Yes. A person can be conscious during an epileptic seizure. Epilepsy does not automatically mean loss of consciousness.
What the 2025 ILAE classification says
The International League Against Epilepsy now uses consciousness as a classifier for focal seizures. It is assessed through both awareness and responsiveness. A focal seizure may therefore occur with consciousness preserved or impaired.
In a focal seizure with preserved consciousness, the person may remain aware of what is happening. They may experience unusual sensations, smells, tastes, emotions, visual changes, tingling, jerking, déjà vu or other symptoms while still knowing they are having an event.
Being unable to respond is not always the same as being unaware
Consciousness is more complicated than a simple awake/unconscious switch. The ILAE operational definition considers both awareness and responsiveness. A person may later report awareness of parts of an event even when their ability to respond was reduced.
Why witnesses can misunderstand this
People often expect a seizure to involve collapse and complete unconsciousness. That can lead to focal aware seizures being dismissed as panic, imagination or “not a real seizure”. Some focal seizures have few outward signs at all.
The answer is not the same for every seizure
A person may have more than one seizure type. Consciousness can be preserved in one seizure and impaired in another. A focal seizure can also spread and become a focal-to-bilateral tonic-clonic seizure, with loss of consciousness.