chrome-cookies-py

A Python CLI tool to decrypt and export Google Chrome cookies on macOS and Windows.

Handles the full decryption pipeline: reading Chrome's SQLite cookie database, fetching the encryption key (Keychain on macOS, DPAPI + Local State on Windows), decrypting the values, and writing results in your format of choice.

Example what you can do with this CLI tool

Check out the complete video here (heigher fps, clear visuals): https://youtu.be/2JNB1aBwUN0

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Requirements

	macOS	Windows
OS	macOS 12+	Windows 10/11
Python	3.10+	3.10+
Chrome	Installed	Installed
Extra	Full Disk Access for terminal	pip install pywin32

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Installation

From GitHub (recommended)

# macOS
pip install git+https://github.com/vermarjun/chrome-cookies-py.git

# Windows (also installs pywin32)
pip install "git+https://github.com/vermarjun/chrome-cookies-py.git#egg=chrome-cookies-py[windows]"

From source

git clone https://github.com/vermarjun/chrome-cookies-py.git
cd chrome-cookies-py

# macOS
pip install -e .

# Windows
pip install -e ".[windows]"

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Setup

macOS — Full Disk Access

Chrome's cookie database is protected by macOS privacy controls.

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access
2. Click + and add your terminal app (Terminal, iTerm2, VS Code, etc.)
3. Re-launch the terminal

The tool reads Chrome's encryption key from the macOS Keychain. The first time you run it, a dialog may appear — click Always Allow.

Windows — pywin32

The tool uses Windows DPAPI to decrypt Chrome's key stored in Local State. This requires the pywin32 package:

pip install pywin32

No additional permissions are required; DPAPI operates under your logged-in user account automatically.

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Usage

chrome-cookies [--platform mac|windows] COMMAND [OPTIONS]

The --platform flag selects which OS's Chrome installation to target. It auto-detects from the current OS when not set, so you typically never need to pass it.

Global flag

Flag	Short	Description
--platform	-P	mac or windows. Auto-detected from current OS.

Commands

Command	Description
get	Retrieve and decrypt cookies with filters
profiles	List all available Chrome profiles
export	Export cookies for a domain to a file (format auto-detected)

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get — retrieve cookies

Flag	Short	Description
--domain	-d	Filter by domain (e.g. google.com)
--profile	-p	Chrome profile directory name (default: Default)
--name	-n	Filter by exact cookie name
--all-profiles		Merge cookies from all Chrome profiles
--include-expired		Include expired cookies (excluded by default)
--secure-only		Only return Secure cookies
--format	-f	Output format (see Output Formats)
--output	-o	Write to file (format inferred from extension)

profiles — list profiles

Flag	Short	Description
--format	-f	Output format: json, csv, txt, md
--output	-o	Write to file

export — quick domain export

chrome-cookies export DOMAIN OUTPUT_FILE [OPTIONS]

Shorthand for get -d DOMAIN -o OUTPUT_FILE. Format is auto-detected from the file extension.

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Output Formats

Format	Flag	Extension	Description
JSON	json	.json	Array of cookie objects
CSV	csv	.csv	Spreadsheet-compatible
Plain text	txt	.txt	ASCII table for terminal
Markdown	md	.md	GitHub-flavored table
Netscape	netscape	—	curl --cookie / wget --load-cookies compatible
HAR	har	.har	HTTP Archive (import into browser DevTools)
Env vars	env	.env / .sh	Shell KEY=value pairs

When --output is provided without --format, the format is inferred from the file extension automatically.

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Examples

Basic usage

# All cookies from the Default profile (JSON to stdout)
chrome-cookies get

# Filter by domain
chrome-cookies get -d google.com

# Save to a file (format inferred as JSON)
chrome-cookies get -d github.com -o github_cookies.json

Platform flag

# Explicit platform (normally auto-detected)
chrome-cookies --platform mac get -d google.com
chrome-cookies --platform windows get -d google.com

Output formats

# Markdown table
chrome-cookies get -d github.com -f md

# Plain-text ASCII table
chrome-cookies get -d google.com -f txt

# CSV (open in Excel / Numbers / Sheets)
chrome-cookies get -d twitter.com -o twitter.csv

curl / wget integration

# Export Netscape cookie file, then pass to curl
chrome-cookies get -d api.example.com -f netscape -o cookies.txt
curl -b cookies.txt https://api.example.com/protected

# Or wget
wget --load-cookies=cookies.txt https://api.example.com/protected

Shell scripting

# Export as env vars, source into your shell
chrome-cookies get -d myapp.local -f env -o cookies.env
source cookies.env
echo $SESSION_ID

HAR import

# Export HAR file for browser DevTools analysis
chrome-cookies get -d example.com -f har -o example.har
# Open DevTools → Network → Import HAR

Profile-specific queries

# List all available Chrome profiles
chrome-cookies profiles

# Get cookies from a specific profile
chrome-cookies get -p "Profile 1" -d slack.com

# Merge cookies from all profiles
chrome-cookies get --all-profiles -d google.com -o all_profiles_google.json

Filtering

# Only non-expired, secure cookies
chrome-cookies get -d example.com --secure-only

# Include expired cookies
chrome-cookies get -d example.com --include-expired

# Find a specific cookie by name
chrome-cookies get -d github.com --name user_session

Quick export shorthand

# Format auto-detected from extension
chrome-cookies export google.com google.json
chrome-cookies export github.com github.csv
chrome-cookies export slack.com slack.md

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Platform Differences

	macOS	Windows
Chrome data path	~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data
Key source	macOS Keychain (security CLI)	Local State JSON (DPAPI-encrypted)
Cookie cipher	AES-128-CBC	AES-256-GCM (Chrome 80+) or DPAPI (pre-80)
Extra dependency	None	pywin32

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Cookie Object

{
  "domain": ".github.com",
  "name": "user_session",
  "value": "abc123...",
  "path": "/",
  "expires": 1735689600000,
  "secure": true,
  "http_only": true,
  "same_site": "Lax"
}

expires is a Unix timestamp in milliseconds. Session cookies have expires = 0.

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Profile Object

{
  "directory": "Default",
  "display_name": "John"
}

Pass directory to --profile when filtering by profile.

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Python API

from chrome_cookies import get_cookies, get_profiles

# Auto-detect platform (recommended)
cookies = get_cookies()
cookies = get_cookies(domain="google.com")
cookies = get_cookies(domain="slack.com", profile="Profile 1")

# Explicit platform
cookies = get_cookies(domain="google.com", platform_name="mac")
cookies = get_cookies(domain="google.com", platform_name="windows")

# List profiles
profiles = get_profiles()
for p in profiles:
    print(p.directory, p.display_name)

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Troubleshooting

Failed to read Chrome Safe Storage from Keychain (macOS) Grant Full Disk Access to your terminal (see Setup). Also ensure Chrome has been launched at least once.

pywin32 is required on Windows Run pip install pywin32, then retry.

Chrome user data directory not found Chrome is not installed or is in a non-standard location.

• macOS: check ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome
• Windows: check %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data

Chrome profile "X" not found Run chrome-cookies profiles to see valid directory names.

Empty cookie values Cookies with a prefix other than v10/v11 are not supported. Pre-Chrome-80 DPAPI-only cookies on Windows are handled via a legacy fallback.

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License

MIT