Discord caches every image, GIF, video, and attachment you scroll past. On a heavy user's PC, %appdata%\discord\Cache and its siblings routinely exceed 5–10 GB.
Short answer: fully quit Discord, then delete the contents of %appdata%\discord\Cache, %appdata%\discord\Code Cache, and %appdata%\discord\GPUCache. Discord rebuilds empty caches on next launch.
Quitting Discord fully
Discord keeps running in the system tray after you close the main window. You must fully quit it first, or the cache folders will be locked.
- in the Discord window, click your user Settings (gear icon, bottom left)
- scroll to the bottom of the settings sidebar, click Quit Discord
- or right-click the Discord icon in the Windows system tray (bottom-right) and choose Quit Discord
- confirm no
Discord.exeprocess is running in Task Manager
Deleting the cache folders
- press Windows + R, type
%appdata%\discord, press Enter - open each of these subfolders in turn and delete their contents (not the folders themselves):
Cache— media attachmentsCode Cache— compiled JavaScript from the Discord web clientGPUCache— GPU shader cache
- (optional, deeper reset) delete
Local StorageandSession Storagetoo — you will stay logged in on your main session but may lose draft messages
Do not delete the discord folder wholesale unless you want to resign in and reset all client preferences.
Preventing the cache from bloating again
Discord does not expose a native cache size cap, but you can reduce incoming cache growth:
- User Settings > Text & Images > Automatically display link previews — off
- User Settings > Text & Images > Show emoji reactions on messages — leave on, but avoid scrolling heavy meme servers
- User Settings > Accessibility > Automatically play GIFs when Discord is focused — off
Better next routes
For the broader Windows cleanup picture, continue with How to Free Up Space on C Drive Windows 11 Natively.
For the Spotify equivalent, read How to Clear the Spotify Desktop Cache on Windows.