pip keeps its cache in ~/Library/Caches/pip, uv in ~/.cache/uv. pip cache purge and uv cache clean are both safe: installed packages keep working. The bigger space is usually elsewhere: .venv folders in your projects (rebuild them with uv sync), tools you installed with uv tool install, and several copies of Python itself from Homebrew, python.org and uv. On macOS, a uv .venv shares disk blocks with uv's cache, so du overstates what deleting either one frees.
Where Python's space goes
I checked my own Mac on 3 November 2026 (macOS 26.5.1, pip 26.1.2, uv 0.11.17):
| What | Where | Size |
|---|---|---|
5 project .venv folders | inside each project | 2.4 GB |
| Python from python.org (3.12) | /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework | 476 MB |
| uv tools (5 installed) | ~/.local/share/uv/tools | 661 MB |
| Pythons uv installed (3.11, 3.13, 3.14) | ~/.local/share/uv/python | 208 MB |
| uv cache | ~/.cache/uv | 198 MB |
| Homebrew's Python 3.14 | /opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.14 | 88 MB |
| pip cache | ~/Library/Caches/pip | 0 bytes |
The caches everyone tells you to clear were the smallest part. One .venv alone was 1.4 GB, 590 MB of it PyTorch. And this Mac had Python 3.14 twice, from Homebrew and from uv, plus a 3.12 from python.org I'd forgotten about.
Check your Mac
These only read:
$ pip3 cache info $ uv cache dir && du -sh "$(uv cache dir)" $ uv python list --only-installed $ du -sh ~/.local/share/uv/tools/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h $ find ~ -maxdepth 4 -type d \( -name .venv -o -name venv \) -prune -exec du -sh {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -h
The last line finds virtual environments up to four folders deep in your home folder. Raise -maxdepth if your projects sit deeper.
The pip cache
pip keeps two caches in ~/Library/Caches/pip: an HTTP cache of what it downloaded from PyPI (http-v2) and wheels it built from source (wheels). pip cache info shows the size of each.
$ pip3 cache list # wheels pip built $ pip3 cache remove numpy # one package $ pip3 cache purge # everything
pip cache purge clears both caches. Packages you've installed keep working; pip downloads or builds them again only when you next install them. The cost is a slower next install, most noticeable for packages that build from source.
If you have several Pythons, each has its own pip, but they share the same cache folder.
The uv cache
uv keeps downloaded wheels, unpacked packages and its index cache in ~/.cache/uv:
$ uv cache clean # remove everything $ uv cache clean numpy # one package $ uv cache prune # only entries nothing uses anymore
uv cache prune removes entries left by older uv versions and other unused files, and uv's docs say it's safe to run regularly. uv cache clean empties the cache; uv downloads packages again when it next needs them.
Why it frees less than it looks. On macOS, uv's default link mode is clone: it installs a package into a .venv as an APFS copy-on-write clone of the file in its cache. The clone and the original share the same blocks on disk until one of them changes. du counts those blocks under the cache and again under every .venv, so the totals overlap. Delete the cache and the blocks still in use by a .venv stay where they are. For a closer number, uv has a preview flag that accounts for clones:
$ uv cache clean --preview-features cache-physical-spaceThe same goes the other way: deleting a uv .venv frees less than du says if the cache still holds the same files. pnpm's store behaves the same way for node_modules.
.venv folders
A virtual environment is a full copy of every package a project uses, so a machine learning project can take gigabytes. It's also the easiest Python space to get back, because it's rebuildable from the project's own files:
# uv project: rebuilds .venv from uv.lock $ uv sync # pip project: in a fresh venv $ python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
Move a .venv to the Trash rather than deleting it outright, so you can put it back if a rebuild fails:
$ mv ~/Projects/old-app/.venv ~/.Trash/old-app-venvBefore you remove a .venv, make sure everything in it is written down. pip freeze > requirements.txt captures what's installed. A package you added with pip install and never put in requirements.txt or pyproject.toml won't come back on its own.
You can tell whether uv made a .venv from its pyvenv.cfg: uv adds a uv = … line with its version. On my Mac, two of the five were made by uv, three by python3 -m venv.
uv tools and extra Pythons
uv tools. Every uv tool install gets its own environment in ~/.local/share/uv/tools. Mine held 661 MB, half of it one tool I'd tried once (312 MB). uv tool list shows them, uv tool uninstall <name> removes one.
Pythons. uv python list --only-installed lists every Python uv can find, wherever it came from, with its path. That's the quickest way to spot duplicates. Remove each with the tool that installed it:
$ uv python uninstall 3.11 # a Python uv installed $ brew uninstall python@3.12 # a Python Homebrew installed
A Python from python.org lives in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/<version>, with links in /usr/local/bin and an app folder in /Applications. python.org has no uninstaller, so check nothing on your Mac still uses it before you remove those three by hand. Never touch /usr/bin/python3: that's Apple's, and it's part of the system.
.venv with what rebuilds it, shows pip's and uv's caches, runs conda clean for Conda, and moves what you pick to the Trash. uv venvs are listed without a size, because of the clones above.What not to delete
/usr/bin/python3and anything under/System: they belong to macOS.- A
.venvwhose packages aren't written down in the project. ~/.local/share/uv/python/<version>while a.venvstill uses it: a venv points at the Python it was made from (thehome =line inpyvenv.cfg) and stops working without it.
Sources
- Caching, pip docs: cache locations on macOS and
pip cache purge - Caching, uv docs:
uv cache clean,uv cache prune, and thecache-physical-spacepreview - Settings: link-mode, uv docs:
clone(copy-on-write) is the default on macOS pip3 cache --help,uv cache prune --helpanduv python uninstall --help, run on macOS 26.5.1 on 3 November 2026