Cookie pop-ups and consent notices are common on websites today, but they can cause your Browse AI robots to fail. When these notices appear differently than during your robot training, your extraction might not work as expected.
Why cookie pop-ups cause robot failures
Browse AI robots are trained by mimicking human behavior on websites. If you close a cookie notice during training, your robot will try to repeat this action every time it runs.
This can lead to failures when:
The cookie notice appears in a different location or format that hasn't been properly detected by the AI.
The notice doesn't appear at all for certain geographic locations.
The website changes its cookie consent design.
The site uses A/B testing that shows different variations of notices.
Easy solutions to prevent cookie pop-up failures
Note that to implement these solutions for an existing robot, you'll need to either retrain your robot, or create a new robot.
Leave the cookie notice alone (easiest approach)
If the cookie notice doesn't block the data you need to extract, simply ignore it during training:
When recording your robot, don't click on any cookie banners or pop-ups.
Train your robot to extract data with the notice still visible.
Test your robot to make sure it can capture data without needing to interact with notices.
This approach works well because it doesn't rely on clicks that might fail when notices change.
Use your session cookies (recommended for logged-in websites)
For websites where you have an account, your browser session often already has cookie preferences saved:
When creating your robot, check the This website needs logging in option.
Log in to the website as prompted.
Complete your robot training as normal.
Since you're using your existing session, cookie notices typically won't appear, creating more reliable robots.
Contact Support to request custom robot adjustments
If cookie notices are consistently blocking your robot's performance:
Contact our support team via chat or email.
Mention that cookie pop-ups are causing your robot to fail.
Our team can modify your robot configuration to handle these notices properly.
This allows the robot to use your existing login session, which often prevents cookie notices and popups from appearing.
Preventative tips when creating new robots
Before recording, browse the site in an incognito window to see what notices appear.
Consider using geolocation settings if cookie notices vary by region.
For critical data extraction, test your robot on multiple days to ensure reliability.