Safari cache and website data on Mac: what it stores and how to clear it

To clear Safari cache on a Mac, turn on Safari's developer features, then choose Develop › Empty Caches. It removes the copies of pages, images and scripts that Safari keeps so websites load faster. Your history, bookmarks, passwords and cookies stay, so you remain signed in everywhere.

Website data is a separate thing, and it's often the larger one. Sites store sign-ins, settings, databases and offline files through Safari, and you remove them in Safari › Settings › Privacy › Manage Website Data, one site at a time or all at once. Removing a site's data can sign you out of it.

Clear History is a third control, for the record of where you've been. It isn't the tool for freeing space or fixing a page that looks out of date.

None of this makes a Mac faster. Clearing Safari's cache frees some space and fixes pages stuck on stale copies, and the cache grows back as you browse. macOS also clears Safari's website data by itself when it needs space, so most people rarely have to.

What Safari stores on your Mac

Safari keeps several kinds of data, in different places, for different reasons. Its settings keep them apart, which is what lets you clear one without losing the others.

What's the difference between Safari's cache, website data, cookies and history?

The cache is Safari's own copy of what websites sent it: pages, images and scripts, plus previews of your open tabs. Safari decides what goes in it, and it can always download the same files again.

Website data is what websites choose to store through Safari: local storage, databases, offline files and service worker caches. Cookies are small records that keep you signed in and remember your choices. History is the list of pages you visited.

Kind of data	What it holds	Where you clear it	What clearing it costs
Cache	Copies of pages, images and scripts; tab previews	Develop › Empty Caches	Pages load more slowly the first time
Website data	Local storage, databases, offline files	Privacy › Manage Website Data	Sign-outs; web apps download their data again
Cookies	Sign-ins and site preferences	Privacy › Manage Website Data	You sign in to each site again
History	Pages visited, recent searches, icons	History › Clear History	Address bar suggestions go, on synced devices too
Reading List copies	Pages saved for offline reading	The Reading List sidebar	The page needs a connection to open

Cookies take almost no space. The cache and website data are where the gigabytes are, and only the cache is free to clear.

Which control should you use?

Pick the control by what you're trying to do. Most of the time it's the first row.

If you want to	Use	What you keep
Free space without losing anything	Develop › Empty Caches	Sign-ins, history, bookmarks, tabs
Fix a page that looks out of date	Reload, then Empty Caches	Everything except the cache
Clear out sites you've stopped using	Manage Website Data, Remove	Every other site's data
Sign out of every website	Manage Website Data, Remove All	History, bookmarks, passwords
Hide where you've been	History › Clear History	Bookmarks, passwords, downloaded files
Drop a whole way of browsing	Delete that Safari profile	Bookmarks and other profiles

Where does Safari keep its cache and website data?

Safari's files live in your Library folder, split between the old Safari folder and the container macOS gives the app. These are the folders the app's catalog describes.

Folder	What's in it	Level
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari	Safari's cache	Safe
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari	More of Safari's cache, including tab previews	Safe
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/WebKit/WebsiteData	Data websites stored through Safari	Usually safe
~/Library/Safari/LocalStorage and Databases	Older website data	Usually safe
~/Library/Safari itself	History, bookmarks, Reading List and settings	Not a cache: leave it

Safe means Safari recreates the item by itself and nothing is lost. Usually safe means it comes back at a cost: here, signing in to sites again and web apps fetching their data again.

Why can't you open some of Safari's folders?

macOS keeps Safari's data private, because it describes where you've been and who you're signed in as. Apps you haven't given Full Disk Access can't read these folders, so some disk tools show them as empty or tiny.

That's a good reason to clear Safari's data from inside Safari. Its own controls can always reach it, and they know which files belong to which website.

How much space does Safari use?

It depends on how you browse. Video, maps and web apps fill Safari's cache and website data much faster than reading articles does.

Where does Safari show up in Storage settings?

It doesn't, by name. Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General, then Storage, and you'll see categories such as Applications, Documents and Photos, but no Safari. Its cache and website data count toward System Data, the category for everything that fits nowhere else.

