What cookies are and why Chrome stores them
Cookies are small files that websites store on your computer through Chrome. When you visit a site, it can save information about you — your login status, what you put in a shopping cart, your language preference, or what ads you've seen. The next time you visit, the site reads that cookie to remember you.
This is useful: you stay logged into Gmail without typing your password every time. It's also the reason Amazon remembers what you looked at last week. But cookies also let advertisers track you across different websites, and they pile up over time. Deleting them regularly is a straightforward way to reduce what websites know about your browsing.
Chrome keeps cookies until you tell it to delete them, or until they expire on their own (which can be months or years away). Deleting them won't break your accounts — you'll just have to log back in next time you visit those sites.
Key Takeaways
- You can delete all cookies at once through Chrome's Clear Browsing Data menu, or delete cookies from a single website by inspecting its stored data.
- Clearing cookies will log you out of most websites, so you'll need to sign back in the next time you visit them.
- You can set Chrome to delete cookies automatically when you close the browser, which prevents them from accumulating without manual work.
- Blocking third-party cookies in Chrome's settings stops advertisers from tracking you across different websites, even if you keep your login cookies.
Delete all cookies at once
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top right corner. Select Settings from the menu. On the left side, click Privacy and security, then click Clear browsing data.
A window will pop up. Make sure the time range at the top is set to All time — this deletes cookies from your entire browsing history. Check the box next to Cookies and other site data. You can leave the other boxes unchecked unless you also want to delete your browsing history or cached images. Click Clear data.
Chrome will delete all cookies when ready. You'll be logged out of most websites. The next time you visit a site you use regularly, you'll need to sign back in.
Delete cookies from one website only
If you want to keep most cookies but remove them from a specific site, open that website in Chrome. Click the lock icon or information icon to the left of the web address at the top of the page. Click Cookies and site data.
You'll see a list of cookies and data that site has stored. Click the trash icon next to each one you want to delete, or click Remove all to delete everything from that site at once. Close the window when you're done.
This method is useful when you want to clear your data from one problematic site without logging out of everything else. It's also the fastest way if you only need to clear a few sites.
Set Chrome to delete cookies automatically
You can tell Chrome to delete all cookies and site data every time you close the browser. Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots, then Settings. On the left, click Privacy and security, then Cookies and other site data.
Under "Clear cookies and site data," check the box next to Clear cookies and site data when you close all windows. From now on, Chrome will automatically delete cookies when you shut it down completely — not just when you close a single tab or window.
This is a good middle ground if you want to reduce tracking without manually clearing cookies every week. You'll still be logged out of sites when you reopen Chrome, but you won't accumulate months of cookie data.
Block third-party cookies to reduce tracking
Third-party cookies are placed by advertisers and analytics companies, not by the website you're visiting. They follow you across different sites to build a profile of your interests. Chrome lets you block them without deleting your login cookies.
Open Chrome, click the three vertical dots, then Settings. Go to Privacy and security, then Cookies and other site data. Under "General settings," select Block third-party cookies. This prevents advertisers from tracking you across websites while keeping you logged into the sites you use.
Blocking third-party cookies is less disruptive than clearing all cookies, because you stay signed in to your accounts. Some websites may not work quite right with third-party cookies blocked, but most modern sites function normally.
Understand what happens when you delete cookies
When you delete cookies, you lose the stored information that websites use to remember you. You'll be logged out of email, social media, shopping sites, and any other account that uses cookies to keep you signed in. This is the main trade-off: fewer cookies means less tracking, but also more login screens.
Deleting cookies does not delete your account or any data stored on the website's servers. Your email, photos, purchase history, and saved passwords all stay where they are. You're only removing the file on your computer that tells the website "this is you."
Some websites may also load more slowly the first time you visit after clearing cookies, because they have to rebuild your preferences instead of reading them from a stored file. This slowdown is usually unnoticeable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will deleting cookies delete my passwords?
No. Passwords are stored separately from cookies. If you want to delete saved passwords, you have to do that through a different menu: Settings > Autofill and passwords > Passwords. Clearing cookies alone will not affect your saved passwords, though you may have to type them in more often if you're not staying logged in.
Can I delete cookies from just one tab without closing Chrome?
Not directly. Cookies are stored at the browser level, not the tab level. You can delete cookies from a single website by clicking the lock icon and removing them, but you can't delete cookies from just one tab while keeping them in another tab of the same site.
What's the difference between clearing cookies and clearing browsing history?
Browsing history is the list of websites you've visited — Chrome shows it when you press Ctrl+H. Cookies are the files websites store about you. You can delete one without deleting the other. Most people delete both together, but you can uncheck browsing history if you only want to remove cookies.
Do I need to delete cookies if I use private browsing?
No. Chrome's Incognito mode doesn't save cookies after you close it. Every time you open a new Incognito window, it starts fresh with no stored cookies or history. If you use Incognito for sensitive browsing, you don't need to manually clear cookies from those sessions.
Will blocking third-party cookies break websites?
Most websites work fine with third-party cookies blocked. Some older sites or sites that rely heavily on ad networks may display incorrectly or not load ads properly. If a site stops working, you can temporarily allow third-party cookies for just that site by clicking the lock icon and changing the cookie setting.