How to Clear Cache in Opera and Opera GX on Windows

Two browsers, one engine — and two separate caches

Opera and Opera GX are built on the same Chromium base, and their settings pages are near-identical — but they are separate programs with separate profiles. Opera keeps its data in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Opera Software\Opera Stable, Opera GX in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Opera Software\Opera GX Stable, each with its own Cache folder. Neither browser shrinks its own cache, and on a machine that streams video or runs web games daily, both folders can grow to gigabytes at once.

GX's headline features — the CPU and RAM limiters, the network limiter — cap how much the browser uses while running; they do nothing about the junk already on disk. That makes a periodic cache clear worth the minute it takes, in regular Opera and in GX alike.

• "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 itself; the item that frees the most disk space
• "Passwords and other sign-in data" — saved logins; only removed if you tick this box yourself
• "Autofill form data" — addresses and card numbers filled into forms

Clearing the cache in Opera and Opera GX, step by step

The steps are the same in both browsers. Press Ctrl+Shift+Del, or open the browser menu — the O button in Opera, the Opera GX button in GX — then Settings → Privacy & security → Clear browsing data → "Clear data…"; typing opera://settings/clearBrowserData in the address bar skips the menus entirely. In the dialog, set the time range to "All time", tick "Cached images and files" (add "Cookies and other site data" only if you accept being signed out), and click "Clear data". GX-specific things — wallpaper, limiters, the sidebar setup — are untouched; only the selected data categories go.

The "Advanced" arrow reveals the remaining checkboxes: download history, passwords and sign-in data, autofill, site settings. Leave "Passwords and other sign-in data" unticked and your saved logins survive the cleanup untouched. Afterward, the first page loads run slightly slower while the cache refills — a page or two and it is back to speed.

Keeping both browsers clean without the ritual

Neither Opera nor Opera GX has a built-in "clear on close" scheduler like Edge, so the honest options are: do it manually every few months, or automate it from outside. The manual signal to watch for is disk space creeping down on C: or a specific site suddenly misbehaving — a stale cache is the usual culprit, and cache-only clearing fixes it without logging you out.

For the automated route, Kleaner PRO covers both browsers at once: on its schedule it empties the cache folders of Opera and Opera GX, for every profile, alongside the rest of Windows' temporary files — while cookies and passwords stay in place, so nothing signs you out.

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