# Session replays

> Watch recordings of real visits in Insights — turning recording on, finding the right session, and how cookie consent decides who is counted and recorded.

Source: https://knowledge.estage.com/insights/session-replays/
Part of the ESTAGE knowledge base (https://knowledge.estage.com). Full corpus: https://knowledge.estage.com/llms-full.txt

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**Session replays** are recordings of real visits to your published site. You watch the
visitor's cursor, clicks and scrolling as they happened, which shows why a page loses people in
a way the numbers alone can't.

Recordings are on the **Session replays** tab in [Insights](/insights/).

## Turning recording on

Recording is a paid add-on to web analytics, and it's off until you add it.

1. Open **Settings → Analytics**. Web analytics must be on first.
2. On the **Session replay** card, select **Enable**. The plan picker opens.
3. Turn on **Include session replay** and confirm the plan. The card's monthly figure is an
   estimate; the picker sets the final price.

Only the project owner can turn it on or off. Details are on
[Analytics](/insights/analytics/#session-replay-add-on).

Without the add-on, the **Session replays** tab stays empty.

## Watching a recording

1. Open **Insights** and select the **Session replays** tab.
2. Pick a recording from **Recordings** on the left. It plays on the right.

Each recording in the list shows when it started, how long it lasted, how many clicks it had,
the page it started on, and a count of errors when the page threw any. A dot marks the ones
nobody has watched yet. The list follows the date range at the top of the page and loads more as
you scroll.

Use **Sort** to find the useful ones:

| Sort | Puts first |
| --- | --- |
| **Latest** | The newest visits (the default) |
| **Longest** | The longest visits |
| **Most active** | Visits with the most active time, not idle |
| **Most clicks** | Visits with the most clicks |

A new visit shows up in the list within about 30 seconds.

## What cookie consent changes

What Insights can collect from a visitor depends on their cookie choice. The tracker reads the
[Cookie Consent](/project-settings/cookie-consent/) banner, Google Consent Mode, or the common
consent platforms (Cookiebot, CookieYes, Complianz, OneTrust), in that order.

| The visitor… | Counted in Insights | Recorded |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Accepted** analytics cookies | Yes | Yes, when the add-on is on |
| **Rejected**, or hasn't chosen yet on a banner the tracker can read | No | No |
| Was shown **no consent signal at all** | Yes, without cookies — nothing is stored on their device | No |

A choice made later takes effect on the page right away: accepting starts recording, and
withdrawing consent stops tracking.

## Things worth knowing

- **No banner means no recordings.** If your site has no consent banner the tracker can read,
  visits are counted but nobody is recorded. Turn on [Cookie Consent](/project-settings/cookie-consent/)
  or have your own banner send Google Consent Mode.
- **Recording is billed by visitor volume.** That's why the add-on is opt-in and shows an
  estimate before you turn it on. Turn it on while you work on a landing page or checkout, and off when
  you're done.
- **Turning the add-on off** goes through the same plan picker (**Disable** opens it) and takes
  the replay line off your analytics subscription.