How to Clear Cookies on a Mac: Safari, Chrome and Firefox

To clear cookies on a Mac, open your browser's privacy settings: in Safari, Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data; in Chrome, Delete Browsing Data with "Cookies and other site data" ticked; in Firefox, Settings > Privacy & Security > Clear Data. Each lets you remove cookies for every site or for one site only. Clearing cookies signs you out of websites and resets their preferences, so the one-site option is usually the better choice.

Cookies are small text files that websites store in your browser to remember you: your login, your basket, your language, and, for advertising networks, what you did on other sites. They aren't a storage problem (a full cookie store is a few megabytes), so if you're clearing them to free up space, this guide isn't the fix; how to free up space on Mac is. Clear cookies when a site is misbehaving, when you want to be signed out everywhere, or for privacy.

How to clear cookies in Safari on a Mac

Safari keeps cookies with other site data (caches, local storage) and manages them in one place.

All sites:

1. Open Safari > Settings (or press Cmd + ,) and click Privacy.
2. Click Manage Website Data….
3. Click Remove All, then confirm.

One site:

1. In the same Manage Website Data window, type the site's name in the search field.
2. Select it and click Remove.

Cookies and history together: choose History > Clear History… in the menu bar, pick a time range, and click Clear History. This removes cookies, cache and browsing history for that period in one go.

To stop most tracking cookies without breaking sites, leave Prevent cross-site tracking turned on in the Privacy settings (it's on by default). Block all cookies is also there, but it breaks sign-ins on many sites, so most people should leave it off.

How to clear cookies in Chrome on a Mac

All sites:

1. Open the Chrome menu and choose Delete Browsing Data… (called Clear Browsing Data in older versions), or press Cmd + Shift + Delete.
2. Tick Cookies and other site data. Untick Browsing history and Cached images and files if you only want cookies gone.
3. Choose a time range (All time for everything) and click Delete data.

One site:

1. Open Chrome > Settings > Privacy and security > Third-party cookies (on some versions, Site settings).
2. Click See all site data and permissions.
3. Search for the site and click the trash icon next to it.

You can also click the icon at the left of the address bar on any page, choose Cookies and site data, and manage that site's cookies from there.

To block third-party cookies, the tracking kind, go to Privacy and security > Third-party cookies and choose Block third-party cookies.

How to clear cookies in Firefox on a Mac

All sites:

1. Open Firefox > Settings and click Privacy & Security.
2. Under Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data….
3. Tick Cookies and site data, untick cached web content if you're only after cookies, and click Clear.

One site:

1. In the same section, click Manage Data….
2. Search for the site, select it, click Remove Selected, then Save Changes.

Or, on the site itself, click the padlock icon in the address bar and choose Clear cookies and site data….

Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection (in the same settings panel) blocks third-party tracking cookies by default in Standard mode.

How to clear cookies in Microsoft Edge on a Mac

Open Edge > Settings > Privacy, search, and services, then under Delete browsing data click Choose what to clear. Tick Cookies and other site data, pick a time range, and click Clear now. For a single site, use Cookies and site permissions > Manage and delete cookies and site data > See all cookies and site data.

What happens when you clear cookies

Clearing cookies on a Mac signs you out of every website that used them, forgets site preferences such as language, region and "don't show this again" choices, empties shopping baskets on sites that store them in cookies, and resets consent banners so they appear again. Your saved passwords are not affected; those live in the browser's password manager or in iCloud Keychain, not in cookies. Bookmarks and downloads aren't affected either.

If a single site is broken or won't let you sign in, clear that site's cookies only. It fixes the problem without signing you out everywhere else.

Should I clear cookies or cache?

Clear cookies when a site keeps you signed in wrongly, shows the wrong region or account, or won't sign you in at all. Clear the cache when pages look broken, show old content, or load stale images and scripts. The two are separate options in every browser, and clearing the cache keeps you signed in. For the cache steps, see how to clear cache on Mac.

Do cookies take up space on a Mac?

Cookies take almost no space. A browser's whole cookie store is usually a few megabytes at most, because each cookie is a short text entry. What people mistake for cookie bloat is the browser cache and site storage, which can reach gigabytes, and app caches and leftovers elsewhere in your Library, which can reach tens of gigabytes. A storage map shows the real culprits in one scan.

How often should I clear cookies?

There's no schedule to follow. Modern browsers block the tracking cookies that used to be the reason for routine clearing, so clear cookies when something breaks or when you're handing a Mac to someone else. Clearing them weekly mostly means signing in to everything again every week.

Related guides

• How to clear cache on Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, app and system caches
• How to free up space on Mac: where the space goes on a full Mac
• ~/Library/Caches: what's safe to delete: the folder that's big when cookies aren't