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AnalyticsConsent required

Analytics cookies

Analytics cookies measure traffic, sessions, engagement, and behavior across pages. They are widely used for product, marketing, and UX reporting, but in the EU they are still non-essential tracking technologies.

Cookies in this hub

23

Provider families

8

Default consent view

Consent required

Legal position

Analytics cookies generally require prior consent under ePrivacy and GDPR when they store or access information on the user's device. Pseudonymisation or truncated IP addresses do not turn them into exempt cookies.

Focus on whether analytics scripts load before consent, whether your CMP blocks tags correctly, and whether the cookie list shown to users actually matches what the site sets in production.

Banner copy tip: State what you measure and which vendor is involved, such as Google Analytics or session replay, rather than vague wording like performance improvement.

Common failures

  • Deploying Google Analytics through Google Tag Manager and assuming the CMP automatically blocks it.
  • Adding Hotjar or Clarity through a plugin that runs before consent on every page.
  • Listing only _ga in the policy while forgetting session or replay-related analytics cookies.

Audit checklist

  • Block analytics scripts until the visitor accepts the relevant category in the CMP.
  • Audit production pages, not just the homepage, because analytics tags often vary by template or locale.
  • Document every analytics cookie name, provider, purpose, and expiry in the policy.
  • Retest after marketing or product teams add new measurement scripts or CMP rules.

Providers commonly found here

Google Analytics (5)Hotjar (5)HubSpot (4)Microsoft Clarity (2)Segment (2)Shopify (2)Amplitude (1)LinkedIn (1)

Need platform-specific implementation advice? Review the matching hub for Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, PrestaShop.

Analytics cookies reference list

_gaAnalyticsConsent required

Distinguishes unique users by assigning a randomly generated client ID. Used by both Universal Analytics and GA4 properties.

Expires: 2 years
Google LLC
Google Analytics
_ga_<container-id>AnalyticsConsent required

GA4 session state cookie. Stores the current session ID and engagement state for the property; one is set per GA4 measurement ID.

Expires: 2 years
Google LLC
Google Analytics
_gidAnalyticsConsent required

Used by Universal Analytics to distinguish users over a 24-hour window. Largely deprecated since GA4 but still found on legacy sites.

Expires: 24 hours
Google LLC
Google Analytics
_gatAnalyticsConsent required

Throttles the request rate to Google Analytics on high-traffic sites. Often appears as _gat_gtag_<id>.

Expires: 1 minute
Google LLC
Google Analytics
_dc_gtm_<container-id>AnalyticsConsent required

Used by Google Tag Manager to throttle the request rate to Google Analytics. Set when GTM loads GA on the page.

Expires: 1 minute
Google LLC
Google Analytics
AnalyticsSyncHistoryAnalyticsConsent required

Stores information about the time a visitor's identity was synchronised with the lms_analytics cookie for LinkedIn analytics.

Expires: 1 month
LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company
LinkedIn
_hjSessionUser_<id>AnalyticsConsent required

Hotjar user ID cookie. Ensures data from subsequent visits to the same site is attributed to the same user.

Expires: 1 year
Hotjar Ltd.
Hotjar
_hjSession_<id>AnalyticsConsent required

Hotjar session cookie. Holds current session data so subsequent requests in the session window are attributed correctly.

Expires: 30 minutes
Hotjar Ltd.
Hotjar
_hjFirstSeenAnalyticsConsent required

Identifies a new user's first session and indicates whether or not Hotjar's seeing this user for the first time.

Expires: 30 minutes
Hotjar Ltd.
Hotjar
_hjIncludedInPageviewSampleAnalyticsConsent required

Set so Hotjar can determine whether the visitor is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit.

Expires: 30 minutes
Hotjar Ltd.
Hotjar
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgressAnalyticsConsent required

Used by Hotjar to detect a visitor's first pageview session and prevent it being counted multiple times.

Expires: 30 minutes
Hotjar Ltd.
Hotjar
_clckAnalyticsConsent required

Persists the Clarity user ID and preferences unique to the site, so visits to the same site are attributed to the same user.

Expires: 1 year
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Clarity
_clskAnalyticsConsent required

Connects multiple Clarity page views by a user into a single session recording.

Expires: 24 hours
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Clarity
ajs_anonymous_idAnalyticsConsent required

Segment-generated anonymous visitor identifier. Used to attribute events from non-logged-in users to a stable ID across sessions before they identify.

Expires: 1 year
Twilio Inc. (Segment)
Segment
ajs_user_idAnalyticsConsent required

Segment user identifier set after a visitor calls analytics.identify(). Used to forward identified events to downstream tools (Mixpanel, Amplitude, etc.).

Expires: 1 year
Twilio Inc. (Segment)
Segment
amplitude_id_<id>AnalyticsConsent required

Stores the Amplitude device and user ID, plus session metadata, so behavioural events can be attributed to a stable user across visits.

Expires: 10 years
Amplitude, Inc.
Amplitude
optimizelyEndUserIdAnalyticsConsent required

Optimizely visitor identifier used to bucket users into A/B test variants and measure experiment exposure consistently across visits.

Expires: 6 months
Optimizely, Inc.
Optimizely
__hstcAnalyticsConsent required

HubSpot main analytics cookie tracking visitors. Contains domain, utk, initial timestamp, last timestamp, current timestamp, and session number.

Expires: 6 months
HubSpot, Inc.
HubSpot
hubspotutkAnalyticsConsent required

HubSpot user token. Identifies a unique visitor and is passed to HubSpot on form submission for contact deduplication.

Expires: 6 months
HubSpot, Inc.
HubSpot
__hsscAnalyticsConsent required

HubSpot session cookie. Tracks sessions: incremented on each new pageview within 30 minutes.

Expires: 30 minutes
HubSpot, Inc.
HubSpot
__hssrcAnalyticsConsent required

HubSpot session-restart flag. Set to 1 when HubSpot detects that the visitor has started a new browser session.

Expires: Session
HubSpot, Inc.
HubSpot
_shopify_yAnalyticsConsent required

Shopify long-term visitor analytics cookie used for tracking returning customers and personalising recommendations.

Expires: 1 year
Shopify International Ltd.
Shopify
_shopify_sAnalyticsConsent required

Shopify session analytics cookie used to track the current visit.

Expires: 30 minutes
Shopify International Ltd.
Shopify

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