What is _gat (Google Analytics) cookie used for?

Question

Is anyone aware of what _gat cookie is for? I know it's only for non-authenticated users and expires every 10 minutes. But I need to know what it's used for.

I found this, but not really sure what they mean with 'Used to throttle request rate'

Ative

Answer 1

I found it after an other hour of searching

This cookie does not store any user information, it's just used to limit the number of requests that have to be made to doubleclick.net.

More info: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/display-features

Ative

To expand and answer the question as to how it's used to throttle the request rate; The initial script run will check for this cookie, then fire a request to the third party, and then set the cookie. Subsequent page loads will check for this cookie's presence before making requests. The lifetime of the cookie becomes the maximum rate requests will be sent at from that client. – Carpetbag

Answer 2

Think of the "_gat" cookie as a gatekeeper for data going to Google Analytics. By expiring every 10 minutes for non-authenticated users, it sets a limit on how quickly information is sent. This prevents a flood of data all at once, ensuring a steady and manageable flow for accurate analytics tracking.

Oestradiol