To delete cookies, open your browser’s privacy settings and look for Delete browsing data, Clear Data, or Manage Website Data — the name changes by browser, but every one of them puts cookies one or two taps inside the privacy menu. Choose Cookies and other site data, pick a time range if the browser asks, and confirm. That is the whole job in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, on computer and phone.

The fastest route in each browser:

Browser Quick path
Chrome (computer) Three dots > Delete browsing data
Chrome (Android) Three dots > Settings > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data
Safari (Mac) Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data
Safari (iPhone) Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Website Data > Remove All Website Data
Firefox Menu > Settings > Privacy & Security > Clear Data…
Edge Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Choose what to clear

Before you wipe everything, know the one thing almost every guide buries: deleting cookies signs you out of nearly every website and throws away saved preferences, but it does not delete the passwords stored in your browser’s password manager. Those live in a separate vault. You will have to sign back in, but your saved password can still fill itself in when you do.

A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to store. As Google’s Chrome Help puts it, cookies save information about your visit so sites can keep you signed in, remember your preferences and show you locally relevant content. Two splits explain almost everything about them:

  • First-party cookies are set by the site in your address bar — the shop, the bank, the news site you are actually visiting. These hold your login, your cart and your settings.
  • Third-party cookies are set by other sites whose content is embedded in the page — ad networks, embedded videos, social buttons. These are the ones used to follow you from site to site, and the ones privacy settings mostly target.

Cookies also split by how long they live. Session cookies are deleted when you close the browser; a banking site uses them so that closing the window ends the session. Persistent cookies carry an expiry date — days, months, sometimes years — and survive restarts. A “remember me” login is a persistent cookie doing its job.

What You Lose, and What You Don’t

Deleting cookies removes both kinds, for every site in the time range you choose. Expect:

  • Sign-outs. You will need to sign in again on most sites. Google warns about exactly this: if you delete cookies, you may get signed out of sites that remember you.
  • Preferences reset. Language, region, theme, text size and the cookie-consent choices you clicked away — all set by cookies, all gone.
  • Carts emptied. A shopping cart you never checked out is usually held in a cookie or site data, and Mozilla notes it can be cleared along with the rest.
  • A cleaner slate for trackers. Third-party cookies stored so far are removed, which is the main privacy reason to do this.

What deleting cookies does not touch:

  • Saved passwords. The passwords in Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge’s built-in password manager are stored separately from cookies. Deleting cookies signs you out; it does not erase the saved password that can sign you back in.
  • Bookmarks and downloads. Neither is connected to cookies.
  • History — unless you tick it. Every browser’s clearing screen lists history as a separate item. Leave it unticked and your history stays. (On iPhone, Safari’s main Clear History and Website Data button does clear history; the Advanced route below does not.)
  • AutoFill information. Apple states this outright for Safari: clearing history and website data does not change your AutoFill information.

One more warning that matters in Chrome: if you use Chrome with sync turned on, clearing cookies can remove them across your synced devices, not just the one in your hand. If you only want to fix one misbehaving site, skip to the one-site section below instead of clearing everything.

Chrome

On a computer

  1. Open Chrome and click the three dots at the top right.
  2. Click Delete browsing data. (The same screen lives under Settings > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data, and the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Delete on Windows or Cmd + Shift + Delete on a Mac opens it directly.)
  3. Choose a time range. Pick All time to remove everything.
  4. Tick Cookies and other site data. Untick browsing history and cached images if you want to keep those.
  5. Click Delete data.

On Android

The steps come from Google’s Android help page, and they mirror the desktop flow:

  1. Open the Chrome app and tap the three dots at the top right.
  2. Tap Settings, then Privacy and security, then Delete browsing data.
  3. Choose a time range — All time for a full clear.
  4. Check Cookies and site data.
  5. Tap Delete data.

Safari

Safari never uses the word “delete cookies” on its buttons. It calls the whole bundle Website Data, and deleting website data is how you delete Safari’s cookies.

On a Mac

From Apple’s Safari guide:

  1. Open Safari and choose Safari > Settings.
  2. Click Privacy.
  3. Click Manage Website Data. You will see every site that has stored cookies and data on your Mac.
  4. Select one or more websites and click Remove, or click Remove All to clear the lot.

Apple adds a note most guides skip: removing cookies and website data in Safari may also change or remove them in other apps that use the same storage.

On an iPhone

From Apple’s iPhone support page. To clear cookies and cache but keep your history:

  1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Safari.
  2. Tap Advanced, then Website Data.
  3. Tap Remove All Website Data, then Remove Now.

The better-known button, Clear History and Website Data (Settings > Apps > Safari), does what it says — it takes your history with it. Use the Advanced route above when you only want the cookies gone.

Firefox

On a computer

From Mozilla’s support page:

  1. Click the menu button (three lines, top right) and open Settings.
  2. Click Privacy & Security on the left.
  3. In the Cookies and Site Data section, click Clear Data…
  4. Set When: to Everything.
  5. Tick Cookies and site data — and untick Temporary cached files and pages if you want to keep the cache.
  6. Click Clear.

On Android

From Mozilla’s Firefox for Android help:

  1. Open Firefox and tap the three-dot menu.
  2. Tap Settings, then Delete browsing data.
  3. Tick Cookies and site data (and anything else you want gone).
  4. Tap Delete browsing data, then tap Delete to confirm.

