WP Consent API explained: what it does and why

The WP Consent API is a shared standard for WordPress: one plugin – the consent banner – records the visitor’s choice, and any other plugin can ask “may I use statistics cookies for this visitor?” without knowing which banner you use. It started as a feature plugin and is used by a growing number of plugins.

How it works

The API defines consent categories – functional, preferences, statistics, statistics-anonymous and marketing – and two sides:

• The consent management plugin (your banner) declares itself to the API and stores each choice with wp_set_consent().
• Other plugins check the choice before setting cookies or loading trackers.

In PHP that check looks like this:

if ( function_exists( 'wp_has_consent' ) && wp_has_consent( 'marketing' ) ) {
	// Safe to load the marketing feature for this visitor.
}

The API also offers the same check in JavaScript for code that runs in the browser.

What Omea Consent does

Omea Consent is a full WP Consent API consent manager:

1. It registers with the API and sets the consent type to opt-in – nothing optional is allowed until the visitor agrees.
2. It bundles the API library and loads it only when the WP Consent API plugin isn’t already active, so you don’t need to install anything.
3. On every choice it calls wp_set_consent() for functional, statistics and marketing with allow or deny.

The API stores the choice in its own cookies (wp_consent_functional, wp_consent_statistics, wp_consent_marketing), which the API sets with its default lifetime of 30 days. They are listed in Omea’s cookie catalogue as necessary.

Category mapping

Omea category	WP Consent API category
Functional	functional
Statistics	statistics
Marketing	marketing
Necessary	always allowed – not sent

When it matters

Plugins that support the Consent API follow your banner automatically – no extra script rules needed. For plugins that don’t, use Omea’s other tools: paste their tracking code into Scripts, or turn on auto-blocking.