I've noticed since February 2026, the amount of sessions recorded in Microsoft Clarity has increased dramatically - Why?

The most likely explanation is a change in how Clarity handles sessions when cookie consent is not provided or when cookies are disabled in the project settings.

From the documented behavior:

• When cookies/consent are not in use, recordings are no longer linked into multi‑page sessions. Each pageview is treated as its own session.
• Specifically, when users in regions requiring cookie consent do not provide it, Clarity changes reporting so that:
  • Session count: “Sessions are counted as pageviews. Each pageview creates a new session.”
  • Pages per session: Always 1.
  • Top entry/exit pages: Every page is both an entry and an exit page.
  • Unique/returning users: Every user is treated as unique; no one is treated as returning.
  • Browser/Devices/OS/Country session count: Session counts appear higher.

If, around February 2026, any of the following happened, a large jump in session counts would be expected without a real traffic increase:

1. Clarity cookies were turned off in Advanced Settings for the project.
   • In this mode, “Recordings aren't linked together into multi-page sessions,” which effectively inflates session counts because each pageview becomes a separate session.
2. Consent handling or CMP integration changed so that more users are treated as non‑consenting (for example, stricter consent defaults, new regions covered, or a misconfiguration).
   • For those users, Clarity applies the “pageview = session” behavior, which increases the number of sessions recorded.
3. A regional shift in traffic toward areas where consent is required and not granted.
   • Because those regions use the modified counting model, the overall session count in Clarity rises even if total pageviews stay similar.

To validate this in the project:

1. Check Clarity project Advanced Settings → Cookies and confirm whether cookies were turned off around the time the increase started.
2. Compare pages per session before and after February 2026. A sudden drop toward 1 page per session strongly indicates the consent/no‑cookie model is being applied more often.
3. Look at unique vs returning users and top entry/exit pages. If nearly all users are unique, no users are returning, and every page is both an entry and exit page, the modified counting model is in effect.

If this pattern matches, the 165% increase is a reporting artifact caused by the change in session definition (pageview = session), not a real increase in user activity.

References:

• Changes to Clarity Reporting Without Cookie Consent
• Setup Clarity