What is the X-AB cookie?
This cookie is used by the website’s operator in context with multi-variate testing. This is a tool used to combine or change content on the website. This allows the website to find the best variation/edition of the site.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 22 sites (1% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Functional
- Belongs to
- Snapchat
- Set as
- Third-party (under another company's domain)
- Typical lifetime
- 1 day (vendor says: 1 day) — about what the vendor documents
Sites that set X-AB before consent
The highest-ranked 22 of 22 sites.
- branch.io4 tracking companies
- usps.com24 tracking companies
- verizon.com20 tracking companies
- msu.edu10 tracking companies
- ubc.ca4 tracking companies
- arizona.edu9 tracking companies
- audible.com25 tracking companies
- colorado.edu8 tracking companies
- guard.io14 tracking companies
- unl.edu11 tracking companies
Show 12 more sites
- acorns.com20 tracking companies
- toyota.com19 tracking companies
- rochester.edu11 tracking companies
- oregonstate.edu7 tracking companies
- uiowa.edu11 tracking companies
- umass.edu13 tracking companies
- iu.edu15 tracking companies
- udel.edu9 tracking companies
- wsu.edu10 tracking companies
- rogers.com14 tracking companies
- ulta.com26 tracking companies
- clemson.edu8 tracking companies
Related cookies
Other cookies from Snapchat.
- sc_at11 sites
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop X-AB 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.