The Free Cookie Scanner is a tool that lets you scan any website and discover all cookies it uses — without creating an account or installing anything. It's the quickest way to understand your website's cookie landscape and take the first step towards GDPR compliance.
What the Scanner Detects
The free scanner uses a real headless browser (Chromium) to load your website pages exactly as a visitor would. This means it detects:
- First-party cookies — set by your own domain
- Third-party cookies — set by external services like Google Analytics, Facebook, or ad networks
- HTTP-only cookies — cookies not accessible via JavaScript (often used for sessions)
- Secure cookies — cookies transmitted only over HTTPS
Each cookie is automatically categorised using a database of over 1,500 known cookies combined with pattern-matching heuristics.
How to Run a Scan
Step 1: Enter Your Domain
Go to the Free Cookie Scanner page and type your website's URL into the input field. You can enter just the domain (e.g., example.com) or a full URL (e.g., https://www.example.com) — the scanner normalises it automatically.
Step 2: Complete Verification
If CAPTCHA verification is enabled, complete the challenge to confirm you're not a bot. This protects the service from automated abuse.
Step 3: Wait for Results
The scanner will:
- Look for your website's
sitemap.xmlto discover pages - If no sitemap is found, it scans the homepage
- Scan up to 10 pages, loading each in a real browser
- Collect all cookies found across those pages
- Categorise each cookie automatically
A progress bar shows how many pages have been scanned. Most scans complete within 1–2 minutes.
Understanding Your Results
Summary Cards
At the top of the results you'll see summary cards showing how many cookies were found in each category:
- Necessary (green) — essential for the website to function, e.g., session cookies, CSRF tokens, load balancers
- Functional (blue) — enhance user experience but aren't essential, e.g., language preferences, theme settings, chat widgets
- Analytics (amber) — track visitor behaviour, e.g., Google Analytics (
_ga,_gid), Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity - Marketing (purple) — used for advertising and tracking across websites, e.g., Facebook Pixel (
_fbp), Google Ads, TikTok - Uncategorised (grey) — cookies that couldn't be automatically classified
Cookie Table
The detailed table shows every cookie found, with:
- Name — the cookie identifier
- Domain — which domain set the cookie (first-party vs third-party)
- Category — the assigned classification
- Platform — the service that sets the cookie, when known (e.g., "Google Analytics", "Facebook")
- Description — what the cookie does, from our known cookies database
Use the category filter tabs above the table to focus on a specific type of cookie.
Cookie Categories Explained
Under GDPR and ePrivacy regulations, cookies fall into different categories that determine whether you need consent to use them:
| Category | Consent Required? | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Necessary | No — always allowed | Session IDs, CSRF tokens, Cloudflare cookies |
| Functional | Yes, in most jurisdictions | Language, currency, reCAPTCHA |
| Analytics | Yes | Google Analytics, Hotjar, Clarity |
| Marketing | Yes | Facebook Pixel, Google Ads, DoubleClick |
Limitations of the Free Scan
The free scanner is a quick audit tool with some limitations:
- 10 pages maximum — larger websites may have cookies on pages beyond the first 10
- 3 scans per day — to prevent abuse, each IP address can run up to 3 scans per 24-hour period
- No scheduled scans — you need to come back and scan manually each time
- No consent management — the scan shows you what cookies exist, but doesn't help you collect or manage consent
- Results are temporary — scan results are deleted after 7 days
Next Steps
Once you've seen what cookies your website uses, here's what to do next:
Create a Free Account
A free Kukie.io account unlocks:
- Unlimited scanning — no page or daily scan limits
- Automatic cookie categorisation — cookies are saved and managed in your dashboard
- Scheduled scans — set weekly or monthly automatic scans to catch new cookies
- Cookie consent banner — a customisable, GDPR-compliant banner for your website
- Consent logging — record and store proof of visitor consent
- Legal document generation — auto-generate Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, and Terms
- Analytics dashboard — track consent rates, visitor choices, and trends
- Google Consent Mode v2 — integrate with Google Analytics and Google Ads
Compare Plans
For advanced features like scheduled scans, custom branding, geo-detection, and multi-region compliance, check our pricing page to find the right plan for your needs.
Learn More
Explore these related articles to deepen your understanding:
- How Cookie Scanning Works — technical details about the scanning process
- Managing Scan Results — how to review and act on cookies found
- What Are Functional Cookies? — in-depth guide to cookie types