How can I set a cookie with expire time?

Question

I am setting a cookie with JavaScript and it is working fine but it is not taking the expire time I am giving. It keeps on taking session value regardless of what I give, below is the code which I took from here

var now = new Date();
var time = now.getTime();
var expireTime = time + 1000*60;
now.setTime(expireTime);
var tempExp = 'Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:50:17 GMT';
document.cookie = aaa+'='+sStr+';expires='+now.toGMTString()+';path=/';

I tried giving hard-coded value but still it is showing expire as session in chrome dev tool

var tempExp = 'Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:50:17 GMT';
document.cookie = aaa+'='+sStr+';expires='+tempExp+';path=/';

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

polin: in chrome press F12 (alternatively go to tools-> developer tools). It will open the frame below, there you can check. — antnewbee, Oct 31 '12 at 10:02
I know how it comes. My question is can you see the expiration time. I've tried console.log(document.cookie) but there you can see the cookie not the expiration time — polin, Oct 31 '12 at 10:11
Yes in 'Expires' column(after path column) it shows the date and time when the cookie will expire. But in my case it shows 'session' which means it will expire when I close the browser — antnewbee, Oct 31 '12 at 11:02

score 80 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 02 '21 at 06:38

80

I've set the time to 1000*36000.

function display() { 
  var now = new Date();
  var time = now.getTime();
  var expireTime = time + 1000*36000;
  now.setTime(expireTime);
  document.cookie = 'cookie=ok;expires='+now.toUTCString()+';path=/';
  //console.log(document.cookie);  // 'Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:50:17 UTC'
}

expiration

edited Jan 02 '21 at 06:38

Cody Gray

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answered Oct 31 '12 at 11:22

polin

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A little explanation would be nice, what does the code actually do and what does "1000*360000" mean here? – Esko Jan 20 '21 at 10:59
While testing in localhost Firefox rejected the expire date because SameSite is not set and thus defaults to none. Setting document.cookie = `${YOUR_COOKIE_OR_WHATEVER};${THE_EXPIRE_TIME_OR_WHATEVER};SameSite=lax` seams to resolve the issue. – Hank W Dec 08 '21 at 17:40

score 47 · Answer 2 · edited May 01 '22 at 06:58

47

Below are code snippets to create and delete a cookie. The cookie is set for 1 day.

// 1 Day = 24 Hrs = 24*60*60 = 86400.

By using max-age:

Creating the cookie:

document.cookie = "cookieName=cookieValue; max-age=86400; path=/;";

Deleting the cookie:

document.cookie = "cookieName=; max-age=- (any digit); path=/;";

By using expires:

Syntax for creating the cookie for one day:

var expires = (new Date(Date.now()+ 86400*1000)).toUTCString();
document.cookie = "cookieName=cookieValue; expires=" + expires + ";path=/;"

edited May 01 '22 at 06:58

JSchirrmacher

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answered Apr 19 '17 at 13:07

user8640104

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`new Date(Date.now() + 86400)` is what I was looking for, but I wasn't sure if the Date format would be accepted, thanks. – George Mar 20 '18 at 04:40
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In the expires usage example, I don't get the `expires + 86400` from the second line. You already added up the day (in ms) to line 1, right? What's the purpose of that additional `86400`? – Gustavo Straube Aug 28 '19 at 14:08
Just what I wanted - thanks mate! – Nomeh Uchenna Gabriel Jan 18 '22 at 06:08
I've removed the erroneous addition @GustavoStraube – JSchirrmacher May 01 '22 at 06:58

score 27 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 31 '12 at 18:17

27

Here's a function I wrote another application. Feel free to reuse:

function writeCookie (key, value, days) {
    var date = new Date();

    // Default at 365 days.
    days = days || 365;

    // Get unix milliseconds at current time plus number of days
    date.setTime(+ date + (days * 86400000)); //24 * 60 * 60 * 1000

    window.document.cookie = key + "=" + value + "; expires=" + date.toGMTString() + "; path=/";

    return value;
};

answered Oct 31 '12 at 18:17

Johnny Leung

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What does `+ date + (days * 86400000)` do? – Asim K T Jul 24 '17 at 12:02
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`+` before a variable just returns the numerical value of an object. In this case, `+date` is equivalent to `d.valueOf()`, which also happens to be the value returned by `date.getTime()`. – Shaun Cockerill Feb 01 '18 at 02:20

score 16 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 27 '18 at 15:28

16

document.cookie = "cookie_name=cookie_value; max-age=31536000; path=/";

Will set the value for a year.

edited Apr 27 '18 at 15:28

Toothbrush

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answered Jun 08 '17 at 10:04

Bhupsa

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score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 14 '19 at 11:02

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Use like this (source):

function setCookie(c_name,value,exdays)
{

var exdate=new Date();
exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
var c_value=escape(value) + ((exdays==null) ? "" : "; expires="+exdate.toUTCString());
document.cookie = c_name+"="+c_value+"; path=/";
}

edited Jun 14 '19 at 11:02

Bulat

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answered Oct 31 '12 at 09:23

Mark Zer

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Added the source, in the future, please ensure that you attribute copied code to the original source. – Chris Baker Apr 17 '13 at 13:42

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 16 '16 at 14:59

I'd like to second Polin's answer and just add one thing in case you are still stuck. This code certainly does work to set a specific cookie expiration time. One issue you may be having is that if you are using Chrome and accessing your page via "http://localhost..." or "file://", Chrome will not store cookies. The easy fix for this is to use a simple http server (like node's http-server if you haven't already) and navigate to your page explicitly as "http://127.0.0.1" in which case Chrome WILL store cookies for local development. This had me hung up for a bit as, if you don't do this, your expires key will simply have the value of "session" when you investigate it in the console or in Dev Tools.

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 21 '20 at 09:33

I use a function to store cookies with a custom expire time in days:

// use it like: writeCookie("mycookie", "1", 30)
// this will set a cookie for 30 days since now
function writeCookie(name,value,days) {
  if (days) {
    var date = new Date();
    date.setTime(date.getTime()+(days*24*60*60*1000));
    var expires = "; expires="+date.toGMTString();
  }
  else var expires = "";
  document.cookie = name+"="+value+expires+"; path=/";
}

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 26 '19 at 07:28

1

Your browser may be configured to accept only session cookies; if this is your case, any expiry time is transformed into session by your browser, you can change this setting of your browser or try another browser without such a configuration

edited Dec 26 '19 at 07:28

Community

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answered Dec 24 '19 at 07:54

Lucio Zambon

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How can I set a cookie with expire time?

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