Can I delete the caches in ~/Library/Caches on my Mac?

Mostly yes, with apps quit. Apps rebuild their caches, so deleting them frees space only until they fill up again, often within days. Clear the big ones of apps you no longer use; leave the rest.

How big it gets

On the Mac we measured, a working developer's Mac on macOS 27: 30.7 GB: JetBrains IDEs 15.4, Chrome 5.2, Spotify 3.8, SwiftPM 2.1, and dozens of smaller ones.

What it is

What writes itEvery app, in a folder usually named by its bundle ID, such as com.spotify.client.

What's insideDownloaded media, web caches, indexes, compiled shaders, package downloads: data an app can fetch or compute again.

Why clearing rarely helpsActive apps refill their caches quickly, and run slower while they do. "Cleaner" apps that free 10 GB mostly free space that returns.

Comes back?Yes, for apps you still use.

How to clear it

Sort ~/Library/Caches by size in Finder, or run du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* | sort -hr | head.
Quit an app before deleting its folder. Prefer the app's own setting where it has one, such as Spotify's storage limit.
Delete caches of apps you've uninstalled; they're never cleaned up.

What you lose: Speed, briefly, while apps rebuild. Rarely, a sign-in or offline download.

With Scrubs: Scrubs's Quick Wins lists your caches folder by folder, largest first, so you can pick only the big, stale ones. Download Scrubs; scanning is free.

~/Library/Caches or /Library/Caches?

~/Library/Caches, with the tilde, is yours: every app you use keeps its cache there, and clearing it affects only your account. /Library/Caches, without it, is shared by every account on the Mac and by macOS services; changing it needs an administrator, and it is usually small. /System/Library/Caches belongs to macOS and is read-only. This page is about the first one.

Measure before you delete

Caches are rarely spread evenly. On the Mac we measured, four folders held 26.5 GB of the 30.7 GB: JetBrains IDEs, Chrome, Spotify and SwiftPM. Find yours with:

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null | sort -hr | head -15

Folder names are usually the app's bundle ID, such as com.spotify.client or com.google.Chrome, so the owner is easy to tell. A folder you can't place belongs to an app or a macOS service; leave it.

What's worth clearing, and what isn't

Worth itCaches of apps you've uninstalled, which nothing ever removes; one big cache you've checked, such as an IDE's indexes for projects you closed; and caches an app lets you clear itself, such as a browser's or a music app's offline downloads.

Use the app's own settingBrowsers clear their cache in their settings; Spotify and other streaming apps limit their storage in theirs; Homebrew clears its downloads with brew cleanup. The app then rebuilds only what it needs.

Not worth itCaches of apps you use every day, which fill up again within days and make the app slower meanwhile, and macOS's own com.apple folders, which are mostly small.

Why it fills up again

A cache is a copy an app keeps so it doesn't have to download or compute something twice. As long as you use the app, it writes new ones: that is the point. Clearing caches frees space for a while, not for good. To keep the space, remove the app or lower its own storage limit.

Questions

Is it safe to delete everything in ~/Library/Caches?

Usually nothing breaks, but it's rarely worth it: apps you use rebuild their caches within days and run slower meanwhile. Quit apps first, then delete the folders of apps you no longer use and big ones you've checked.

Will deleting caches delete my files or passwords?

No. Documents, passwords and settings are kept elsewhere: in your folders, the keychain and ~/Library/Preferences. Some apps keep offline downloads in their cache, such as music, which they download again.

Should I delete /Library/Caches too?

In most cases, no. It's shared by every account and by macOS services, needs an administrator password, and is usually small.

How often should I clear caches?

Not on a schedule. Clear one when an app misbehaves, or when an app you've removed left a big one behind.

Why did my caches come back?

Because apps write them as you use them. That's what a cache is for, so clearing them frees space only until the apps fill them again.

Sizes measured with du on 1 November 2026. Paths and commands apply to macOS 15 and later. See also how to free up disk space on a Mac.

About the author: Parsa Nasirimehr is a mobile app developer who builds Scrubs, a disk map for the Mac. Spotted something wrong? Write to support@getscrubs.app.