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Browser Compatibility & Cookies

About Browser Compatibility & Cookies

This page details Qualtrics’ browser compatibility. It also lists all the cookies Qualtrics places on your browser when you are taking a survey; these cookies are generally meant to help keep track of survey sessions so that they aren’t repeated, or to maintain the session.

Browser Compatibility

Qualtrics is committed to providing secure, high quality products that are functional and consistent across the most popular modern web browsers. Qualtrics officially supports all of its web-based products in OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) supported versions of the following browsers:

Apple Safari
Google Chrome
Microsoft Edge (Chromium Version)
Mozilla Firefox

Attention: Qualtrics has ended support for the Internet Explorer browser as of June 15, 2022. This is in line with Microsoft’s decision to end support for the Internet Explorer browser.

Versions of these browsers no longer supported by their maker may not function as intended and may expose the user to inherent security vulnerabilities. Qualtrics recommends that users always use the most up-to-date version of their browser.

Qtip: Be sure to disable compatibility mode on your browser when using Qualtrics as it will run older versions of browsers on the site and could degrade your experience.

Attention: Qualtrics is dedicated to protecting all customer data using industry best standards. Users or survey participants on end-of-life browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer) may encounter the following error when accessing the XM Platform: “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage.” We strongly recommend upgrading to a supported operating system and browser to ensure compatibility with our encryption ciphers. If it is not possible to migrate from Windows XP to a supported Operating System, it may be possible to use an alternative browser with the necessary ciphers, such as Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release.

Qtip: If you cannot access Qualtrics, you may need to update your browser to ensure it meets industry TLS upgrades.

Survey Session Management Cookies

The cookies in this section are used to manage survey sessions (i.e., when the survey is open for a specific respondent).

Session Cookie

Description: Appears when you start a session with “Allow respondents to finish later” enabled.
Cookie Name: `<hash of the session ID and query parameters>`
Cookie Value: `<session ID>~<internal Qualtrics ID>`
Expires: 6 months, or when the session is completed

SFA cookie

Description: Allows a user to access a previously uploaded file when resuming a session.
Cookie Name: `SFA`
Cookie Value: `<session ID>`
Expires: 6 months

Survey Authentication Cookies

The cookies in this section are used for survey authentication (i.e., making sure the right person is taking the survey).

Single reload cookie

Description: Temporary cookie used to allow survey takers to resume their session following an SSO authenticator.
Cookie Name: `<hash of the session ID and query parameters>-singleReload`
Cookie Value: `<session ID>~<internal Qualtrics ID>`
Expires: 5 minutes, or when respondent is redirected back to the survey from the SSO authenticator.

Reauth cookie

Description: Temporary cookie after reauthenticating in a survey with “Require respondents to authenticate again if they resume their session later.”
Cookie Name: `<Survey ID><SessionID>-reauth`
Cookie Value: `<internal Qualtrics ID>`
Expires: 5 minutes

Auth session cookie

Description: Keeps track of a user’s logged in status after passing an authenticator with the “Require respondents to authenticate again if they resume their session later” authenticator setting enabled.
Cookie Name: `reauth-<hash of session ID and authenticator flow ID>`
Cookie Value: `<signed login token>`
Expires: 1 hour

Submitting Survey Sessions Cookie

The cookie in this section prevents survey takers from taking the same survey multiple times.

QST Cookie

Description: This cookie enforces the “Prevent multiple submissions” setting in survey options. It only appears once a survey session has been submitted.
Cookie Name: QST
Cookie Value: `<SurveyID>`
Expires: 6 months

Survey Preview Cookies

The cookies in this section are used to manage survey previews.

XSRF Token

Description: This is a temporary cookie used for security while survey taking. It is only stored as long as the browser is open.
Cookie Name: XSRF-TOKEN
Cookie Type: session

PreviewDC Cookie

Description: Used to keep track of state while interacting with a preview link.
Cookie Name: previewDC
Cookie Value: <internal Qualtrics ID>
Expires: 30 days

Bot Manager Cookies

The cookies in this section are used to help distinguish between real website traffic from bot traffic. These cookies come from the Akamai’s Bot Manager solution being used inside the Qualtrics platform.

ak_bmsc

This cookie is related to our bot detection and prevention mechanism provided by our web application firewall provider. This cookie is used to track the progress of the session going through the standard detection workflow. When present, it is also used as the identifier instead of the IP address for bot rate control rules.

Cookie name: ak_bmsc
Expires: 2 hours
Size: approximately 300 bytes
HttpOnly set by default: true
Secure flag enabled by default: false
SameSite set by default: false

Website / App Insights Browser Cookies

Website / App Insights stores certain data inside cookies. This includes the Site History cookie, Prevent Repeated Display cookie, a cookie that tells us that we have a Pop Under, a cookie that stores history data if localStorage is disabled, and a cookie that tracks user events.

For a full description of all relevant cookies, see this support page.