--- description: How Waiting Room cookies track visitor sessions. title: Cookies image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png --- [Skip to content](#main-content) > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Cookies Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/reference/waiting-room-cookie/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/) A waiting room only uses the `__cfwaitingroom` cookie when a visitor requests access to a host and path combination with an enabled and associated waiting room. When the waiting room is suspended, traffic goes to the origin and the `__cfwaitingroom` cookie is not created. The `__cfwaitingroom` cookie is encrypted to prevent modification by users. You may append a [custom suffix](#customize-cookie-name) to your waiting room cookie to customize the name of your waiting room cookie. Important: Cloudflare Waiting Room requires the `__cfwaitingroom` cookie. When a waiting room is actively queueing, users cannot visit that host and path combination without enabling cookies. ## Cookie function The `__cfwaitingroom` cookie is used to: * Track a user's position in the waiting room queue and serve them in the correct order. * Monitor each visitor's duration in the application to provide an [accurate entry time](#estimated-wait-time-fifo-queueing-method) to visitors queueing in the waiting room. * To allow re-entry for a period of time (specified by [session\_duration](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/reference/configuration-settings/#session-duration)) without going back in the waiting room. ## Cookie expiration time * While a visitor stays in a waiting room, `__cfwaitingroom` cookie expiration is always set to five minutes, but renews every 20 seconds automatically as long as the visitor does not close the tab or leaves your application. * When the visitor accesses the application, the `__cfwaitingroom` cookie expires after an interval (specified by [session\_duration](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/reference/configuration-settings/#session-duration)). ## Customize cookie name You can customize the name of your waiting room cookie by adding a custom suffix to the end of `__cfwaitingroom`. To do this via the UI, complete the Custom cookie field in the [Create](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/how-to/create-waiting-room/) or [Edit](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/how-to/edit-delete-waiting-room/) workflow. To do this via the API, enter a value for `cookie_suffix` when creating or editing a waiting room. The cookie suffix is a required field when [using additional hostnames](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/how-to/place-waiting-room/) and paths for a single waiting room. Ensure your cookie is compliant with any applicable policies. ## Estimated wait time (FIFO queueing method) When a visitor first enters the host and path combination for your waiting room, they receive the `__cfwaitingroom` cookie. That cookie contains a unique group ID, which corresponds to the minute your visitor entered the waiting room. Using this value, we can tell how many visitors are in front of a specific group. Each cookie also contains a value for `acceptedAt`, which corresponds to the minute your visitor entered your application. This value lets us know how many visitors per minute are leaving the waiting room to enter your application. ```txt visitorsAhead ÷ activeUsersToWebApplication = estimatedWaitTime ``` We combine these pieces of information to calculate estimated wait time for each group of visitors. For more details about the technical implementation of Cloudflare Waiting Room, refer to the [blog post ↗](https://blog.cloudflare.com/building-waiting-room-on-workers-and-durable-objects/). Was this helpful? YesNo ## On this page [![](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/_astro/logo.te5VL_aD.svg)Docs](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/reference/waiting-room-cookie/#page","headline":"Cookies · Cloudflare Waiting Room docs","description":"How Waiting Room cookies track visitor sessions.","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/waiting-room/reference/waiting-room-cookie/","inLanguage":"en","image":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png","dateModified":"2026-08-24","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cloudflare","description":"One platform for your apps, agents, and workforce. 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