Will clearing caches speed up my Mac?

No. Apps open slightly slower until they rebuild their caches. It frees space, and it can fix an app with a corrupt cache.

What's the difference between Caches and Application Support?

Caches holds copies apps can recreate. Application Support holds app data such as settings, databases and documents, which can be lost if you delete it.

Is it safe to delete ~/Library/Caches on Mac?

Q: Is it safe to delete ~/Library/Caches on Mac?

Mostly yes: apps keep there only things they can recreate. Quit each app first, delete the contents of its folder rather than the Caches folder itself, and leave the com.apple ones alone.

In short

Mostly yes: apps keep copies in ~/Library/Caches that they can make again, so deleting them loses no data. Quit each app first, delete what's inside the folders (not the Caches folder itself) and leave alone the small com.apple ones. Don't confuse it with Application Support or Containers: that's app data.

What ~/Library/Caches is

It's where apps keep things they can recreate: downloaded images, web pages, previews, packages, updates. The rule apps follow is that anything there can disappear without losing data. That's why it's the first place to look when you need space.

The folder is in your user Library, which Finder hides. Open it with Go → Go to Folder… (Shift-Command-G) and type ~/Library/Caches.

See which caches are big

In Terminal, this lists the biggest folders inside, the largest last:

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20

The usual big ones: browsers (Chrome in Google/Chrome), Spotify, package managers (Homebrew, pip, Yarn, Playwright's browsers), Android Studio and updates that apps downloaded and already installed.

How to delete them safely

Quit the app whose cache you're deleting. An open app may be writing to it, or simply recreate it right away.
Delete what's inside each folder, not the Caches folder itself.
For package managers, use their own command: brew cleanup -s, pip cache purge, yarn cache clean. They know what's in use.
Empty the Trash afterwards, or you won't get the space back.

What to leave alone

Folders starting with com.apple.: they're usually small, macOS manages them and some are protected.
The system caches in /Library/Caches and /System/Library/Caches: macOS takes care of those.
Application Support, Containers and Group Containers: despite being next to Caches, they hold app data (settings, databases, documents). Deleting them can lose data.
Temporary folders in /private/var/folders: macOS cleans them, and restarting is enough.

Will it make my Mac faster?

No. Caches exist to make apps faster: right after you delete them, apps open a little slower until they rebuild them. Deleting caches is useful for getting space back, or to fix an app that misbehaves because of a corrupt cache, not for speed. And they grow back: it's normal to free 10 GB and see part of it return within weeks.

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Folders in this guide

Chrome web cache~/Library/Caches/Google/ChromeRecreates itself
Homebrew cache~/Library/Caches/HomebrewRecreates itself
pip cache~/Library/Caches/pipRecreates itself
Yarn cache~/Library/Caches/YarnRecreates itself
Playwright browsers~/Library/Caches/ms-playwrightRecreates itself
Android Studio cache~/Library/Caches/Google/AndroidStudio*Recreates itself
Old update installers~/Library/Caches/*ShipIt, *updater*, *Updater*Recreates itself
App logs~/Library/LogsRecreates itself