What is the _GRECAPTCHA cookie?
Google reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 16 sites (1% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Functional
- Belongs to
- Google reCAPTCHA
- Set as
- Third-party (under another company's domain)
- Typical lifetime
- 6 months (vendor says: 179 days) — about what the vendor documents
Sites that set _GRECAPTCHA before consent
The highest-ranked 16 of 16 sites.
- linkedin.com0 tracking companies
- bandcamp.com1 tracking company
- smilewanted.com1 tracking company
- waze.com1 tracking company
- sprinthost.ru5 tracking companies
- intentiq.com4 tracking companies
- aniview.com3 tracking companies
- admatic.de2 tracking companies
- usp.br2 tracking companies
- cvent.com5 tracking companies
Show 6 more sites
- paysafecard.com4 tracking companies
- apnic.net4 tracking companies
- teacherspayteachers.com5 tracking companies
- propublica.org5 tracking companies
- krushmedia.com0 tracking companies
- atlasobscura.com28 tracking companies
Related cookies
Other cookies from Google reCAPTCHA.
- _gcl_au336 sites
- FCCDCF141 sites
- receive-cookie-deprecation136 sites
- __Secure-YNID113 sites
- g_state92 sites
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop _GRECAPTCHA being set on later visits. Blocking third-party cookies in your browser settings stops the third-party kind everywhere, and clearing cookies for a site removes any it already set.
Description from the Open Cookie Database (Apache 2.0).
Understanding this page
- How cookie lifetimes work, and why a 13-month _ga matters
What a cookie's "expires" field actually controls, why Google Analytics ships a 2-year default that many sites cut down to 13 months, and how Safari's 7-day cap on script-set cookies changes the picture.
- First-party vs third-party cookies (and why "first-party" still tracks you)
What the distinction actually means technically, why browsers only block one of the two, and how CNAME cloaking, server-side tagging and cookies like _ga let sites keep tracking under their own domain.
- How to block or limit trackers
Browser privacy settings, content blockers, Global Privacy Control and clearing cookies compared honestly — what each one actually stops, what it doesn't, and what it costs you in return.