ComplyZero Research

The State of Cookie Compliance in India, 2026

The first large-scale analysis of cookie consent practices across India's digital ecosystem. We scanned 6,000+ websites and catalogued over 84,000 cookies. The results reveal a massive compliance gap.

Download Full Report (PDF)View Key Findings

6,000+

Indian websites scanned

84K+

Cookies catalogued & classified

Industry sectors analysed

Key Findings

The numbers paint a stark picture

Our analysis uncovered systemic gaps across consent, cookie classification, and data retention, spanning every major industry sector.

4.1%

Of sites have any consent mechanism at all

Out of 6,000+ websites scanned, only 249 displayed a cookie consent banner. 95.9% of Indian websites drop cookies without any form of user consent.

0.2%

Government website consent rate

Of 1,154 government websites scanned, only 2 showed a consent banner, the lowest of any sector.

82.2%

Non-essential cookie share

Marketing, analytics, and unclassified cookies dominate. Only 17.8% serve essential or functional purposes.

79.6%

Pre-consent violation rate

Among sites with consent banners, 79.6% drop non-essential cookies before the user even interacts with the banner.

62.7%

Accept-only banner designs

Nearly two-thirds of consent banners offer only an “Accept” button, with no meaningful opt-out.

Cookie Breakdown

What kind of cookies are Indian websites setting?

We classified 84,000+ cookies across five categories using heuristic-based rules. Marketing trackers are the single largest category.

84K+

Total cookies

Marketing

38.1%

Analytics

21.7%

Essential

10.1%

Functional

7.7%

Unclassified

22.4%

Consent Gap

Consent adoption by industry sector

Even the best-performing sectors show alarmingly low consent adoption rates. Most sectors are below 15%.

Retail & FMCG14.7%

Legal Services13.4%

Manufacturing12.2%

Logistics11.9%

IT & SaaS11.2%

Travel10.3%

Automotive8.8%

Healthcare8.3%

249

Out of 6,000+ sites display any cookie consent banner. That's just 4.1%.

126

Sites use OneTrust, making it the most popular CMP in India and powering over half of all detected consent banners.

Sites offer granular cookie preferences. The rest give users a binary take-it-or-leave-it choice.

Sector Scorecard

How does your industry compare?

Cookie patterns vary dramatically across industries, from media sites averaging 30+ cookies per page to government portals with fewer than 4.

Education1,269 sites

9.3Avg cookies

1.1%Consent rate

41.8%Marketing

53.1%Third-party

Government1,154 sites

3.9Avg cookies

0.2%Consent rate

13.9%Marketing

30.1%Third-party

IT & SaaS537 sites

15.5Avg cookies

11.2%Consent rate

37.4%Marketing

57.8%Third-party

E-Commerce436 sites

24.0Avg cookies

4.8%Consent rate

35.9%Marketing

42.6%Third-party

Media409 sites

30.4Avg cookies

1.5%Consent rate

65.8%Marketing

70.5%Third-party

Banking & Finance301 sites

16.3Avg cookies

3.3%Consent rate

33.4%Marketing

52.3%Third-party

Entertainment255 sites

14.0Avg cookies

2.4%Consent rate

47.4%Marketing

64.7%Third-party

Healthcare252 sites

14.6Avg cookies

8.3%Consent rate

39.7%Marketing

52.2%Third-party

Automotive170 sites

17.8Avg cookies

8.8%Consent rate

33.9%Marketing

45.5%Third-party

Jobs160 sites

14.3Avg cookies

7.5%Consent rate

45.3%Marketing

54.1%Third-party

Retail & FMCG150 sites

24.4Avg cookies

14.7%Consent rate

33.5%Marketing

36.3%Third-party

Manufacturing139 sites

16.7Avg cookies

12.2%Consent rate

27.5%Marketing

47.7%Third-party

Methodology

Transparent, reproducible methodology

Every finding in this report is backed by a clearly documented methodology. The full technical details are available in the downloadable PDF.

Automated Browser Scanning

We used headless Chromium browsers to visit each website, capturing all cookies set on the initial page load to mimic an average user's first visit.

Automated Cookie Taxonomy

Each cookie was classified using a layered system that evaluates name patterns, issuing domains, and TTL values, cross-referenced against open cookie databases and our proprietary classification engine.

Sector-Level Analysis

Websites were tagged into 24 industry sectors and analysed for consent adoption, cookie volumes, third-party tracker presence, and security posture.

Full Report

Get the complete research report

The full PDF includes detailed sector breakdowns, retention analysis, security posture data, top tracker rankings, and actionable compliance recommendations.

✓Complete dataset across 24 industry sectors with per-sector scorecard

✓Top 30 third-party trackers and cookies ranked by prevalence

✓Cookie retention analysis: how long data persists on user devices

✓Detailed methodology and reproducible research framework

✓DPDP Act readiness implications and compliance recommendations

About this research

This study was conducted by ComplyZero Research in February 2026. It represents the first comprehensive, automated analysis of cookie compliance across India's digital landscape. All methodology, data collection processes, and classification rules are documented in full within the report.

Learn about ComplyZero →