Written for Cookie Rocks 2.11.0, checked on 6 November 2026. The current version is 2.11.2: some details may have changed.
This page installs Cookie Rocks Audit, the free plugin. It takes about 5 minutes. Your visitors see no change.
Before you start
- WordPress 6.5 or later, and PHP 7.4 or later.
- An administrator account. Only users who can manage the site’s options see the Cookie Rocks pages.
Install it
- Download the zip file from the download page.
- In WordPress, open Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin.
- Choose the zip file and click Install Now.
- Click Activate Plugin. The plugin appears in the list as Cookie Rocks Audit – GDPR. The name follows the language of your WordPress: Cookie Rocks Audit – RGPD in French, Cookie Rocks Audit – DSGVO in German, and so on.
- Open the Cookie Rocks menu, at the bottom of the admin menu.
Tip. Keep the cookie plugin you already use. The Audit is made to work next to it. It reads its banner and tells you what it does and does not do.
What you see after activation
- A notice on the WordPress Dashboard and the Plugins page. It says “Cookie Rocks is installed.” and names the steps left. Click Start to open the first one. Hide these steps removes the notice.
- A Getting started card at the top of the Overview page. It has three steps, each with a Start button. The next page walks you through them.
- A link at the top of every Cookie Rocks page: Get the Cookie Rocks banner. It opens the pricing page of cookierocks.com in a new tab. You can ignore it.
If you see “Cookie consent needs attention”. This red notice replaces “Cookie Rocks is installed.” when the Audit finds a serious problem, for example a site with no cookie banner. Click See and fix to open the Overview. Remind me in 7 days hides both notices for you, for 7 days.
Nothing changes for your visitors. The Audit adds no script and no style to their pages, and changes no setting of your site.
The Cookie Rocks menu
A number next to the menu counts the points to look at and the messages you have not read. With the Audit, the menu has eight pages:
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Overview | What is in order, what to fix, and the news and alerts. |
| Obligations | Four questions about your site, then what the law asks of it. |
| Laws | The cookie rules of each country, in plain words. It opens from the Overview. |
| Cookies | The scan of your pages: cookies, browser storage and the tools that set them. |
| Google tags, Consent Mode, WP Consent API and Tag Manager. | |
| Consent | What your current banner does, and your policy pages. |
| Developers | The cookies Cookie Rocks knows and the compatibility table. |
| Weight | What your current banner adds to your home page. |
The plugin’s row in the Plugins list also gets a Settings link. It opens the Overview page.
Languages
The zip file holds the plugin in English. Cookie Rocks offers a language pack for each language of your site and of its users. WordPress installs these packs with its own translations. When an administrator who can update plugins opens a Cookie Rocks page, or the WordPress Updates screen, in a language without its pack, Cookie Rocks installs it at once. Each pack is checked before it is installed.
Each language has two packs: one for the Audit, one for the law fact sheets. Until they arrive, the Audit and the fact sheets stay in English. Without a connection, nothing breaks.
The daily check and updates
A daily check runs one hour after activation, then once a day. It updates the Overview. It also reads two lists signed by the Cookie Rocks legal watch: alerts, and updated law fact sheets. You can turn this reading off on the Obligations page, under Law updates.
Each reading carries your server’s IP address, as any request does, and a header that is the same for every site using the Audit. Nothing about your visitors is sent.
The Audit updates through the normal WordPress updater, so automatic updates work. Before installing an update, it checks the file’s signature. It refuses any file that Cookie Rocks did not publish.
Deactivate or delete the Audit
Deactivating the Audit stops its daily check. Your answers and settings are kept. Nothing changes for your visitors.
Deleting it from the Plugins page removes its alerts, its news, the results of the scan, the cookies set by your site and the reading of your Google Tag Manager container. Your answers, your settings and the tools found go too, unless Cookie Rocks Pro is still installed. On a multisite network, this happens on each site.
Your cookie policy page stays in your pages, but its shortcode stops writing the policy. Delete the page or change its content.
Next step: Your first audit.