Broomkit → Clear cache on a Mac

How to clear cache on a Mac

Clearing app and browser caches frees up disk space and fixes a surprising range of odd behaviour. Two cache folders, though, will break your Mac if you touch them.

To clear cache on a Mac, open Finder, press ⇧⌘G, go to ~/Library/Caches, and delete the contents of the folders inside — not the folders themselves. Then empty the Trash.

This is safe. Every file in ~/Library/Caches exists to be regenerated: apps rebuild what they need on the next launch. The only cost is that the first launch after clearing is slightly slower while the cache refills. Quit your apps first, because an app that is running may hold files open and rewrite them immediately.

The steps are identical on a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or iMac. On one Mac we measured, application caches alone held 28.5 GB.

How to clear application cache on a Mac

Quit every app you can. Running apps hold cache files open.
In Finder choose Go → Go to Folder (⇧⌘G).
Type ~/Library/Caches and press Return.
Open each folder and delete what is inside it. Leave the folder itself — some apps expect it to exist.
Empty the Trash. Nothing is freed until you do.

Sort by size first. A handful of folders usually account for almost everything, and there is no reason to work through hundreds of small ones.

Cache folders you should not delete on a Mac

/System/Library/Caches — holds kernel and system caches. Deleting these can leave a Mac that will not boot. This is not the same folder as the one in your home directory.

~/Library/Containers — despite the name, this is not cache. It holds the live working data of every sandboxed app, including your Notes database. Deleting a container destroys real user data.

Also leave swap files, sleep images and app language packs alone. Cleaners sometimes remove these to inflate the amount they claim to free; the actual result is slow wake-from-sleep or apps that crash on launch, for a couple of gigabytes.

How to clear Safari cache

Safari keeps its cache inside a sandboxed container, so it is cleared from the app rather than from Finder.

Open Safari → Settings → Advanced.
Tick Show features for web developers.
From the Develop menu choose Empty Caches.

To clear history and cookies as well, use Safari → Clear History. Note that this signs you out of most websites, which emptying the cache alone does not.

How to clear browser cache on a Mac for Chrome and Firefox

Chrome: ⌘⇧⌫ opens Clear Browsing Data. Choose "Cached images and files" and set the range to All time. Leave passwords and autofill unticked unless you specifically want to lose them.

Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Clear Data, then tick only "Cached Web Content".

Browser caches are frequently the largest single thing on a Mac. On the machine we measured, Chrome's cache alone was 13.5 GB — and that is the cache only, not the profile with your bookmarks and logins, which should never be deleted.

How to clear cache on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro

The steps are identical on a MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, a Mac mini and an iMac. Cache lives in ~/Library/Caches on every Mac, and there is no separate laptop procedure — anyone telling you otherwise is padding an article.

What differs is how much it matters. A MacBook Air commonly ships with a 256 GB SSD, and the storage is soldered, so it cannot be upgraded later. On a 256 GB machine, the 22.5 GB of application cache we measured is roughly a tenth of the entire disk. On a 1 TB desktop it is a rounding error you could ignore for years.

This is why "MacBook storage full" is so much more common a complaint than the desktop equivalent. The cache is not growing faster; the disk is simply smaller.

What is cache on a Mac?

A cache is a local copy of something the computer can get again but would rather not. Browsers cache images so pages load faster on a second visit; apps cache downloaded assets, thumbnails and rendered previews. Because every cached file is by definition reproducible, caches are the safest large thing to delete on any Mac.

They are also why System Data grows without limit: apps write caches continuously and almost none of them clean up after themselves.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to delete cache files on a Mac?

Yes, for ~/Library/Caches. Every file there is designed to be regenerated. It is not safe for /System/Library/Caches or ~/Library/Containers.

Will clearing cache delete my passwords or bookmarks?

No. Cache and browsing data are separate. Clearing the cache leaves passwords, bookmarks and logins untouched — but clearing cookies or history does sign you out of sites.

How often should I clear my Mac's cache?

There is no schedule. Clear it when you need the space or when an app is behaving strangely. Caches make your Mac faster; removing them routinely just makes things slower for no benefit.

Why does the cache come back?

Because that is what caches do. The space is freed now; apps will gradually refill it as you use them.

Related guides

Sources: Apple — Clear your browsing history in Safari · Google — Clear cache and cookies in Chrome. Published 30 August 2026. Measurements taken on macOS 26.