What is the _hjSessionUser_* cookie?
Hotjar cookie that is set when a user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 56 sites (2% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Functional
- Belongs to
- Hotjar
- Set as
- First-party (under the site's own domain)
- Typical lifetime
- 12 months (vendor says: 365 days) — about what the vendor documents
- Name
- A family of cookies: the part after _hjSessionUser_ varies by site or account.
Sites that set _hjSessionUser_* before consent
The highest-ranked 30 of 56 sites.
- springer.com3 tracking companies
- mediafire.com5 tracking companies
- prnewswire.com13 tracking companies
- pexels.com4 tracking companies
- mercadolivre.com.br1 tracking company
- mercadolibre.com.ar1 tracking company
- tailscale.com7 tracking companies
- bidmachine.io13 tracking companies
- mercadolibre.com.mx1 tracking company
- superhosting.bg3 tracking companies
Show 20 more sites
- tori.fi3 tracking companies
- psu.edu4 tracking companies
- therapservices.net5 tracking companies
- autoplius.lt5 tracking companies
- skelbiu.lt5 tracking companies
- investing.com6 tracking companies
- ucsd.edu8 tracking companies
- uchicago.edu5 tracking companies
- rackspace.com6 tracking companies
- earthlink.net10 tracking companies
- itu.int4 tracking companies
- umd.edu3 tracking companies
- usc.edu5 tracking companies
- ucdavis.edu7 tracking companies
- fotmob.com8 tracking companies
- arizona.edu9 tracking companies
- getyourguide.com4 tracking companies
- scmp.com17 tracking companies
- technologyreview.com6 tracking companies
- utah.edu11 tracking companies
Related cookies
Other cookies from Hotjar.
- _hjSession_*56 sites
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop _hjSessionUser_* 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.