Storage settings shows System Data's size and nothing more. If yours has grown and you'd like to know what else is in it, see what System Data on a Mac is made of.

How big can Safari's cache get?

How large Safari's cache grows depends on what you do with it, and heavy browsing pushes it up. The ranges below are typical for Macs that have these items at all.

• Safari cache1–150 GB · Safe
• Other browsers' caches and site storage1–200 GB
• All app caches in Library2–30 GB · Safe

Typical ranges on Macs that have these items at all, from the research behind the app's catalog. Many Macs have far less, and the top of each range is rare.

The large end of those ranges is unusual. If Safari's share of your disk looks out of proportion, the cache is worth clearing once, and the website data of sites you no longer use is worth a look.

How much can one website store in Safari?

More than most people expect. WebKit, the engine behind Safari, describes the limits it has used since Safari 17. In a browser app such as Safari, one website can store up to 60 percent of the disk's total space, and all websites together up to 80 percent.

Those are ceilings, not targets: almost no site comes near them. They leave room for web apps such as mail, documents and music services to keep large amounts of data offline.

Apple's guide still has a page describing a 5 MB default for website databases, with Safari asking before a site uses more. WebKit says Safari stopped asking with Safari 17, when the limits above took over.

Why does Safari's website data shrink by itself?

Three mechanisms remove it without your help:

• macOS, when space runs low. Apple says macOS clears caches and logs that are safe to delete when space is needed, and names Safari's website data among them.
• WebKit's eviction. When storage is tight or a site hasn't been used for some time, WebKit deletes whole sites' data, starting with the least recently used.
• Tracking prevention. WebKit deletes a site's script-writable storage, such as local storage, databases and service worker caches, after seven days of Safari use without you interacting with that site.

Those seven days are days you use Safari, not calendar days. Sites you use keep their data; a site you visited once and never touched again loses it after seven days of browsing.

How to clear Safari cache on a Mac

Safari's Empty Caches command is the cleanest way to clear its cache. It's in the Develop menu, which is hidden until you turn on Safari's developer features. Turning them on changes nothing else about how Safari works.

How do you turn on the Develop menu?

1. In Safari, choose Safari › Settings.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Select Show features for web developers.

A Develop menu appears in the menu bar. Apple says the same setting also adds Developer and Feature Flags panes to Safari's settings, which you can ignore.

In older versions of Safari, the checkbox was called Show Develop menu in menu bar, and Safari's settings were called Preferences. The steps are otherwise the same.

How do you empty Safari's caches?

Choose Develop › Empty Caches.

Apple's developer documentation describes the command as deleting all caches stored by the browser. It's meant for web developers who need to see a fresh copy of a page, which is also exactly what you want when a site looks broken or out of date.

What stays after Empty Caches?

Everything that isn't a cache. Your history, bookmarks, Reading List, passwords and open tabs are untouched. Cookies aren't part of the cache either, so you stay signed in to websites.

The first visit to each site afterwards is a little slower while Safari downloads its pages, images and scripts again. Tab previews are drawn again as you switch tabs.

Can you turn the Develop menu off again?

Yes. Clear Show features for web developers in the Advanced pane and the menu disappears. Your cache stays cleared, and you can turn the menu back on the next time you need it.

If you clear Safari's cache often, it's simpler to leave the menu on. It does nothing until you choose one of its commands.

How to clear website data in Safari

Website data is where a single site can hold a lot: a web mail app's offline copy of your inbox, a music service's downloads, a document editor's local files. Safari lists it by site, so you can remove only what you no longer need.

How do you remove website data for one site?

1. In Safari, choose Safari › Settings, then click Privacy.
2. Click Manage Website Data.
3. Select one or more websites, then click Remove.

Remove All clears every site's data at once. It's rarely the right choice: it signs you out of everything, resets every site's settings and makes every web app download its data again.

Which sites should you remove first?

Start with sites you no longer use. A web app you tried once, a news site you've stopped reading or a service you've cancelled can keep cookies and data until Safari, macOS or you remove them.

