Providing cookie consent options with a banner

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Providing cookie consent options with a banner

Last updated January 14, 2026 21:20

Steps on how to create and style a banner that informs your visitors of cookies.

Cookies are small pieces of data that websites store on a device. Squarespace and, other third-party services, place cookies on visitors’ browsers. Placing cookies:

  • Helps your site run effectively
  • Provides the best experience for your visitors
  • Helps you learn more about traffic to your site

As the website owner, certain laws may require you to:

  • Inform your visitors of cookies placed by your website
  • Receive visitors’ permission to use certain types of cookies, for example, non-essential cookies

You can disable these cookies, or use a cookie banner to notify your visitors and offer consent options. Use this guide to learn how to add a banner to your site.

Tip: Learn more about the cookies Squarespace and third-party services place on your visitors’ browsers.

Watch a video

Before setting up your cookie banner, review the table below to learn more about the different settings and what options they provide your visitors when you enable the cookie banner:
Manage cookies / Decline all settings Options visitors will have Appearance of cookie banner Non-essential cookies
Manage cookies - Off Decline all - Off Accept all cookies If the visitor accepts all cookies, the banner will not appear again for 30 days, unless they clear their cookies. You can leavenon-essential cookies Restricted until visitors acknowledge your banner, or you can click Remove Restriction.
Manage cookies - On Decline all - Off Accept all cookies, or manage their cookie preferences After a visitor chooses their cookie preference, the banner goes away. A manage cookies sub footer will appear for 30 days, then the banner shows up again. You can't choose Restrict cookies or Remove Restriction. Non-essential cookies must be restricted until a visitor accepts them via the cookie banner.
Manage cookies - On Decline all - On Accept or decline all cookies, or manage their cookie preferences

Note: If your site has custom code injection that drops non-essential cookies, you may want to ensure your cookie banner can interact with the code. For example, Google provides a sample code snippet you can use to integrate the banner with Google Analytics. Keep in mind, custom code modifications fall outside the scope of our support. This means we’re unable to help you set up or troubleshoot code-based solutions.

To display a cookie banner on your site:

  1. Open the Cookies & Data Privacy panel.
  2. Switch on the toggle beside Cookie banner.
  3. Choose which buttons to display in your cookie banner:
  4. Decline all button - Allows visitors to reject all non-essential cookies
  5. Manage cookies button - Allows visitors to customize their cookie preferences
  6. (Optional) Customize your button labels and disclaimer text.
  7. (Optional) To include a cookie preferences option, choose the Subfooter or Pill layout. If you don’t want to give your visitors the option to edit their cookie preferences at any time, choose Hidden.
  8. Choose whether to include activity log data in Analytics.
  9. Click Save.
  10. To change the color, position, and text size of your banner, under Preview, click Customize Banner Style.

Note: Cookie notice requirements vary depending on your location and cookie use. While we provide sample text you can use, you shouldn’t assume that it satisfies your particular legal requirements.

To turn off your cookie banner:

  1. Open the Cookies & Data Privacy panel.
  2. Switch off the toggle beside Cookie banner.

If you turn the cookie banner off and select Restrict Cookies from the non-essential cookies dropdown menu, a visitor won’t have the option to accept or decline cookies. As a result, some content that drops non-essential cookies won’t function, and your visitors won’t be able to opt in.

Restrict non-essential cookies until visitors acknowledge your banner

To prevent Squarespace, and some third party integrations, from placing non-essential cookies on visitors’ browsers until visitors accept them by clicking the confirmation message on your banner:

  1. Open the Cookies & Data Privacy panel.
  2. Switch the toggle on beside Cookie Banner to add the banner.
  3. By default, we’ll restrict some non-essential cookies. You can review your non-essential cookie settings under Advanced Privacy Settings, next to Non-essential cookies.
  4. Click Save.

Learn more about disabling non-essential cookies without displaying a cookie banner.

The way you style your cookie banner depends on your site's version:

To change the color, position, and text size of your banner:

  1. Open the Cookie Banner panel.
  2. Choose a color theme, banner position, and disclaimer text size for your banner.
  3. Click Save.

To change the font, shape, outline, and padding of the cookie banner buttons:

  1. Open the Buttons panel.
  2. Click the button type you want to style: Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary. To learn each button's type, review Button types.
  3. Click Save after making changes.

To change the color of the cookie banner buttons:

  1. Open the Cookie banner panel to check your buttons' color theme. If your cookie banner is in the Top position, and your header uses an Adaptive background style, the cookie banner matches the color theme of your first section.
  2. Open the Colors panel and choose the corresponding color theme to change the Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary button color tweaks.
  3. Click Save.

To change the color of the cookie banner toggles:

  1. Open the Cookie banner panel to check your banner's color theme. If your cookie banner is in the Top position, and your header uses an Adaptive background style, the cookie banner matches the color theme of your first section.
  2. Open the Colors panel and choose the corresponding color theme, then scroll down to the Toggle section.
  3. Use the Toggle Color - On tweak to customize the color for the toggles when they're enabled, and use the Toggle Color - Off tweak to customize the color for when they're disabled.
  4. Click Save.

To change the position, and the color theme of your banner:

  1. Open the Cookies & Data Privacy panel.
  2. Choose a banner position, and a Dark or Light color theme.
  3. Click Save.

To change the font and style of your banner's text:

  1. Open site styles.
  2. Edit the Body text tweak. This will also change all the text on your site that follows the Body text style. How to find the Body text tweak depends on your template family.
  3. Click Save.

Preview the banner

To preview the banner, log out of your Squarespace account or open your site in Private Browsing or Incognito mode. The banner doesn’t display when you’re logged in.

To create a separate privacy or cookie policy and link to it from your banner, follow these steps:

  1. Add a layout page. Name it Privacy Policy or Cookie Policy (or something similar), and add your policy text.
  2. Return to the Cookie Banner panel. In the text field, add a link to the new page.
  3. Click Save.

For more help, visit Sharing policies and terms on your site.

Tip: To hide this page from your navigation menu, add it to the Not linked section. You can also hide it from search engines.

Note: Squarespace can’t provide advice about the content of a privacy or cookie policy page.

Activity log

Enable or disable the activity log to choose whether you receive activity log data in analytics. To learn more, visit Activity log.

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Providing cookie consent options with a banner