What is the bm_s cookie?
One of the cookies Akamai's Bot Manager sets alongside bm_sz to support its bot-detection checks.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 59 sites (2% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Necessary
- Belongs to
- Akamai
- Set as
- First-party (under the site's own domain)
- Typical lifetime
- 31 days
Sites that set bm_s before consent
The highest-ranked 30 of 59 sites.
- afternic.com0 tracking companies
- godaddy.com0 tracking companies
- oracle.com2 tracking companies
- mobile.de0 tracking companies
- autodesk.com6 tracking companies
- dell.com12 tracking companies
- mcafee.com0 tracking companies
- npr.org9 tracking companies
- playstation.com3 tracking companies
- dailymail.com0 tracking companies
Show 20 more sites
- mckinsey.com0 tracking companies
- bestbuy.com0 tracking companies
- lenovo.com1 tracking company
- fidelity.com15 tracking companies
- moneycontrol.com3 tracking companies
- skysports.com2 tracking companies
- amd.com1 tracking company
- cricinfo.com0 tracking companies
- makemytrip.com1 tracking company
- businesswire.com6 tracking companies
- usnews.com4 tracking companies
- akamai.com1 tracking company
- oreilly.com3 tracking companies
- sony.com2 tracking companies
- pwc.com5 tracking companies
- verizon.com20 tracking companies
- ford.com17 tracking companies
- imf.org4 tracking companies
- flaticon.com1 tracking company
- leparisien.fr3 tracking companies
Related cookies
Other cookies from Akamai.
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop optional cookies, though a necessary cookie like this one may still be set. 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 written by CookieTosser, for a cookie the Open Cookie Database doesn't cover.
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.