What is consent initialization?

Consent Initialization is a Google Tag Manager trigger that runs before other triggers, including Initialization and Page View. It is designed to establish consent settings before measurement and advertising tags execute.

Every web container includes a Consent Initialization – All Pages trigger. Use it for:

• Consent management platform tags that configure consent settings.

• Consent templates that establish default consent states.

• Consent tags that apply saved visitor preferences.

It should not be assigned to ordinary Analytics or advertising tags simply to make them fire earlier. The trigger controls execution order; it does not collect consent or decide which permissions to grant.

For custom implementations, use the Tag Manager Consent APIs recommended by Google. When consent information depends on queued gtag() commands or asynchronous callbacks, those operations may not complete before subsequent triggers run. Using the appropriate consent APIs or templates helps ensure that consent settings are available at the required stage.