How to clear the pip cache on a Mac

Where pip keeps its cache

On a Mac the default is ~/Library/Caches/pip, in your hidden Library folder. To check where the pip you use is looking:

python3 -m pip cache dir

python3 -m pip runs the pip that belongs to that python3, which matters on a Mac with more than one Python. To see how big the cache is and what is in it:

python3 -m pip cache info

pip's documentation describes two parts:

• The HTTP cache, which works like a web browser's cache: the files pip downloaded from the package index.
• The wheel cache: built packages pip reuses whenever it can, including ones it had to build from source.

Is it safe to delete?

Yes. The cache only saves pip from downloading or building something again. What you have installed lives somewhere else: in each virtual environment, or in the Python installation itself. Clearing the cache breaks no project. The cost is that the next install of each package is slower, needs a network connection, and rebuilds any package that has no ready-made wheel for your Mac.

Clear it

Everything at once:

python3 -m pip cache purge

Or just one package's wheels, by name or pattern. This leaves the HTTP cache as it is, so it frees less:

python3 -m pip cache remove numpy

To install something without adding to the cache at all, which suits a one-off install of a large package:

python3 -m pip install --no-cache-dir requests

What clearing it doesn't free

• Virtual environments. A .venv in each project holds its own installed copies of every package, and is often bigger than the cache. Delete one only if the project can rebuild it, from a requirements.txt or pyproject.toml.
• Packages installed with pip install --user, in ~/Library/Python. Scripts you run may need them.
• uv's cache. uv keeps its own, which pip's commands don't touch. On a Mac it is usually ~/.cache/uv. To find yours and remove only what nothing uses:

  uv cache dir
  uv cache prune

  uv's documentation calls prune safe to run periodically; uv cache clean removes everything.

Where the app comes in

RefreshYourMac has no pip category of its own: pip's cache is one of the folders in Application Caches, which lists each folder in ~/Library/Caches with its size and is rated Safe for auto removal. That is in both editions; the Mac App Store one sees it once you allow it your Caches folder. The download edition also measures ~/.cache, where uv's cache usually is, as Command-Line Tool Cache; packages installed with --user as Python User Packages, rated Review before deleting and moved to the Trash rather than deleted; and a project's .venv under Project Build Folders, only when the project has a requirements.txt or pyproject.toml to rebuild it from. For the rest, see the Mac cleaner for developers and how to clear the cache on a Mac.