How to Delete Cookies in Microsoft Edge

Cookies are small data files that websites store on your device to remember your preferences, keep you logged in, and track your browsing behavior. Over time, they accumulate — and clearing them can resolve login issues, fix broken page behavior, improve privacy, and free up a small amount of local storage. Here's exactly how to delete cookies in Edge, along with what you should know before you do.

What Cookies Actually Do in Edge

When you visit a website in Microsoft Edge, the site can store a cookie on your device. That cookie might remember your language preference, keep your shopping cart intact, or maintain your login session. First-party cookies come from the site you're visiting directly. Third-party cookies come from external services embedded on that page — ad networks, analytics tools, social media widgets.

Edge stores all of these locally, tied to your browser profile. When you clear cookies, you're deleting those stored files — which means sites will treat you as a new visitor until you log back in.

How to Delete All Cookies in Edge 🍪

The most straightforward method clears cookies for every site at once.

1. Open Microsoft Edge
2. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top-right corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to Privacy, search, and services
5. Under the Clear browsing data section, click Choose what to clear
6. Check Cookies and other site data
7. Choose your time range (Last hour, Last 7 days, All time, etc.)
8. Click Clear now

This removes all cookies stored in your current Edge profile. If you're signed into multiple Edge profiles, you'll need to repeat this for each one.

Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl + Shift + Delete to jump directly to the Clear browsing data panel.

How to Delete Cookies for a Specific Website

Sometimes you only want to clear cookies for one site — for example, if a single site is misbehaving but you don't want to lose login sessions everywhere else.

1. Open Edge and navigate to the website
2. Click the padlock or info icon to the left of the URL in the address bar
3. Select Cookies and site data or Permissions for this site
4. Click Cookies to view stored cookies
5. Select individual cookies and click Remove, or remove all cookies for that domain at once

Alternatively, you can manage this through Settings → Site permissions → Cookies and site data → See all cookies and site data, then search for the specific domain and delete its data manually.

Clearing Cookies on Edge for Mobile

The process differs slightly depending on whether you're on Android or iOS.

Both platforms follow a similar structure, though the visual layout may vary slightly between Edge versions. The time range selector is available on mobile as well.

Setting Edge to Clear Cookies Automatically

If you prefer not to manage cookies manually, Edge can be configured to delete them automatically when you close the browser.

1. Go to Settings → Privacy, search, and services
2. Under Clear browsing data, find Choose what to clear every time you close the browser
3. Toggle on Cookies and other site data

This means every browser session starts fresh — useful for privacy but inconvenient if you rely on saved logins.

Understanding What Gets Deleted (and What Doesn't) 🔍

Clearing cookies is not the same as clearing your full browser history. It also doesn't affect:

• Passwords saved in Edge — those are stored separately
• Autofill data — form entries and addresses remain unless cleared separately
• Cached images and files — cached site data requires its own checkbox
• Bookmarks or extensions — completely separate from cookies

If you're troubleshooting a website issue, it's often worth clearing both cookies and cached images and files together, since both can cause stale behavior.

Variables That Affect Your Situation

How aggressive you want to be with cookie deletion depends on several factors:

• How many accounts you manage — frequent cookie clearing means re-authenticating across every service
• Privacy sensitivity — third-party cookie accumulation is a meaningful tracking vector; clearing them regularly limits cross-site profiling
• Edge profile setup — if you use separate Edge profiles for work and personal browsing, cookies are siloed per profile, which changes how much clearing one profile actually affects your browsing
• Sync settings — if Edge sync is enabled, some settings and session data sync across devices, but cookies themselves are local and do not sync
• Enterprise or managed devices — on company-managed machines, IT policies may restrict what you can clear or may enforce automatic clearing on a schedule

When Cookie Deletion Doesn't Solve the Problem

Cookies are one piece of browser storage. Modern websites also use localStorage, sessionStorage, and IndexedDB — none of which are cleared when you delete cookies alone. If clearing cookies doesn't fix a site issue, you may need to clear all site data, not just cookies.

In Edge, the option to clear broader site storage is available through Settings → Site permissions → Cookies and site data → See all cookies and site data, where you can clear storage types individually per domain.

How far you need to go — and whether clearing cookies alone is sufficient — depends on what the site stores and what problem you're actually trying to resolve. 🛠️