Sites you use every day are the worst candidates. Their data comes back the next time you visit, and you'll have signed in to each of them again for nothing.

What happens when you remove a site's data?

Apple warns that removing it may sign you out of websites or change how they behave. In practice, you sign in again, the site forgets choices such as a language or a dark theme, and web apps download their offline data again.

There's one real loss to watch for. A web app that saves drafts or work only on your Mac, without syncing it, loses what it hadn't sent anywhere. If a site lets you work offline, check it has synced before you remove its data.

Does removing website data in Safari affect other apps?

It can. Apple notes that removing cookies and website data in Safari may change or remove them in other apps. It doesn't list which apps.

If an app asks you to sign in again after you've cleared Safari's data, sign in as usual. Nothing else needs fixing.

Does Manage Website Data show how much space each site uses?

Apple describes the list as showing which websites store cookies and other data on your Mac, and doesn't describe a size for each. Use it to find sites you don't recognize or no longer use, rather than to rank them by size.

Clear History, Private Browsing and profiles

Safari's other privacy controls get mixed up with clearing the cache, partly because guides on the web describe them together. Each does something different.

What does Clear History remove?

Choose History › Clear History, then choose how far back to clear from the pop-up menu. Apple lists what it removes:

• the pages you visited, and the Back and Forward lists of open pages
• your frequently visited sites and recent searches
• icons and snapshots saved for webpages
• the list of items you downloaded, though the downloaded files stay
• websites added for Quick Website Search
• websites that asked to use your location or send you notifications

If Safari uses iCloud on your Mac and other devices, your history is removed from all of them. Apple also notes that it doesn't clear any history websites keep about you on their own servers.

Does Clear History clear the cache?

It isn't the documented way to. Apple's list for Clear History is about your record of browsing, and the cache and website data have their own controls. Use Empty Caches to clear the cache and Manage Website Data for site data.

Clearing history to fix a stale page or free space costs you your address bar's suggestions, on every synced device, and may not touch what you meant to clear.

Can you clear history for just one profile?

Yes. Since Safari 17, Safari can keep separate profiles, such as Personal and Work. Apple says each profile has separate history, cookies, website data, extensions, Tab Groups and favorites, and that when you clear history you can clear all of it or only a selected profile's.

Some things are shared between profiles: AutoFill, passwords, and the Security, Websites and Privacy settings.

What does deleting a Safari profile remove?

Choose Safari › Settings, click Profiles, select the profile, then click the delete button below the list. Apple says this erases the profile's tabs, history and website data, including its cookies, and closes any websites open in it.

Favorites and other bookmarks are kept. The default profile can't be deleted, so this only helps when you have a profile you no longer use.

Does Private Browsing leave a cache behind?

Apple says that in a private window, Safari doesn't save the pages you visit or your AutoFill information, and changes to your cookies and website data aren't saved. Items you download are kept, but they don't appear in the downloads list.

Private Browsing is a way of browsing without leaving a record, not a cleanup tool. It doesn't remove anything you stored before you opened the private window.

Other things Safari keeps that take space

The cache and website data are the usual suspects, but Safari leaves a few other things on your disk. None of them is large for most people, and each has its own control.

Reading List pages saved for offline reading

Reading List can keep a copy of each page so you can read it without a connection. Control-click a page in the Reading List sidebar and choose Save Offline to keep one; Apple's guide gives the same route to choose Delete and remove an item you've read.

If Save articles for offline reading automatically is on, in the Advanced pane of Safari's settings, every page you add is saved. A long Reading List you never trim keeps a copy of every article in it. Turning the setting off stops new copies, and deleting items you've read removes theirs.

Downloads

Files you download in Safari go to your Downloads folder, or wherever File download location in the General pane points. Clearing the downloads list, or the Remove download list items setting, removes entries from the list, not the files themselves.

So the Downloads folder is where downloaded installers, disk images and archives pile up. Sort it by size in Finder and move what you've finished with to the Trash.

