How to Clear Cache in Chrome (All Sites or Just One)

How do you clear the cache in Chrome?

Open chrome://settings/clearBrowserData, choose a time range, check Cached images and files, and click Delete data. That clears cache for every site you've visited. If you only want to fix one broken page, clear that site's data instead — see the steps below. For a deeper cleanup routine, the clear cache extension hub rounds up tools that automate this.

The Settings dialog and the address-bar icon do the same job at different scope: one wipes cache for everything you've ever visited, the other targets a single misbehaving site and leaves the rest of your browsing untouched. Most people only ever need one of the two, so pick based on whether the problem is one site or several.

How to clear cache for all sites in Chrome

This is the built-in method for wiping cached files across every site at once. It takes under a minute and doesn't require installing anything.

The dialog has a Basic tab and an Advanced tab. Basic covers the three checkboxes most people need — history, cookies, and cache. Advanced adds extras like passwords, autofill data, and site settings, which is why it's worth staying on Basic unless you specifically need one of those.

1. Open a new tab and go to chrome://settings/clearBrowserData. (Or click the three-dot menu, top right, then Delete browsing data.)
2. On the Basic tab, open the Time range dropdown and pick how far back to go: Last hour, Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 4 weeks, or All time.
3. Check Cached images and files.
4. Leave Browsing history and Cookies and other site data unchecked if you only want to clear cache — deleting those too will sign you out of most sites and erase your visit history.
5. Click Delete data.
6. Reload the page you were troubleshooting. Use Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) for a hard reload that skips the cache entirely.

Expect the next few page loads to feel a little slower right after clearing cache, since Chrome has to re-download images, scripts, and stylesheets it would otherwise reuse. That's normal and temporary — cache rebuilds itself automatically as you keep browsing.

How do I clear cache for just one website in Chrome?

Use this when one site is showing an old layout, broken images, or an outdated price, but everything else in Chrome is working fine.

The icon you're looking for changes depending on the site. On an https:// site it's usually a small padlock or a tune-shaped icon; on a site Chrome flags as Not secure, the same spot shows that warning text instead. Either way, clicking it opens the same menu with a Site settings link near the bottom.

1. Open the site that's misbehaving.
2. Click the icon just left of the address bar — a tune/settings icon, or a padlock on secure sites.
3. Select Site settings.
4. On the site's settings page, scroll to Usage and click Clear data (sometimes labeled Delete data), then confirm.
5. Reload the page.

Chrome also has a Settings-based route: go to Settings > Privacy and security > Third-party cookies > See all site data and permissions, search for the domain, and delete its entry from there.

Clearing one site's data instead of everything is the better habit when only one page is acting up. It's faster to undo — you'll only need to sign back into that one site, not every account you use — and it leaves cache for the rest of your browsing intact, so other tabs keep loading at normal speed.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to clear cache in Chrome?

Yes. Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete on Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS, or Cmd+Shift+Delete on Mac, to open the Delete browsing data dialog directly — no need to open the menu or type a URL.

Prefer clicking through menus? The same shortcut and the same dialog are what you land on if you open the three-dot menu and choose Delete browsing data, or on Mac use the Chrome menu bar item. There's no separate, faster settings screen hiding behind either path — they all open the same dialog.

What's the difference between cache, cookies, and browsing history?

Chrome caches files in the first place because re-downloading the same logo, script, or stylesheet on every visit would make pages load slower. Most of the time you never notice the cache working — it only becomes visible when a site updates a file but Chrome keeps serving the old cached version instead.

Chrome's Delete browsing data dialog lists several categories, and it's easy to check the wrong one. Here's what each actually stores.

Cached images and files

Copies of images, scripts, and page assets Chrome saves locally so sites load faster on repeat visits. Clearing this only slows your next few page loads slightly — nothing is lost.

Cookies and other site data

Small files sites use to keep you signed in, remember your cart, and track preferences. Clearing this logs you out of most sites.

Browsing history

The list of pages you've visited, used for address-bar suggestions. Clearing this doesn't affect logins or cache.

Autofill form data and Site settings

Saved form entries and per-site permissions like camera or notification access. Unrelated to cache, but often listed in the same dialog.

As a rule of thumb: if a page looks visually outdated, check cache only. If you're being shown content meant for a different account, or a site won't recognize that you're logged in, that's a cookie problem, not a cache one.

Why isn't clearing cache fixing a broken page?

For developers who need to rule out cache entirely while working on a site, Chrome DevTools has a setting built for this: open DevTools (Ctrl+Shift+I or enable developer mode first if it's disabled), click the Network tab, and check Disable cache. It keeps the browser cache off for as long as DevTools stays open, which is more reliable than clearing cache manually before every reload.

If clearing data and disabling cache both fail, try disabling extensions one at a time — a broken or outdated extension can look exactly like a caching issue. See how to remove a Chrome extension if you find the culprit.

How do developers clear cache without opening Settings at all?

DevTools has a second, more thorough option than the Network tab's Disable cache checkbox: clearing all storage for the current site in one click, without leaving the page.

1. Open the page, then press F12 (or Ctrl+Shift+I, Cmd+Option+I on Mac) to open DevTools.
2. Click the Application tab. If you don't see it, click the » overflow arrow to find it.
3. In the left sidebar, select Storage.
4. Click Clear site data.

Combine this with the Network tab's Disable cache checkbox for the most reliable dev workflow: disable cache while DevTools is open so every reload fetches fresh files, and use Clear site data once when you also need to reset cookies or local storage.

When is a cache-clearing extension worth installing?

The built-in method above covers almost everyone. An extension earns its keep when you're clearing cache, cookies, or history dozens of times a day — for example while testing a site's cache behavior, switching between accounts on the same site, or keeping a shared or public computer clean automatically.

The trade-off is permissions: any extension that clears cache, cookies, or history on your behalf needs Chrome to grant it fairly broad access to your browsing data. That's a reasonable exchange for a tool you chose to install, but it's also why this is a category worth being picky about rather than installing the first result you see.

Does this work the same way on Chrome for Android and iPhone?

The concept is the same, but the menu path is shorter and there's no per-site address-bar icon. In the Chrome app, tap the three-dot menu, then Delete browsing data, choose a time range, check Cached images and files, and tap Delete data.

Chrome on Android and iOS doesn't support extensions, so the cache-clearing add-ons above only apply to Chrome on a computer. See Chrome extensions on Android and iPhone for what mobile Chrome can and can't do instead. On a Chromebook, the same desktop steps apply — a full Chromebook powerwash is a separate, much more drastic reset and isn't needed just to clear cache.

Mobile Chrome also skips the Basic/Advanced tab split — you get one flat list of checkboxes regardless of how much data you're choosing to delete. And there's no per-site address-bar icon on phones, so clearing cache for a single site means finding it in Settings > Site settings and deleting its storage from there.