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How to check that your GTM tags actually respect consent

Google Tag Manager can respect consent, but it does not do so by itself. Each individual tag has to be told what it requires. Here is how to find which tags are missing that, and how to test the result.

Updated 2 September 2026 · 5 minute read

The problem: a tag without consent requirements always runs

In GTM every tag has a setting called consent settings. If it is not configured, GTM treats the tag as one that requires no consent — and then it runs regardless of what the visitor answered.

This is the most common reason why a website with a perfectly correct banner still sends data before the choice is made. The banner does its job. The tag was simply never told to wait.

GTM does not block anything automatically just because you installed a consent banner. The connection has to be made per tag.

Find the tags missing consent requirements

Open your container in Google Tag Manager.
Go to Tags in the left-hand menu.
Click the column icon at the top right of the list and enable the consent settings column. That shows the status for all tags at once, instead of opening them one by one.
Look for tags marked “Not set”. Those are the ones running independently of consent.

Go through the list with one simple question for each tag: does this store or read anything on the visitor's device? If it does, it needs a consent requirement.

Set the requirement on each tag

Open the tag, choose Consent Settings, and specify which consent types must be granted before it may fire. Typical choices:

Google Analytics: analytics_storage
Google Ads conversion and remarketing: ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization
Meta pixel, TikTok, LinkedIn and similar: treated as marketing, and should require ad_storage
Chat, maps and video embeds: usually functional, and should require functionality_storage

Publish the container when you are done. A change in GTM does nothing until it is published — easy to forget after working a while in preview mode.

Test that it actually works

GTM's preview mode shows you consent status per tag, and it is a good place to start. But it shows GTM's own view of the world. To see what really goes out over the network, you have to look at the network traffic.

Open the website in a private window.
Open developer tools, the Network tab, and reload without clicking the banner.
Filter on collect, google-analytics.com, doubleclick.net and facebook.com/tr. Anything appearing here happened before the visitor got to choose.
Click “Reject all”, reload, and look for the same thing again.

If the list is empty in both cases, the setup does what it should. If something appears after “Reject all”, you either have a tag without a consent requirement, or a script sitting directly in the page code that never went through GTM at all.

Scripts that are not in GTM

Many websites have tracking codes pasted straight into the theme, into a plugin, or added by a previous developer. They do not see GTM, and a consent setting in GTM does not affect them.

These have to be either moved into GTM, or blocked by the consent solution before they load. This is the part people usually discover only when someone actually measures the traffic.

Common questions

Why does Analytics still send data even though I set consent settings?

The most common cause is that the GA code does not go through GTM but sits directly in the page code. GTM's consent settings do not apply to it then. The second most common is that the container was not published after the change.

Do I have to set consent requirements on every tag?

No, only on those that store or read something on the visitor's device. A tag that merely pushes an event into the dataLayer without storage does not need one. When in doubt, it is safer to set the requirement than to leave it off.

Is GTM's built-in consent feature enough without a banner?

No. GTM relays a consent but does not obtain one. You still need a solution that asks the visitor and that blocks whatever does not go through GTM.

How can I see which tags were blocked?

GTM's preview mode has a consent tab showing status per tag, including which ones were held back. It is useful for troubleshooting, but always confirm against the network traffic at the end.

Want to see what your tags do in practice?

The free check loads your front page in a clean browser and shows which services are contacted before the visitor has chosen, and what is still contacted after “Reject all”.

Check your website free