Microsoft Edge

Edge is built on the same engine as Chrome, and the flow is a close cousin. From Microsoft’s Edge cookie guide:

  1. Click Settings and more (the three dots, top right), then Settings.
  2. Click Privacy, search, and services.
  3. Under Clear browsing data, click Choose what to clear next to “Clear browsing data now.” The shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Delete opens the same box.
  4. Choose a Time range — All time for everything.
  5. Tick Cookies and other site data, then click Clear now.

Delete Cookies for One Site Only

This is the option most people actually need. One site stuck in a login loop, showing the wrong account, or refusing to load does not require signing yourself out of the entire internet. Every browser can remove a single site’s cookies while leaving the rest alone:

  • Chrome (computer): Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Third-party cookies, then See all site data and permissions. Search for the site, and click the delete (trash) icon next to it. Quicker, if you are already on the site: click the icon at the left of the address bar, open Cookies and site data, and remove the stored data there.
  • Chrome (Android): Go to Settings > Site settings > All sites, tap the site, then tap Clear & reset.
  • Safari (Mac): Use the same Manage Website Data list as above — select just the one site and click Remove.
  • Firefox (computer): Visit the site, click the shield icon to the left of the address bar, and click Clear cookies and site data. Or go through Settings > Privacy & Security > Manage Data…, search for the site, and click Remove All Shown, then Save Changes.
  • Firefox (Android): Visit the site, tap the shield or lock icon in the address bar, tap Clear cookies and site data, then Clear.
  • Edge: Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies, then See all cookies and site data. Search for the site, click the down arrow next to it, and click Delete.

Rather Not Keep Doing This? Block Third-Party Cookies Instead

Deleting cookies is a one-off clean. If your real goal is to stop cross-site tracking, block third-party cookies and leave the useful first-party ones — the logins and carts — alone.

  • Chrome: Settings > Privacy and security > Third-party cookies, then select Block third-party cookies. On Android, the same choice is under Settings > Privacy and security > Third-party cookies. Sites you rely on can be added back under “Sites allowed to use third-party cookies.”
  • Edge: Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies, then turn on the Block third-party cookies toggle.
  • Firefox: Cross-site tracking cookies are already blocked by default, and Firefox’s Total Cookie Protection keeps each site’s cookies in a separate “jar” so they cannot be shared across sites. To block all third-party cookies, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Enhanced Tracking Protection, choose Custom, tick Cookies and select All cross-site cookies — Mozilla warns this may break some sites.
  • Safari: “Prevent cross-site tracking” is in Safari > Settings > Privacy and does the third-party job. Safari also offers Block all cookies (in Settings, under Advanced on current macOS, and on iPhone under Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced) — but “all” really means all, first-party included. Apple warns it may prevent websites from working properly, and on an iPhone turning it on also removes your existing cookies and website data on the spot.

Cookies, Cache and “Site Data”: Why the Buttons Say Different Things

The naming confuses everyone, and it explains why no browser’s button simply says “cookies” any more:

  • Cookies are the small identity-and-preferences files described above.
  • Cache is stored copies of pages, images and scripts, kept so sites load faster next time. Clearing the cache does not sign you out of anything; the next visit just loads a little slower while the browser downloads fresh copies. If a stale page is your only problem, how to clear cache is the gentler job — it leaves every login alone.
  • Site data (Chrome calls it “on-device site data”) is the umbrella: cookies plus the other storage a site keeps in your browser, such as local storage and databases. That is why the tick-box reads “Cookies and other site data” — in modern browsers the two are cleared together, and why Safari just calls the whole thing Website Data.

Rather Not Keep Doing This by Hand? Delete Cookies Automatically on Exit

Three of the four browsers can wipe cookies every time you close them. You will be signed out of everything each morning — that is the price, and for a shared machine it is often worth paying.

  • Firefox: Settings > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data, then tick Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed. Sites you want to keep can be spared under Manage Exceptions.
  • Edge: Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Clear browsing data, then Choose what to clear every time you close the browser and turn on the Cookies and other site data toggle. Microsoft’s own cookie guide for Edge walks through the same switch.
  • Chrome: Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Additional content settings > On-device site data, then choose Delete data sites have saved to your device when you close all windows. Note the wording — every window has to close before the wipe happens.
  • Safari has no equivalent automatic wipe. On a Mac or iPhone it is the manual Manage Website Data / Remove All Website Data route above, or nothing.

When Deleting Cookies Actually Helps

Delete cookies when a site is stuck — a login loop, an old price or wrong account that will not go away, a page that loads broken for you and fine for everyone else. Delete just that site’s cookies first; it fixes most of these without costing you every login you own. Clear everything when you are handing a device to someone else, or when you simply want the stored tracking slate wiped.

How often should you do it? There is no schedule hiding in any maker’s help pages, and anyone selling you a monthly routine is inventing it. Cookies are tiny text files, so storage is not a reason either — if your phone is warning that it is full, the space is going to photos, apps and system data, not cookies; iPhone storage full and system data is the problem that actually matches that warning. Clear cookies when a site misbehaves, when you hand a device over, or when you want the tracking slate reset.

What deleting cookies will not do is make you anonymous. Sites have other ways to recognise a browser, and the moment you sign back in, the sites know exactly who you are — with fresh cookies, ready to start again.