Telegram & Discord Eating Mac Storage? Clear the Cache (2026)

If you have both Telegram and Discord installed on your Mac, you may be surprised to find they have quietly consumed several gigabytes of storage through auto-downloaded media, voice message files, and cached assets — often without any visible warning. This guide gives you the exact folder paths, safe manual steps, and Terminal commands to clear the telegram cache mac and discord cache mac storage, so you know precisely what you are deleting and why it is safe to do so.

Why Telegram and Discord Accumulate So Much Storage

Both apps are designed to feel instant. To achieve that, they aggressively pre-download or cache media to local storage the moment it arrives in a channel or chat. Telegram, in particular, mirrors its mobile behavior on the desktop: every photo, video, voice note, file, and sticker that scrolls past in a chat is written to disk by default. Discord does the same for images, GIFs, and cached avatars, plus it keeps a sizeable Chromium-based cache for its web-renderer layer.

Neither app surfaces this storage use prominently in its own settings. You have to know where to look.

How Much Space Are They Actually Using?

Before you delete anything, check the real numbers in Finder:

1. Open Finder and press Cmd + Shift + G to open the Go to Folder sheet.
2. Type ~/Library/Group Containers/ and press Return.
3. Look for a folder whose name ends in .ru.keepcoder.Telegram. Right-click it and choose Get Info to see the total size.
4. Next, open ~/Library/Application Support/discord/ and check the size of the Cache subfolder there.

A moderately active Telegram user who has been in a few high-traffic groups for six months can easily see 3–8 GB in that Group Containers folder. Discord's renderer cache typically adds another 200–600 MB on top.

Telegram Cache on Mac: Exact Paths and What Is Safe to Delete

Telegram on macOS stores data in two locations depending on whether you installed it from the Mac App Store or downloaded it directly from telegram.org.

Mac App Store version

Media cache lives inside the sandboxed Group Container:

~/Library/Group Containers/[ID].ru.keepcoder.Telegram/

The [ID] prefix is a developer team identifier — it looks like a string of random letters and numbers. You can find it by running:

ls ~/Library/Group\ Containers/ | grep keepcoder

Inside that folder, the largest subfolder is typically appstore/account-[number]/postbox/media/. This contains every cached photo and video. It is safe to delete the contents of the media folder (not the folder itself) while Telegram is closed — Telegram will re-download any media you open again, just as it does on a fresh install.

Direct download (telegram.org) version

The path is slightly different:

~/Library/Group Containers/[ID].ru.keepcoder.Telegram/telegram-data/account-[number]/postbox/media/

The built-in Telegram storage manager (easiest manual route)

Telegram's desktop app has its own storage manager — use it first before deleting anything manually:

1. Open Telegram and go to Settings (Cmd + ,).
2. Click Data and Storage.
3. Click Storage Usage. Telegram shows a breakdown by chat and media type.
4. Click Clear All Cache or select specific chats to clear.

This is the safest approach because Telegram tracks which files are actively referenced. It will not delete files that are still linked to unread or pinned messages.

What is NOT safe to delete in Telegram's folder

• accounts-metadata — contains your login session data. Delete this and you will be signed out.
• sqlite files inside postbox/ — these are your message database. Deleting them removes your local message history.
• The entire Group Container folder — this wipes everything including your account state.

Rule of thumb: only clear the media/ subfolder or use the in-app storage manager. Do not touch the database files.

Discord Cache on Mac: Exact Paths and Safe Cleanup

Discord uses the Electron (Chromium) framework, which maintains its own network and GPU cache separate from any browser you use.

Primary cache paths

~/Library/Application Support/discord/Cache/Cache_Data/
~/Library/Application Support/discord/GPUCache/
~/Library/Application Support/discord/Code Cache/

On macOS 13 and later, Discord may also write to:

~/Library/Caches/com.hnc.Discord/

Steps to clear Discord's cache manually

1. Quit Discord completely — right-click the Dock icon and choose Quit, or run killall Discord in Terminal. Do not just close the window; Discord runs in the menu bar.
2. Open Terminal and run the following commands one at a time:

   rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/discord/Cache/Cache_Data/*
   rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/discord/GPUCache/*
   rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/discord/Code\ Cache/*

3. Relaunch Discord. It will rebuild the cache from scratch on first use. You will not lose messages, servers, or settings.

What is NOT safe to delete in Discord's folder

• ~/Library/Application Support/discord/Local Storage/ — stores your session token and preferences. Deleting this signs you out.
• ~/Library/Application Support/discord/databases/ — local message database.
• The entire discord/ Application Support folder — same outcome as a full uninstall without removing the app binary.

Quick Comparison: Telegram vs Discord Storage on Mac

Automating This With Crumb

If you would rather not hunt through Library folders manually every few months, Crumb handles exactly this. Its per-app cache view identifies Telegram's media folder and Discord's Cache_Data directory automatically, shows you the size of each, and lets you clear them in one click — without touching the databases or session files that would sign you out. The built-in "Is this safe to delete?" AI can also explain any unfamiliar subfolder before you commit.

You can download Crumb and run one cleanup for free to see how much it finds.

Preventing the Buildup: App Settings to Change Today

Clearing the cache is a one-time fix. Changing a few defaults will slow the regrowth considerably.

Telegram

1. Go to Settings → Data and Storage.
2. Under Automatic Media Download, set Photos, Videos, and Files each to Never for Groups and Channels — the biggest offenders.
3. Set a Storage Limit (e.g., 2 GB) so Telegram auto-prunes old media when it crosses the threshold.

Discord

Discord does not expose a cache-size limit in its settings, but you can reduce what it downloads:

1. Go to User Settings → Accessibility and disable Automatically play GIFs when Discord is focused.
2. Under Text & Images, turn off Show image attachments and embeds inline for servers where you do not need it.

These changes will not eliminate caching entirely, but they meaningfully reduce the rate at which new media is written to disk.

Conclusion

Clearing the telegram cache mac and discord cache mac storage is safe as long as you target the right subfolders — the media and renderer caches — and leave the session and database files untouched. Use Telegram's built-in storage manager for the cleanest manual option, and the Terminal commands above for Discord. If you want a repeatable, one-click solution that handles both (and the rest of your Mac's caches), Crumb's per-app view is worth a look. Either way, adjusting the auto-download settings in both apps is the single best thing you can do to stop the problem from coming back.