Safari's storage is in four places, and only one is the cache
Safari keeps caches, website data, offline reading copies and history in separate places. Which is large, which is safe to clear, and what clearing costs you.
Safari is the browser people assume is small because it came with the Mac. On a machine that has been in daily use for a couple of years it is routinely a few gigabytes, and the parts that grow are not the ones the Clear History button touches.
The four places, and what is in each
| Location | Holds | Clearing it costs you |
|---|---|---|
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari | Page and image cache | Nothing. Rebuilt as you browse |
~/Library/Safari | History, bookmarks, reading list, favicons | History and offline reading copies |
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari | Per site data, local storage, databases | Signs you out of sites and clears site state |
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.SafariServices | Suggestions and services data | Nothing you will notice |
Check yours before deciding anything is worth doing:
du -sh ~/Library/Safari ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari \
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari 2>/dev/nullWebsite data is the one that grows
The cache is bounded and Safari trims it. Website data is not the same thing: it is what sites store on purpose, including local databases and offline copies for web apps, and nothing removes it on a schedule. In Safari, Settings, Privacy, Manage Website Data lists it per site with sizes.
That list is worth reading rather than clearing wholesale. Removing all of it signs you out of everything and clears the state of any web app that works offline. Removing the three sites at the top of the list usually gets most of the space with none of that cost.
The offline reading list nobody remembers
Safari can save a full copy of every page you add to Reading List, including images, so it works without a connection. That setting is on by default and the copies accumulate in ~/Library/Safari. If that folder is unexpectedly large, this is usually why, and the switch is in Settings, Advanced.
Clearing it properly
- Quit Safari first. Clearing files under a running browser produces a rebuilt cache and confusing sizes.
- Settings, Privacy, Manage Website Data for per site removal, which is the precise option.
- History, Clear History for history and the page cache together. It does not clear website data.
- Move the cache folder to the Trash only if the first two did not free enough, and expect it to come back.
How Safari compares
If both browsers are installed, the comparison is often surprising. Chrome's storage on a real Mac measured 8.1 GB, of which the profiles rather than the cache were the bulk. Safari splits the same kinds of data across the four locations above, which is why totalling it by hand is the only way to compare them fairly.
Both sit inside the wider question of what your Library folder holds, which is where the rest of a full disk usually is.
Common questions
Where does Safari store its cache on a Mac?
The page cache is in ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari, while history, bookmarks and the reading list are in ~/Library/Safari, and per site data is inside ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari. They are separate, and clearing one does not clear the others.
Does clearing Safari history free up space?
Some. Clear History removes the history database and the page cache, which is usually the smaller half. The website data stored by sites themselves is untouched by it and is often the larger part, and that is cleared in Settings, Privacy, Manage Website Data.
Is it safe to delete Safari website data?
Yes, but it signs you out of sites and clears anything a web app stored locally, including offline data. Removing the few largest sites from the list in Settings, Privacy gives most of the space back without signing you out of everything.
Why is my ~/Library/Safari folder so large?
Usually the offline copies Safari saves for Reading List items, which include images and are kept until the item is removed. The setting that controls it is in Safari, Settings, Advanced, and the existing copies stay until you clear the list.