Cookie banner text examples: wording you can copy

Good cookie banner text says three things in under 60 words: what you use cookies for, that the visitor can accept or reject, and where to change the choice later. The buttons should name the action ("Accept all", "Reject all", "Customize"), not a feeling ("Got it", "OK"). Below are texts you can copy and adapt, followed by the phrases European authorities have found misleading, so you know what to remove from your current banner.

Replace the bracketed parts with your own providers and links. Keep the same structure in every language you show.

What should the first layer say?

The first layer is the part visitors see before clicking. It must name the purposes, not just "cookies", and it must offer a refusal at the same level as acceptance.

Short version, for a site with analytics only:

Version for a site with advertising:

Naming the partners matters: the Court of Justice said in Planet49 that the information must include whether third parties can access the cookies.

Which button labels work?

"Reject all" and "Accept all" should have the same size, weight and readable contrast. The EDPB cookie banner taskforce agreed that a banner with an accept button and no reject option on the same layer infringes the rules for a vast majority of authorities. The Reject all guide covers the design side.

How do you describe each category?

These go in the preferences panel, next to each toggle. Keep one or two sentences and name the providers.

• Necessary (always on). "Needed for the site to work: security, load balancing, your shopping cart, and remembering your cookie choice. These cannot be switched off."
• Functional. "Remember settings you choose, such as language or region, and enable features such as live chat [Crisp] or embedded maps [Google Maps]."
• Analytics. "Count visits and traffic sources so we can see which pages are used and improve the site. Provided by [Google Analytics]. The data is reported to us in aggregate."
• Marketing. "Used by advertising partners [Google Ads, Meta] to measure the results of our ads and to show you ads based on your visits to this and other websites."

Below the toggles, show the cookie table (name, provider, purpose, duration) or link to it. The cookie policy guide explains what the table needs.

What should an embed placeholder say?

When a video or map waits for consent, the empty space should explain why and offer a way to load it:

The YouTube embeds guide has the markup.

What about US visitors?

US state laws work on opt-out, so the text is a notice with a link rather than a question:

If you honor Global Privacy Control, say so; California's regulations, as updated from 1 January 2026, require a business to display whether it has processed the signal as a valid opt-out request. Make sure the opt-out link and the signal lead to the same result: advertising tags stop.

Which phrases do European authorities reject?

• "By continuing to browse, you accept our use of cookies." The EDPB consent guidelines say scrolling, swiping or continuing to use a site is not a clear affirmative action, so it is not consent.
• "Accept cookies to access this site." A cookie wall that makes access depend on accepting is not freely given consent according to the same guidelines.
• "Continue without accepting" as a small link inside the paragraph. The taskforce gave a link embedded in the text without visual support as an example that does not produce valid consent.
• "We use cookies to improve your experience." Too vague to be informed or specific; it does not tell the visitor that advertising or third-party tracking is involved.
• Pre-ticked category boxes, with text like "Recommended settings". Recital 32 of the GDPR says pre-ticked boxes do not constitute consent.
• "Legitimate interest" toggles for advertising profiles in a second layer. The taskforce found that cookies cannot be placed on the basis of legitimate interest.

Several of these are covered in more depth in dark patterns in cookie banners.

How do you keep the text readable?

Write at the level of a short e-mail: sentences under 20 words, active voice, no legal Latin. Put the purpose before the technology ("to show ads" rather than "advertising cookies are used"). Translate the banner into the languages your site is written in; a banner in English on a German page is not "informed" for most visitors. The multilingual banner guide covers language detection.

Using these texts in Cookiequiet

Cookiequiet ships default texts close to these in 24 languages, and every string is editable per language. Setup is one script tag before your other scripts, with Reject all on by default and Consent Mode v2 switched on in the snippet the dashboard gives you, about five minutes from sign-up to a live banner. On Pro (€9 per website per month or €99 a year), the AI design agent can rewrite the wording in every language to match your site's tone, and nothing applies until you save.