Where to find the cookie settings in Safari

On Safari for Mac, open the browser and click Safari in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Select Settings (or Preferences on older versions), then click the Privacy tab. You will see a section labeled Cookies and website data with a button that says Manage Website Data.

On Safari for iPhone or iPad, go to Settings on your device, scroll down and tap Safari, then scroll to Privacy & Security. Tap Clear History and Website Data to remove cookies along with your browsing history.

Key Takeaways

  • On Mac, use Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data to see which sites have stored cookies and remove them individually or all at once.
  • On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data, which removes cookies along with browsing history in one step.
  • You can clear cookies every time you close Safari by turning on Remove all website data when quitting Safari in the Privacy settings.
  • Clearing cookies will log you out of most websites and may slow down sites you visit frequently, since they will need to reload your preferences.

Clearing all cookies at once on Mac

In the Manage Website Data window, you will see a list of every website that has stored data on your computer. To remove all of them, click the Remove All button at the bottom right. Safari will ask you to confirm; click Remove again to proceed.

This action clears cookies from every site at the same time. You will be logged out of websites you visit regularly, and sites may load more slowly the next time you visit because they will need to rebuild your stored preferences and settings.

Removing cookies from specific websites

If you want to keep cookies from some sites but remove them from others, you can delete them one at a time. In the Manage Website Data window, scroll through the list and click on a website name to select it. Then click the Remove button (singular, not Remove All) to delete only that site's data.

This approach is useful if you want to log out of one account without affecting your login status everywhere else. For example, you might clear cookies from your email provider but keep cookies from your banking site intact.

Automatically clearing cookies when you close Safari

Safari can clear all cookies automatically each time you quit the browser. In Settings > Privacy, check the box next to Remove all website data when quitting Safari. Once this is turned on, every cookie will be deleted the moment you close the browser completely.

This setting does not affect cookies while Safari is open — you can still stay logged into sites during your browsing session. It only clears data after you have fully closed the application. If you use Safari multiple times a day, you will need to log back in each time you reopen it.

The difference between clearing cookies and clearing browsing history

Cookies and browsing history are two separate things. Your browsing history is the list of websites you have visited; cookies are small files those websites store on your device to remember information about you. You can clear one without clearing the other.

On Mac, the Manage Website Data option removes only cookies and stored data. If you want to also delete your browsing history, use Safari > Clear History from the menu bar and choose how far back to go. On iPhone and iPad, Clear History and Website Data removes both at the same time, so you cannot separate them.

What happens after you clear cookies

After clearing cookies, websites will no longer remember your preferences, login information, or activity. You will be logged out of most accounts and will need to sign back in. Sites may also load more slowly because they cannot use stored data to speed up your experience.

Some websites use cookies to track your browsing across the internet for advertising purposes. Clearing cookies removes that tracking data, though new cookies will be created the next time you visit those sites. If you want to prevent tracking more permanently, consider enabling Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement in Safari settings, which limits how much data advertisers can collect about your browsing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will clearing cookies delete my passwords?

No. Cookies and saved passwords are stored separately in Safari. Clearing cookies will not affect passwords you have saved. You would need to go to Settings > Passwords on Mac or Settings > Passwords & Accounts on iPhone to remove those.

Can I clear cookies from just one website without opening Safari settings?

Not directly from the browser window. You must go through Manage Website Data to remove individual site cookies. However, you can clear all cookies at once by using the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+Delete on Mac, which opens the history window with a clear option.

Why do some websites ask me to accept cookies when I visit?

Websites show cookie notices because of privacy laws in many countries that require them to tell you what data they are storing. Accepting or declining does not prevent cookies from being created — it only tells the site whether you consent to certain types of tracking cookies, usually for advertising.

If I clear cookies, will websites still track me?

Cookies are one tracking method, but not the only one. Websites can also track you through your IP address, browser fingerprinting, and login accounts. Clearing cookies removes one layer of tracking but does not stop all of it. Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature, enabled by default, blocks some tracking across websites.