How to Clear Browser Cache on Safari, Chrome, and Firefox on Mac

Every browser on a Mac has its own command for clearing the cache: Develop, then Empty Caches in Safari; Clear Browsing Data in Chrome; and Clear Data under Privacy and Security in Firefox. Each takes under a minute. If you tick only the cache option, your history, saved passwords and sign-ins are left alone.

What the cache is, and when to clear it

The cache is a store of images, scripts and style sheets from sites you have visited, kept on disk so pages load without downloading everything again. It is safe to delete. The browser fetches what it needs the next time you visit, so the first load of each site is a little slower.

There are two good reasons to clear it: a site is showing an old or broken version of a page, or you want the disk space back. A cache that has built up over months is often several hundred megabytes and can reach a few gigabytes. The browser will fill it again as you browse, so this is not a job to repeat every week.

Safari

1. Open Safari. In the menu bar choose Safari, then Settings.
2. Click the Advanced tab. Tick Show features for web developers. In older versions of Safari the box is called Show Develop menu in menu bar.
3. Close Settings. A Develop menu now appears in the menu bar.
4. Choose Develop, then Empty Caches. The keyboard shortcut is Option-Command-E.

Nothing is shown when it finishes. Note that Clear History in the Safari menu is a different command: it removes your browsing history and website data such as cookies as well, so you may be signed out of sites.

Google Chrome

1. Open Chrome. In the menu bar choose Chrome, then Clear Browsing Data. Recent versions call it Delete Browsing Data. The shortcut is Shift-Command-Delete.
2. Set the time range to All time.
3. Tick Cached images and files. Untick browsing history and cookies if you want to keep them.
4. Click the button at the bottom to clear the data.

Microsoft Edge and Brave are built on the same base as Chrome, and the same shortcut opens the same kind of window in both.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox. In the menu bar choose Firefox, then Settings.
2. Click Privacy & Security in the sidebar.
3. Scroll to Cookies and Site Data and click Clear Data.
4. Tick only the cache box. It is labelled Cached Web Content in older versions and Temporary cached files and pages in newer ones. Untick the cookies box to stay signed in.
5. Click Clear.

If a single page is the problem

When only one page looks wrong, you may not need to clear anything. In Chrome and Firefox, press Shift-Command-R to reload the page and fetch it fresh. In Safari, hold Shift and click the reload button in the address bar. If that does not help, clear the cache as above.

What MacPrune does about it

If you use more than one browser, MacPrune saves you going through each menu. Its Clean page runs one scan and lists Browser Caches in the Safe to clean group, covering Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Brave, Arc and Edge, with the size of each so you can see whether it is worth doing.

You choose what to remove and confirm. The files move to the Trash, and the space is freed when the Trash is emptied; the app offers to empty it after a clean. Quit your browsers first so they are not writing to the cache while it is cleared. MacPrune clears caches only. It does not remove your browsing history, cookies or saved passwords, so use the browser's own settings for those.

Cleaning browser caches is included in the free version.

Where to go next

For more detail on one browser, read the Safari cache guide or the Chrome cache guide. If the aim is disk space, how to clear System Data covers the other caches on a Mac. You can download MacPrune free from the home page.