once the visitor has agreed to them. A cookie that is already there before anyone clicks anything is the most common problem on a site with a banner, and the easiest one to spot from the outside.
Not by itself. Strictly necessary cookies, such as a session or a shopping cart, do not need consent at all. The categories in the report are a starting point for that judgement, not a ruling, and a cookie marked Unclassified is simply one we have no record of yet. The report is a technical measurement, not legal advice.
It recognises the CookieWave banner and the common consent platforms, including OneTrust, Cookiebot, Usercentrics, Didomi and banners built on the IAB TCF. Failing that, it looks for an “Accept all” button in more than twenty languages. If it cannot find a banner, the report shows only the cookies set when the page loaded.
Each cookie is matched against a database of known cookies, and those it does not cover are classified by an AI model. Anything neither can place is listed as Unclassified.
The checker arrives as a first-time visitor with no stored consent, from a data centre rather than your network, and without your browser’s extensions. Sites also vary what they load by location, by A/B test and by which ad was served, so two visits a minute apart can set different cookies.
No — exactly one page: the address you enter, following any redirects. Other pages on the same site can set different cookies. CookieWave itself scans every page of a registered site on a schedule and keeps the banner’s cookie list up to date.
The same address can be checked once a day; within 24 hours you get the earlier result. Each result has its own link, which anyone you share it with can open, and it is kept for 30 days.
Usually a firewall or bot protection turned the scanner away, or the address did not respond. If you run the site, you can allow the scanner and try again the next day.