How to Clear Safari Cache on Mac
Safari quietly stores website data, images, and scripts to load pages faster — but over time that cache can cause broken layouts, stale content, and wasted disk space. Here is how to clear it properly using Safari's settings, the Develop menu, and Finder.
What Is the Safari Cache?
Every time you visit a website in Safari, the browser downloads and stores parts of that page locally — images, stylesheets, JavaScript files, fonts, and other assets. This stored copy is called the cache. The next time you visit the same site, Safari loads those assets from disk instead of re-downloading them, which makes pages appear faster and reduces data usage.
On macOS, Safari keeps its cache data inside your user Library folder rather than a single visible file. The primary locations are ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and the WebKit cache directory at ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent. Website data such as cookies, local storage, and databases lives separately under ~/Library/Safari. Clearing the cache targets the temporary rendering assets, not necessarily every trace of your browsing.
Why Clear Safari's Cache?
There are three common reasons to clear Safari's cache, and each solves a different problem.
- Fixing broken or outdated pages. If a website looks broken, shows an old version of its content, or fails to load a recent update, a stale cached asset is often the cause. Clearing the cache forces Safari to fetch a fresh copy.
- Reclaiming disk space. Cached web data accumulates over time. While Safari is not the biggest offender on a typical Mac, clearing it contributes to freeing up your drive.
- Privacy. The cache reveals traces of the sites you have visited. Clearing it, along with history and cookies, removes those traces from your machine.
It is worth noting the trade-off: after you clear the cache, the sites you visit next will load slightly slower the first time as Safari rebuilds its stored assets. This is temporary and usually unnoticeable on a fast connection.
Method 1: Clear Cache via Clear History
The most straightforward way to clear Safari's cache — along with cookies and browsing history — is the built-in Clear History command. This is the method Apple points most users toward.
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Open Safari. Launch Safari from your Dock or Applications folder.
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Open the History menu. In the menu bar at the top of the screen, click History, then choose Clear History at the bottom of the menu.
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Choose a time range. Use the pop-up menu to select how far back to clear — the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history. Choose "all history" for a complete clear.
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Click Clear History. Safari removes your history, cookies, and cached website data for the selected range. Note that this also signs you out of some websites.
Method 3: Remove Data for Specific Sites
If a single website is misbehaving, you do not need to clear everything. Safari lets you remove cached data and cookies for individual sites.
Open Safari > Settings > Privacy, then click Manage Website Data. You will see a searchable list of every site that has stored data on your Mac, including the type of data (cache, cookies, local storage). Select a site and click Remove, or click Remove All to clear everything. This is the most surgical approach — ideal when one banking or shopping site is glitching but you do not want to lose your sessions everywhere else.
Method 4: Clear Safari Cache Manually in Finder
For a complete, low-level clear — or when Safari's own commands leave residual files behind — you can delete the cache directories directly in Finder. Quit Safari first.
Press Command + Shift + G in Finder to open the "Go to Folder" dialog, then type ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and press Return. Delete the contents of that folder. You can repeat this for ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent. These folders hold reproducible cached assets, so removing them is safe — Safari recreates them automatically on the next launch. Avoid deleting the ~/Library/Safari folder itself, since it contains your bookmarks, reading list, and other data you likely want to keep.
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Download TrimyMac FreeIs It Safe to Clear Safari's Cache?
Yes. The cache contains only reproducible copies of website assets — Safari can re-download anything it needs. Clearing the cache will not delete your bookmarks, saved passwords, or Reading List. Passwords are stored in the macOS Keychain and Safari's password manager, both separate from the cache.
The one thing to be aware of is that some methods clear more than the cache. Using Clear History also removes cookies, which will sign you out of websites and clear personalisation. The Empty Caches Develop-menu command, by contrast, leaves cookies and history intact. Choose the method that matches how much you want to remove.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I clear only the cache in Safari without deleting my history?
Use the Develop menu. Open Safari Settings, go to the Advanced tab, and enable "Show features for web developers" to reveal the Develop menu in the menu bar. Then click Develop > Empty Caches, or press Command + Option + E. This clears only the cache and leaves your browsing history, cookies, and logins fully intact. The Clear History command, by contrast, removes history and cookies as well.
Where is the Safari cache stored on a Mac?
Safari stores its cache inside your user Library folder, primarily at ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent. Website data such as cookies and local storage is kept separately under ~/Library/Safari. To reach these folders, open Finder, press Command + Shift + G, and paste the path. The Library folder is hidden by default, which is why these locations are not visible in the normal Finder sidebar.
Will clearing Safari's cache delete my saved passwords?
No. Saved passwords are stored in the macOS Keychain and Safari's built-in password manager, which are completely separate from the cache. Clearing the cache — or even using Clear History — does not remove your saved passwords. However, using Clear History does remove cookies, which will sign you out of websites where you were logged in. You will need to log back in, but your passwords will still autofill.
How do I clear the Safari cache for just one website?
Open Safari > Settings > Privacy and click Manage Website Data. This shows every site that has stored data on your Mac. Search for the site you want, select it, and click Remove to delete its cache and cookies without affecting any other site. This is the best approach when a single website is showing stale content or misbehaving and you do not want to lose your sessions everywhere else.
Does clearing Safari's cache speed up my Mac?
It can help modestly. Clearing the cache frees up disk space and can resolve slowdowns caused by a bloated or corrupted cache, and it fixes pages that render incorrectly because of stale assets. However, Safari's cache is usually not large enough to be the main cause of a slow Mac. For a meaningful speed-up, clearing app caches, logs, and other junk across the whole system — which a tool like TrimyMac automates — has a bigger impact than clearing one browser alone.