Web apps you've added to the Dock

On macOS Sonoma or later, Safari can turn a site into a web app: choose File › Add to Dock. Apple says a web app shares no browsing history, cookies, website data or settings with Safari, so clearing Safari's data doesn't touch it.

To clear a web app's data, open it, click its name in the menu bar and choose Settings. Apple says its Privacy tab can clear the website's data, including cookies and caches. To remove the web app completely, drag it from the Applications folder in your home folder to the Trash.

Safari on macOS 27, macOS 26 and older versions

Safari's controls for caches and website data are the same in macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe. Older versions moved some of them around, and a few features are newer than many guides on the web.

Feature	macOS 27 and macOS 26	Older versions
Settings window	Safari › Settings	Called Preferences in older Safari
Develop menu checkbox	Show features for web developers	Show Develop menu in menu bar
Website data	Privacy › Manage Website Data	Same place in recent versions
Profiles	Available	Since Safari 17, with macOS Sonoma or recent updates to Ventura and Monterey
Web apps in the Dock	Available	Since macOS Sonoma
Storage limits per site	Up to 60 percent of the disk	Since Safari 17; before, Safari asked first

What changed with macOS Sonoma and Safari 17?

Two things that matter for storage. Profiles arrived, so one Mac can now hold several separate sets of cookies and website data. And WebKit set the storage limits above, with eviction rules that delete the least recently used sites' data when space is tight.

The net effect is that website data can grow without Safari asking you first, and is removed by Safari and macOS when space is tight or sites go unused.

Does Safari on macOS 26 Tahoe work differently?

Not for anything in this post. Apple's guide for Safari on macOS 26 gives the same steps for Manage Website Data, and its storage page gives the same list of what macOS clears by itself, Safari's website data included.

Fixing a page that looks out of date

Freeing space is one reason to clear Safari's cache. The other, more common one is a website that shows an old version of a page, or a layout that's broken until something is refreshed.

What should you try first?

Reload the page. If that doesn't help, choose Develop › Empty Caches and reload again, which makes Safari fetch everything from the site. That fixes most stale pages, without signing you out of anything.

If the site still misbehaves, remove that one site's data in Manage Website Data, then open it and sign in again. Leave every other site alone.

Why does a site still look wrong after clearing everything?

Because the problem isn't on your Mac. A site's own servers and networks keep caches too, and a broken page can be broken for everyone. Check the site on another device or network before you clear more.

Safari extensions can also change how pages look. If a page works in a private window but not in a normal one, try turning your extensions off in Safari › Settings › Extensions to find out which one is responsible.

What does it mean when a site asks to use more space?

Before Safari 17, Safari asked before a site stored more than a small amount in its databases. If you declined, Apple says, the site might be unable to save your information. On a Mac that still runs an older Safari, allow it for web apps you rely on and decline for sites you don't know.

WebKit says Safari 17 and later no longer ask. Sites store what they need within the limits described above, and Safari and macOS remove the data of sites you stop using.

Mistakes to avoid when you clear Safari's data

Most of what goes wrong comes from clearing the wrong kind of data, or clearing it the wrong way. Here are the common cases.

Don't	Why	Instead
Move ~/Library/Safari to the Trash	It holds your history, bookmarks and Reading List	Use Safari's own controls
Click Remove All to free space	You're signed out of every site	Remove sites you no longer use
Clear History to fix a stale page	It wipes your history on every synced device	Use Empty Caches
Delete Safari's folders while it's open	Safari writes to them as it runs	Use Empty Caches, or quit Safari first
Clear app preferences with the cache	They're settings, not caches	Leave the Preferences folder alone
Paste a cleanup command from a web page	It can't be undone, and some are malware	Use Safari's menus and settings

Does clearing Safari's cache make your Mac faster?

No. A cache exists to make pages load faster, so emptying it makes Safari a little slower until it fills again. It doesn't make your Mac or your other apps run faster.

What it can do is free space on a nearly full disk, and fix pages that show stale content. Both are good reasons; speed isn't one of them.

Should you clear Safari's cache on a schedule?

No. The cache refills as soon as you browse, so clearing it every week buys back the same space again and again, with slower first visits each time. macOS and WebKit already remove website data you no longer use.

