How to Clear Brave Browser's Cache on Mac

Brave is built on Chromium, which makes it cousin to Chrome and Edge in cache behavior. The difference is Brave layers in extra subsystems — Brave Rewards, Brave Wallet, IPFS support, Tor windows — and each of those has its own data footprint. After a year of Brave as a daily driver, you’re typically looking at 1-2GB of cache plus a few hundred MB of Brave-specific data.

Here’s how to clean it up properly on macOS Sonoma 14 and Sequoia 15.

Where Brave caches data on Mac

Brave’s main cache locations:

• ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Cache/ — primary HTTP cache
• ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Code Cache/ — compiled JavaScript
• ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/GPUCache/ — GPU shaders
• ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Service Worker/CacheStorage/ — embedded asset cache
• ~/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/ — system-level cache

Brave-specific extras:

• ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/BraveWallet/ — wallet data (don’t clear this)
• ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/IPFS/ — IPFS node data if you enabled it

Multiple profiles? Each is in its own Profile 1, Profile 2, etc. folder alongside Default.

In-app cache clear

The Chromium standard:

1. Open Brave.
2. Press Cmd+Shift+Delete.
3. In the dialog, set Time range to All time.
4. Check Cached images and files.
5. Optionally also check Cookies and other site data for a deeper clear.
6. Click Clear data.

Done. The cache folders empty out. You stay logged into sites if you only checked cached files.

You can also access this via Brave Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data.

Clearing per-site

For a single misbehaving site:

1. Visit the site.
2. Click the lock icon to the left of the URL.
3. Click Cookies and site data.
4. Click Remove.
5. Reload.

Just that site gets fresh state.

Manual cache clearing

If you want to clear without launching Brave, or verify the folders are actually empty:

1. Quit Brave (Cmd+Q).
2. Verify it’s not running in Activity Monitor.
3. Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G.
4. Paste ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.
5. Move these to the Trash: Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, Service Worker, Application Cache (if it exists).
6. Also clear ~/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/ for completeness.
7. Empty Trash.
8. Reopen Brave.

Your bookmarks, history, saved passwords, Brave Wallet, and Rewards balance all stay intact. Those live in other files — files you didn’t touch.

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Important: leave Brave Wallet alone

Brave Wallet stores cryptocurrency keys locally. The encrypted wallet data lives at ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/BraveWallet/.

Do NOT delete this folder. If you clear it without your seed phrase backed up, you lose access to your crypto. Brave’s standard cache clear in Cmd+Shift+Delete does not touch the wallet — only the manual approach can mess this up if you delete too aggressively.

If you’re not using Brave Wallet at all, the folder is small (a few KB). Just leave it.

Brave Rewards data

Brave Rewards (BAT earning) stores its state in the profile data. The standard cache clear doesn’t affect rewards balance or earning history — those persist. If you want to reset rewards specifically, that’s done from inside Brave Settings → Brave Rewards, not from the cache clear.

Don’t delete these

While you’re poking around the Default folder, leave these alone:

• History — browsing history
• Bookmarks — your bookmarks
• Login Data — saved credentials
• Cookies — session cookies
• Web Data — autofill
• Preferences — Brave settings
• BraveWallet/ — wallet keys (folder is in the parent directory, not Default)

Cache folders rebuild automatically. Data folders don’t.

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Tor windows in Brave

If you use Brave’s Tor private windows, they don’t cache to disk by default — Tor sessions are ephemeral. So there’s nothing extra to clean up specifically for Tor browsing.

When clearing cache helps Brave

• Sites loading old assets
• Service Worker stuck in a bad state
• Brave’s launch feels sluggish
• Disk space pressure
• Brave Shields fighting with a specific site

When it doesn’t help: extension issues, sync problems, Brave Wallet lockups (those need wallet-specific resets), Brave Rewards display problems.

Brave alongside other browsers

Most Brave users keep at least one other browser installed. Cache layout for the others:

• Chrome: ~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/ and ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Cache
• Safari: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Caches/
• Firefox: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
• Edge: ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.edgemac/

Clearing one doesn’t touch the others. Each browser is its own cleanup project.

Reinstalling Brave cleanly

If Brave is deeply broken:

1. Back up your wallet seed phrase first if you use Brave Wallet.
2. Quit Brave.
3. Drag Brave from /Applications to Trash.
4. Delete ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/.
5. Delete ~/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/.
6. Empty Trash.
7. Reinstall from brave.com.
8. Sign in to Brave Sync if you used it. Restore wallet from seed phrase if needed.

Clean install plus sync brings everything back, but you must have your wallet seed phrase backed up before this.

How often to clean

Daily Brave use: every 2-3 months.

Light use: yearly.

Multi-browser household: stagger or automate.

The cache will keep growing until it hits Chromium’s soft limit, which is generous. There’s no automatic floor — it just sits there forever unless you clear it.

Worth automating?

Brave alone is manageable manually. If you’re maintaining a Mac with Brave, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and a stack of Electron apps all caching independently, automating starts to make sense.

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Bottom line

Brave’s cache lives at ~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Cache/. Cmd+Shift+Delete inside Brave is the cleanest way to clear it. Manual works too — just stay out of the BraveWallet folder if you have one.

Cache rebuilds automatically. Wallet, bookmarks, Rewards, and history all persist.