[Answers](https://scrapfly.io/blog) / [http](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/http) / [What is HTTP cookies role in web scraping?](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/http-cookies-in-web-scraping) # What is HTTP cookies role in web scraping? by [Bernardas Alisauskas](https://scrapfly.io/blog/author/bernardas) Mar 17, 2023 1 min read [\#http](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/http) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhttp-cookies-in-web-scraping "Share on LinkedIn") Cookies are small bits of persistent data stored in browser by websites. They are used to store information about user preferences, login sessions, shopping carts, etc. In web scraping, we need to support these functions by managing cookies as well. This can be done by setting `Cookie` header or `cookies=` attribute in most HTTP client libraries used in web scraping (like Python's [requests](https://pypi.org/project/requests/)) Many website use persistent cookies to store user preferences like language and currency (e.g. cookies like `lang=en` and `currency=USD`). So, setting cookie values in our scraper can help us scrape the website in the language and currency we want. Many HTTP clients can track cookies automatically and if browser automation tools like [How to Web Scrape with Puppeteer and NodeJS in 2026](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/web-scraping-with-puppeteer-and-nodejs), [Web Scraping with Playwright and Python](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/web-scraping-with-playwright-and-python) or [Web Scraping with Selenium and Python](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/web-scraping-with-selenium-and-python) are used, cookies are always tracked automatically. Session cookies are also used to track the client's behavior so they can play a major role in [web scraper blocking](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-bypass-anti-bot-protection-when-web-scraping). Disabling cookie tracking and sanitizing cookies used in web scraping can drastically improve blocking resistance. Third-party cookies have no effect in web scraping and can safely be ignored. Scale Your Web Scraping Anti-bot bypass, browser rendering, and rotating proxies, all in one API. Start with 1,000 free credits. No credit card required 1,000 free API credits Anti-bot bypass included [Start Free](https://scrapfly.io/register) [View Docs](https://scrapfly.io/docs/onboarding) Not ready? Get our newsletter instead. ## Explore this Article with AI [ ChatGPT ](https://chat.openai.com/?q=Summarize%20this%20page%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhttp-cookies-in-web-scraping) [ Gemini ](https://www.google.com/search?udm=50&aep=11&q=Summarize%20this%20page%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhttp-cookies-in-web-scraping) [ Grok ](https://x.com/i/grok?text=Summarize%20this%20page%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhttp-cookies-in-web-scraping) [ Perplexity ](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/new?q=Summarize%20this%20page%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhttp-cookies-in-web-scraping) [ Claude ](https://claude.ai/new?q=Summarize%20this%20page%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhttp-cookies-in-web-scraping) ## Related Articles [ http ### How to Handle Cookies in Web Scraping Introduction to cookies in web scraping. What are they and how to take advantage of cookie process to authenticate or se... ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-handle-cookies-in-web-scraping) [ blocking ### 5 Tools to Scrape Without Blocking and How it All Works Tutorial on how to avoid web scraper blocking. What is javascript and TLS (JA3) fingerprinting and what role request hea... ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-scrape-without-getting-blocked-tutorial) [ http blocking ### How Headers Are Used to Block Web Scrapers and How to Fix It Introduction to web scraping headers - what do they mean, how to configure them in web scrapers and how to avoid being b... ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-avoid-web-scraping-blocking-headers) ## Related Questions - [ Q What case should HTTP headers be in? Lowercase or Pascal-Case? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/what-case-should-http-headers-be) - [ Q How to save and load cookies in Puppeteer? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/how-to-save-and-load-cookies-in-puppeteer) - [ Q How to edit cookies in Chrome devtools? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/how-to-edit-cookies-using-chrome-devtools) - [ Q How to save and load cookies in Python requests? ](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/save-and-load-cookies-in-requests-python) Scale your web scraping effortlessly, **1,000 free credits** [Start Free](https://scrapfly.io/register)