How to Clear Cache and Cookies in Brave Browser on Windows

What Brave stores locally — and what Shields do not cover

Brave is Chromium underneath, and it keeps the standard household: cached page assets in %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache, cookies, history, passwords, autofill — one folder per profile. Shields, Brave's ad and tracker blocker, stop a large share of junk from ever being requested, which slows cookie buildup compared to Chrome; they do not, however, shrink what already loaded — cached images and files accumulate the same way.

That distinction matters when choosing checkboxes. The cache is pure disk-space recovery with no side effects. Cookies are the login-and-preference layer: clearing them signs you out everywhere but removes trackers' identifiers. And one item is Brave-specific — "Site and Shields settings" — which resets the per-site shield rules you configured by hand.

• "Browsing history" — the address log; clearing it frees almost no disk space
• "Cookies and other site data" — logins and site preferences; clearing signs you out of most sites
• "Cached images and files" — the cache; the biggest disk-space win
• "Passwords and other sign-in data" — saved logins; only removed if you tick this box yourself
• "Site and Shields settings" — Brave-specific: your per-site shield toggles and site permissions, wiped only if you tick this

Clearing cache and cookies in Brave, step by step

Open Brave and press Ctrl+Shift+Del, or click the hamburger menu (top right) → Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data → "Clear data…"; pasting brave://settings/clearBrowserData in the address bar works too. Set the time range to "All time", tick "Cookies and other site data" and "Cached images and files", leave "Passwords and other sign-in data" unticked, and click "Clear data". The basic view shows the essentials; the "Advanced" arrow unfolds download history, autofill and the Brave-specific shield settings.

Two effects follow, both expected: first page loads are slower for a page or two while the cache refills, and you are signed out of the sites whose cookies were cleared — saved logins are untouched because their checkbox stayed empty. Brave's built-in ad blocking keeps working as before; if a site seemed broken before clearing and works after, the stale cache was the culprit, which is one of the main reasons people do this at all.

How often to clear — and the private-window shortcut

With Shields doing daily housekeeping, Brave needs fewer cleanup rounds than Chrome: a cache-only pass every few months is plenty for most people, with a full cookie clear reserved for genuine privacy resets. The trigger signals are the same as anywhere: disk space quietly shrinking, or one particular site rendering stale or broken — cache-only clearing fixes that without logging you out.

For one-off sensitive sessions, Brave's private windows — including private windows with Tor, a feature most Chromium browsers lack — skip the cleanup question entirely: nothing they cache or accept survives closing the window. Private windows are a tool for specific moments, not a habit to replace regular browsing; but knowing they exist makes the scheduled cleanup optional rather than urgent.

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