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Categorizing cookies

Every cookie on your website belongs in a category. Categories are how privacy laws (and your visitors) think about cookies, and they're how the banner decides what to ask permission for.

The categories

One Privacy supports five categories:

Necessary. The site can't work without these. Login, security, and core functionality. Always on, no consent needed.

Functional. Remember a visitor's choices, like their language or their region.

Performance. Measure how the site is used so you can make it better. Things like Google Analytics often go here.

Targeting. Track visitors across sites for advertising and personalization.

Uncategorized. Cookies that haven't been sorted yet. Aim to leave none of these in your inventory.

Open your project. In the left sidebar, click Inventory.

Find the cookie in the list. Click the edit icon next to its current category.

Edit category dialogThe Edit Category dialog with a dropdown showing all available categories.inventory-edit-category.png

Pick a category from the dropdown and click Save. The new category appears on the cookie row.

Categorize many cookies at once

Bulk editing is the fastest way to clean up after a fresh scan.

  1. Filter by Uncategorized (or any other category) to find what you want to update.
  2. Use the checkboxes on the left to select the cookies you want to move.
  3. Use the checkbox in the table header to select everything visible.
  4. Click Edit Category above the table.
  5. Pick the new category and click Save.

All selected cookies move to the new category in one step.

Tips for clean categorization

Start with Necessary. Identify the cookies your site genuinely needs to function (login, cart, security tokens) and put them there first.

Use the search box for known patterns. Cookie names from the same provider often share a prefix (for example, _ga, _ga_* for Google Analytics). Search for the prefix to find related cookies and bulk-move them in one go.

Revisit after each scan. New cookies show up as Uncategorized. A quick pass keeps your inventory tidy.

What's next

Edit cookie descriptions.

Cookie categories explained in depth.

Customize how categories appear on the banner.