How to Clear Browser Cookies
Learn what cookies are, when clearing them is useful, and how to remove them in popular browsers on Windows and macOS.
What Cookies Do and When to Clear Them
Cookies are small pieces of data that websites store in your browser to remember logins, preferences, and tracking identifiers. Many are essential for keeping you signed in or preserving shopping carts, but others are used to follow you across sites for advertising and analytics.
Clearing cookies can fix login loops, remove stale session data, and reset tracking identifiers. The trade‑off is that you will need to sign in again and reconfigure some site preferences, so it is usually best to target specific sites or use time‑based ranges instead of wiping everything daily.
Clearing Cookies Quickly on Desktop
Most browsers share a similar flow for clearing cookies: open Settings, look for Privacy or Security, then find a “Clear browsing data” or “Cookies and other site data” option. Keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+Shift+Delete (Windows) or Command+Shift+Delete (macOS) often jump straight to the right dialog.
You can usually choose a time range, such as the last hour or last 7 days, and sometimes filter by site. Combining selective cookie clearing with private browsing modes lets you troubleshoot sites without sacrificing everyday convenience.
Press Win+R to open the Run box, then enter these commands to quickly launch browsers for cleanup.
start msedge.exe -inprivate
start chrome.exe --incognito
start firefox.exe -private-window
Use these commands to open common browsers ready for private testing.
open -a "Safari" --new --args -private
open -a "Google Chrome" --args --incognito
open -a "Firefox" --args -private-window