Clear it when a page misbehaves, when your disk is genuinely short of space, or once after a long stretch of heavy video and web app use.

Should you block all cookies to save space?

No. Block all cookies, in the Advanced pane of Safari's settings, stops websites, third parties and advertisers from storing cookies and other data on your Mac. Apple notes that some websites may not work properly with it on.

Cookies take almost no space, so blocking them frees next to nothing, and you'd sign in to sites over and over. It's a privacy choice, not a storage one.

Is it safe to use a third-party app to clear Safari's data?

Only if it does what Safari's own controls do. An app that deletes Safari's folders while Safari is open, or that treats your history and bookmarks as clutter, can cost you more than it saves. Whatever you use, check it moves items to the Trash, so you can put them back.

A worked example

Say your Mac is short of space before a macOS update, and System Data has grown. You open Safari and choose Develop › Empty Caches: that's the safe part done, and you're still signed in everywhere.

Then you open Manage Website Data. You remove a video service you cancelled, two web apps you tried and dropped, and a news site you stopped reading. You leave your mail, bank and work tools alone, because you'd only sign in to them again tomorrow.

Back in Storage settings, give the numbers a minute to settle. If you need much more space, Safari usually isn't where it is: the post on how to clear cache on a Mac goes through every other cache on the Mac, from apps to developer tools.

If you use Chrome too, it keeps a separate cache and its own website data for every profile. See where Chrome's space goes.

What happens after you clear Safari's cache

Nothing you need to manage. Safari starts filling its cache again from the first page you open, and each site loads a little more slowly on your first visit.

Why didn't your free space go up?

Empty Caches deletes the cache directly, so it doesn't go through the Trash. If the number in Storage settings doesn't move, give it a minute: it works out its figures in the background.

If Time Machine backs up automatically, a recent local snapshot can also hold on to deleted files for a while. Apple says Time Machine removes snapshots as they age or when space is needed, so that space comes back by itself.

How quickly does the cache come back?

As fast as you browse. A Mac that's on video and web apps all day refills it quickly. A Mac used for a little reading and email keeps it small.

That's why the lasting gains are elsewhere: removing the data of sites you've stopped using, and trimming a Reading List that saves every article offline.

What if a site stops working after you remove its data?

Open it and sign in again. Web apps that work offline download their data again the first time you open them while connected, so give them a minute before you use them offline.

If a site keeps failing after that, the problem probably isn't its stored data. Check it in a private window or on another device.

Other accounts on the same Mac

Each user account has its own Safari data, in its own Library folder. Clearing yours doesn't affect anyone else's, and Storage settings counts other accounts' files under Other Users & Shared.

How the app does it

Wombit is a native Mac app that shows what's using your storage, explains every item in plain language, and clears it safely: Trash first, undoable and logged. File names and paths never leave your Mac.

Safari's folders appear on the map like everything else. Select one and the app says what it is, how safe it is to remove and what removing it costs, from a catalog written and checked by hand with sources:

• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari

  Safari cache

  Copies of web pages, images and scripts, and previews of your tabs, that Safari saves so pages load faster.

  Safe · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/WebKit/WebsiteData

  Safari website data

  Data that websites store on your Mac through Safari, such as sign-in state, settings, databases and offline files.

  Usually safe · Explained only: the app shows you how

Safari's cache is Safe, so it starts checked in Cleanup and counts in the headline number. Website data is Usually safe: its catalog entry explains that removing it can sign you out, and says to remove it in Safari's Manage Website Data, where Safari knows which data belongs to which site.

Safari's folders are among those macOS keeps private. With Full Disk Access, the app measures them; without it, they're listed as folders it couldn't read, not skipped. If Safari is open, its items are left out of a cleanup, and the review sheet offers to quit Safari the way ⌘Q does. A cleanup never force-quits an app.

Finding and explaining Safari's data is part of the free analyzer. Cleanup is PRO: one payment of $4.99 with lifetime access. Every Pro tool's review is free to open, so you see what would go and why before you buy.