How to Clear Keybinds in FiveM: A Complete Guide

FiveM is a popular multiplayer modification framework for Grand Theft Auto V, letting players join custom roleplay and game servers with their own rules, mechanics, and controls. One thing that trips up a lot of players — especially those switching servers or dealing with conflicting inputs — is keybind management. Clearing keybinds in FiveM isn't always obvious, because the game stores them in a specific way that's separate from GTA V's own settings.

Here's exactly how it works, what affects it, and what you need to consider based on your own setup.

Why FiveM Keybinds Get Messy in the First Place

FiveM stores keybind data independently from the base GTA V game. When you join different servers, especially roleplay servers with custom scripts, those servers can register their own keybinds through the FiveM API. Over time, you can end up with:

• Conflicting keybinds where one key triggers multiple actions
• Ghost bindings from scripts on servers you no longer visit
• Overridden defaults that don't reset when you change servers

This is different from standard GTA V, where keybinds are managed through the pause menu. In FiveM, the keybind data is stored in a local file on your computer, which means you have direct control over it — but you have to know where to look.

Where FiveM Stores Keybind Data 🗂️

FiveM saves keybind configurations in a file called keybinds.json, located inside your FiveM application data folder. The typical path on Windows is:

%AppData%CitizenFXkeybinds.json 

You can navigate there by:

1. Pressing Windows + R to open the Run dialog
2. Typing %AppData%CitizenFX and pressing Enter
3. Locating the keybinds.json file in that folder

This file contains all your saved keybind mappings across every server and resource you've interacted with. It's a plain text file formatted in JSON, which means it's readable and editable with any basic text editor like Notepad.

How to Clear All FiveM Keybinds

The most direct method to fully reset your keybinds is to delete or clear the keybinds.json file:

1. Close FiveM completely before making any changes
2. Navigate to %AppData%CitizenFX
3. Find keybinds.json
4. Either delete the file entirely, or open it and replace its contents with an empty JSON object: {}
5. Relaunch FiveM

When FiveM starts again without that file, it regenerates the file with default values. All previously saved custom keybinds — including server-specific ones — will be gone.

⚠️ Before deleting: If you have keybinds you want to keep, copy the file to a backup location first. Once it's deleted, there's no recovery unless you saved a copy.

Clearing Specific Keybinds Without Wiping Everything

If you don't want a full reset, you have a couple of targeted options:

Using the In-Game Keybind Menu

FiveM includes a built-in key mapping interface accessible through the Settings menu while in-game or on the main menu. Navigate to:

Settings → Key Bindings

From here you can:

• Scroll through assigned keybinds
• Select a specific binding and press Delete or Backspace to clear it
• Reassign keys to new inputs

This is the cleanest approach when you only want to fix a few conflicts without touching the underlying file.

Editing the JSON File Manually

If you're comfortable with basic file editing, you can open keybinds.json in a text editor and delete specific entries. Each entry in the file corresponds to a mapper ID and its assigned key. Removing a specific block clears just that binding without affecting others.

This approach requires care — malformed JSON (a missing bracket, an extra comma) can cause FiveM to fail to load the file properly. It's worth running the file through a free online JSON validator after editing.

Variables That Affect Your Experience 🎮

Not every player's situation is the same. Several factors influence which clearing method makes the most sense:

Players on roleplay servers with heavy custom scripts tend to accumulate the most keybind clutter, because each resource that uses the RegisterKeyMapping function adds entries to your local file. Players on simpler game servers may never encounter this problem at all.

When Clearing Keybinds Doesn't Solve the Problem

Sometimes the issue isn't the keybinds.json file itself. A few related causes worth checking:

• GTA V control conflicts: Some base GTA V controls bleed into FiveM. These are managed separately through GTA V's own settings or through the settings.xml file in your GTA V documents folder.
• Server-enforced bindings: If a server script is re-registering a keybind every time you connect, clearing your file locally will only fix the issue until your next session on that server.
• FiveM cache: Occasionally, cached data interferes with how keybinds load. Clearing your FiveM cache (located in %LocalAppData%FiveMFiveM.appcache) can resolve persistent oddities.

The Spectrum of Setups

A player who hops between two or three regular servers with minimal custom scripts will rarely need more than the in-game settings menu to manage their keybinds. On the other end, someone running a heavily modded FiveM client across a dozen different roleplay servers — each with custom vehicles, jobs, and UI elements — may find themselves regularly going into the JSON file to clean up accumulated mappings.

The file-level approach gives the most control, but it assumes some comfort with navigating application data folders and editing plain text files. The in-game menu is more accessible but limited in scope. Which path is right depends entirely on how complex your keybind situation has become and how much fine-grained control you actually need over what stays and what gets removed.