The IDE cookie
Google's main advertising cookie on doubleclick.net, holding a browser identifier used to serve, measure and cap ads.
IDE at a glance
- Cookie name
IDE- Vendor
- DoubleClick
- Category
- Advertising
- Party
- Third-party
- Typical duration
- 13 months in the EEA and UK, 24 months elsewhere
- Set on
.doubleclick.net- Value format
- Opaque identifier (format not documented by vendor)
- Name match
- Exactly
IDE
What the IDE cookie does
IDE lives on Google's doubleclick.net domain, not on the site being visited. It's read whenever a Google ad or measurement tag loads from doubleclick.net, on any site, so Google can serve ads, measure them and limit how often the same browser sees one. Google lists its purposes as advertising and security.
Because it's a third-party cookie, whether it can be set at all depends on the browser. Browsers that block third-party cookies won't store it. Google documents the lifetime as 13 months in the EEA and UK and 24 months elsewhere.
What TagPipes observed
9.6%
of sites scanned set it (3,936 of 41,162)
400 days
median observed lifetime
TagPipes scanned 41,162 public websites between August 11, 2026 and September 13, 2026, loading up to three pages per site in a real browser as a first-time visitor. IDE was present on 3,936 of them.
It was set as a first-party cookie on 0 sites and as a third-party cookie on 3,936. A site can count in both. Where it was stored as a persistent cookie, the median lifetime we recorded was 400 days. Chrome limits any cookie to 400 days, so a longer lifetime set by the vendor shows up as about 13 months in Chrome.
Often found alongside
- _gcl_au 86%
- _ga 83%
- _ga_<container-id> 82%
- _fbp 46%
- fr 38%
- __cf_bm 34%
Percentage of sites with IDE where the other cookie was also present.
Technologies detected on the same sites
- Google Analytics on 97% of them (55% of all sites scanned)
- Google Ads on 93% of them (12% of all sites scanned)
- Google Fonts on 81% of them (78% of all sites scanned)
- DoubleClick on 80% of them (11% of all sites scanned)
- Google Tag Manager on 64% of them (30% of all sites scanned)
Aggregate figures across all sites scanned. Websites of TagPipes customers are excluded, no individual site is named, and cookie values are never read or stored. Snapshot dated September 13, 2026.
How to check for IDE on a website
- Open the site in Chrome, then open DevTools (F12, or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac).
- Go to the Application tab and expand Cookies in the left panel.
- Select each domain listed there and look for
IDE. The Expires column shows when it will be deleted. - If it is not there, reload the page. Many cookies are only set after a tag has loaded, and some only after a visitor has made a consent choice.
Other DoubleClick cookies
Sources
Purpose, duration and value format checked against the vendor documentation above on . The figures under What TagPipes observed are TagPipes scan data from September 13, 2026, not values documented by the vendor. Vendors change their cookies, and sites can configure their own names and lifetimes. Browse all cookies.
Know every cookie your own site sets
TagPipes Pulse identifies the cookies dropped on your site and flags unclassified or miscategorized ones. Shield builds your cookie declaration from a real scan rather than a questionnaire.
TagPipes monitors, configures and reports. It does not determine legal compliance and does not provide legal advice. Output is informational and reflects observed state at the time of observation. Rawsoft's expertise is technology, not law; please confirm any regulatory interpretation with your own counsel.