Playwright Browser Binaries Cache (~/.cache/ms-playwright)

Bottom Line: It is 100% safe to delete the ms-playwright browser cache folder. Running npx playwright install will re-download fresh browser binaries anytime you need them.

What is the ms-playwright Cache Folder?

Located at ~/.cache/ms-playwright on Linux/macOS (and %LocalAppData%\ms-playwright on Windows), this folder is created by Microsoft Playwright (the web automation and E2E testing framework).

To run cross-browser tests, Playwright downloads custom headless builds of:

• Chromium: Headless Chrome browser binary (~280 MB).
• Firefox: Headless Firefox build (~250 MB).
• WebKit: Headless Safari engine build (~180 MB).

When updating @playwright/test across multiple projects, old browser binary builds accumulate, taking up 4 GB to 15 GB+.

Can You Delete ms-playwright Cache?

✅ Yes, it is completely safe to delete.

• No test script loss: Your test specs (tests/*.spec.ts) and configuration files are 100% safe.
• Auto-downloaded: Running npx playwright install re-fetches the current browser binaries in one command.

How to Safely Clean Up Playwright Cache

Method 1: Delete via Terminal Command

# macOS / Linux
rm -rf ~/.cache/ms-playwright

# Windows (PowerShell)
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $env:LocalAppData\ms-playwright

Method 2: Reinstall Fresh Playwright Browsers

npx playwright install

Related Guides

• Learn about deleting Cypress binary cache.
• How to clean up Chrome Code Cache.
• Check if you can clean npm cache.