How to Clear Cookies and Cache in Chrome

Open Chrome's privacy and security settings to erase cookies from all sites or specific sites

What to Know

  • Press the three dot menu. Select Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data.
  • Next, choose an option from the Time range menu. Select the items you want to delete, then press Clear data.
  • Individual sites: Privacy and Security > Site settings > View permissions and data stored across sites. Press the trash icon next to the site.

This article explains how to delete the small files Google Chrome stores, called cookies, from your computer across all sites and for individual ones. Instructions in this article apply to the desktop version of Google Chrome for all operating systems.

How to Clear Cookies in Chrome

The process is similar to clearing the cookies in most browsers. Follow these steps to delete cookies in Chrome and clear the browser cache:

  1. Select the three dots in the upper-right corner of Chrome, then select Settings from the drop-down menu.

    Chrome with the Settings command highlighted
  2. Select Privacy and security from the left-side menu, then choose Clear browsing data.

    Privacy and security and Clear browsing data highlighted in Chrome's settings.
  3. Next to Time range, select the menu to pick how far back to remove cache and cookies. For example, pick All time to delete all of this data.

    The Clear Browsing Data window in Chrome with the Basic tab highlighted

    Another way to access this screen is with a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Del (Windows) or Command+Shift+Del (on macOS).

  4. Select which data you want to delete, then select Clear data.

    Don't remove anything you might want to keep, such as browsing history.

    The Chrome Clear Browsing Data window with the Clear Data button highlighted

How to Clear Cookies From Individual Sites in Chrome

If you don't want to remove all your data, you can delete cookies for specific websites in Chrome. This process is similar to the steps outlined above.

  1. Select the three dots in the upper-right corner of Chrome, then select Settings from the drop-down menu.

    Chrome with the Settings command highlighted
  2. Open the Privacy and security section from the left side of the page, then select Site settings.

    Privacy and security and Site settings highlighted in Google Chrome settings.
  3. Select View permissions and data stored across sites.

    Chrome settings with 'View permissions and data across stored sites' highlighted.
  4. Find the website you want to erase cookies for. You can use the search bar or the sort menu to change up the results.

  5. Select the trash icon next to the website.

    The first trash icon highlighted next to the nationalgeographic.com entry in Chrome's settings.

    As you can see in this screenshot, there are multiple trash icons. We're erasing all of this site's data, but you could just as easily clear only the cookies by pressing the trash icon next to the entry that mentions cookies.

Why Websites Use Cookies

Websites commonly use cookies to track browsing habits and target ads. This is usually a harmless process. However, in some situations, cookies can allow hackers to access your online accounts. Clearing the cookies in Chrome permanently removes them from your computer so the cookies can't be used that way.

The cached files used by Chrome are helpful in ways similar to cookies. However, the Chrome cache can become corrupted and cause page-loading issues. Cache files take up space on a hard drive, affecting your device's performance.

When you erase cookies, cached files, history, and other components saved in Chrome, the browser won't work precisely the same afterward. For example, you will be logged out of websites that rely on that data, and any history suggestions that come up when you type in the navigation bar are also cleared.

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