Google consent mode lets Google's tags change what they do based on a visitor's answer to a cookie banner. It comes in two setups, basic and advanced, and they behave very differently when a visitor says no. This guide sets out what Google's own documentation says about each one.
What consent mode does
Consent mode passes the visitor's choice to Google's tags as a set of consent types, each granted or denied. The main ones cover advertising storage and analytics storage (whether advertising and analytics cookies may be used), advertising user data (whether user data may be sent to Google for advertising), and advertising personalization (whether it may be used for personalized ads).
Consent mode does not collect consent. Google's documentation says the site is responsible for obtaining the visitor's consent, through its own banner or a consent management platform, and for making sure Google tags and third-party tags follow that choice.
Basic consent mode
In the basic setup, Google tags do not load until the visitor interacts with the banner. Google says this setup "transmits no data to Google prior to user interaction with the consent banner," and that when the visitor does not consent, no data goes to Google at all, not even the consent status.
If the visitor accepts, the tags load and send the consent state, then measure normally.
Advanced consent mode
In the advanced setup, Google tags load as soon as the page opens, with consent set to denied by default. Google's documentation says that while consent is denied, the tags "send measurements without cookies." When the visitor grants consent, the tags send full measurement data.
Google describes these cookieless signals as pings:
- Consent state pings, sent from each page the visitor opens, reporting whether each consent type is granted or denied.
- Google Analytics pings, sent on each page when events are logged.
- Key event pings, sent when a conversion happens.
Google lists what these pings can include: a timestamp, the browser's user agent, the referrer, whether the page or an earlier page carried an ad-click identifier in its address, the consent state, and a random number generated on each page load.
Google also documents what happens to each consent type when it is denied:
- With advertising storage denied, no advertising cookies are read or written, Google's ads products truncate IP addresses at collection, and "Full page URLs are collected, including ad-click information in URL parameters."
- With analytics storage denied, no analytics cookies are read or written, and measurements without cookies are still sent to Google Analytics "for basic measurement and modeling purposes."
Each of these requests travels from the visitor's browser to Google's servers, so it reaches Google with the visitor's IP address, which Google says its ads products truncate.
Google uses the pings to model the conversions and visits it cannot count directly. That modeling is the reason advanced mode exists.
Why the difference matters
A visitor who clicks "Reject" on a site running advanced consent mode sees no difference. But on every page they open afterward, the browser keeps sending Google requests that can carry the full page address. On a site where the address names a condition, a doctor, or an appointment type, that is the information the visitor declined to share.
In the basic setup, a refusal means Google's tags never load, and nothing is sent.
Consent mode only covers Google's tags
Google lists the tags with built-in consent checks: the Google tag, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Floodlight, and the Conversion Linker. The Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, and replay tools do not read consent mode on their own. They must be blocked by your consent platform or by consent conditions on their triggers in Google Tag Manager, or they keep running after a refusal.
How to tell which setup your site uses
Run the five-minute Reject button test and filter the Network panel for google and doubleclick.
- If requests to
google-analytics.com,googleads.g.doubleclick.net, orpagead2.googlesyndication.comappear before you touch the banner, or keep appearing after you click "Reject," Google's tags are loading before consent. That is the advanced setup, or no consent mode at all. - In those requests, the
gcsparameter carries the advertising storage and analytics storage choices. A value ofG100means both are denied. A request withG100that also carries the page address indlis a cookieless measurement sent after the visitor said no. - If nothing goes to Google until you accept, the site is behaving like the basic setup.
What to do
- Use the basic setup, or have your consent platform block Google tags entirely until the visitor accepts.
- Check every Google tag, not just Analytics: Google Ads conversion and remarketing tags and Floodlight tags as well.
- Block non-Google tags separately. Consent mode does not stop them.
- If you send Google tag data to a server-side container, apply the same rule there. A server container forwards what it receives; see Meta Conversions API and server-side tagging.
- Test again after every change, and keep a record of the test.
Sources
Links checked on October 22, 2026. Quotations are from Google's consent mode overview as published that day.