_hjSessionUser_<IDENTIFIANT> — Hotjar
By the OpenCookies team · published 2026-10-22 · updated 2026-10-22
- Service
- Hotjar
- Category
- Analytics
- Default duration
- 1 year
- Type
- First-party cookie (set by your own site)
- Consent required?
- Yes, in principle: only audience measurement meeting strict conditions can be exempt from consent in the EU.
What is it for?
Identifies a visitor for Hotjar (heatmaps, session recordings) to recognize behavior from one visit to the next.
What does it look like?
The value is encoded text (base64 JSON) containing an ID, a creation date and a sampling flag.
How to see it in your browser
Open your site, press F12, then choose the “Application” tab (Chrome, Edge) or “Storage” (Firefox). Under “Cookies”, select your site’s address: the _hjSessionUser_<IDENTIFIANT> cookie appears in the list if present, with its value and expiry date.
What does the rule say?
Audience measurement in principle requires the visitor’s prior consent. The French CNIL accepts an exemption for some tools configured very strictly (statistical purpose only, no cross-referencing with other data and no cross-site tracking); detailed conditions are on its website.
How to prevent it before the choice
Do not load the Hotjar script before consent. Session recordings are particularly sensitive.
How OpenCookies handles it
Common services like this one are in OpenCookies’ tracker list: the banner neutralizes their script before the visitor chooses and only restarts it after “Accept”. The test shows whether this cookie appears before the choice, after “Refuse” and after “Accept”.
Check it on my site
Does this cookie appear on your site before the visitor chooses? The OpenCookies test shows it in two minutes.
Related cookies
Frequently asked questions
The name contains a number: what does it mean?
It is your site’s ID in Hotjar. Each site has its own cookie.
Which other Hotjar cookie exists?
_hjSession_ID, which keeps the session state for 30 minutes.
Durations are defaults and may change with configuration. This page describes a cookie; it is not legal advice.