---
title: Cookie filter
slug: cookie
description: How the Cookie filter works in Personizely: target visitors by the value of any cookie on your site, text and number operators, missing cookies and HttpOnly.
image: https://archbee-image-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/1y1Fr-DMGy_apx7FwibyA/ORDTWfNKMXiY3ZRv0QSgP_personizely-docs-og.png
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-10-17T09:49:17.160Z
---

The Cookie filter matches visitors by the value of a cookie set on your site. Use it to target audiences that another tool already marks with a cookie, such as a loyalty app, a consent banner, a chosen language or a partner referral.

**Available on:** all platforms.

## How it's evaluated

The filter reads: **Visitor has a cookie** \[name] **whose value** \[operator] \[value].

Personizely reads the cookie with that exact name on the current page and compares its value with yours. A cookie that doesn't exist counts as an empty value.

Campaigns read the cookie when they run on page load. Widgets with a [Target rule](https://docs.personizely.net/target) read it again when their trigger fires, so a cookie set on the same page, for example by a consent banner, is picked up.

## Options

| Option      | What it does             | Values / default                                                                                              |
| ----------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cookie name | Exact name of the cookie | Required, case-sensitive                                                                                      |
| Operator    | How to compare           | is, is not, contains, does not contain, is empty, is not empty, is higher than, is lower than. Default **is** |
| Value       | What to compare with     | Required, except for **is empty** and **is not empty**                                                        |

## Behavior details

- **Missing cookies are empty.** If the cookie doesn't exist, **is empty**, **is not** and **does not contain** match. Use **is not empty** to require that the cookie exists.
- **Comparisons are exact and case-sensitive.** No wildcards or regular expressions.
- **The value is compared as stored.** Cookie values aren't decoded first, so a value saved as `summer%20sale` must be entered that way, not as `summer sale`.
- **Number comparisons read the first number in the value.** "is higher than 100" works with values like `150` or `tier_150`. A value without a number counts as 0.
- **HttpOnly cookies aren't visible.** Cookies your server marks as HttpOnly can't be read by the filter. Ask the tool that sets them for a readable cookie, or expose the value with [website data](https://docs.personizely.net/website-data).
- **Cookies from other domains.** Only cookies available on the page the visitor is viewing can be read. A cookie set for `shop.example.com` isn't available on `example.com`, unless it was set for the whole domain.
- **Duplicate names.** If two cookies share a name (for example, set on different paths), the one listed last by the browser is used.

## Examples

- **Loyalty members:** "Visitor has a cookie `loyalty_tier` whose value is `gold`" to show members-only pricing messaging.
- **Wait for consent:** "Visitor has a cookie `cookie_consent` whose value contains `marketing`" as the Target rule of an email popup.
- **Partner traffic:** "Visitor has a cookie `ref_partner` whose value is not empty" to personalize a landing page for affiliate visitors.

## Related

- [Targets](https://docs.personizely.net/targets)
- [Selector filter](https://docs.personizely.net/selector)
- [Website data filter](https://docs.personizely.net/data-filter)
- [Parsers](https://docs.personizely.net/parsers-data-parsing-engine)
- [Cookies and consent](https://docs.personizely.net/cookies-and-consent)