Why is Telegram taking up so much space on my Mac?
Safe to delete; it rebuilds itself. Telegram saves every photo, video, voice message and file you open in a chat to your Mac. Your messages and media stay in Telegram's cloud, so clearing this folder frees the space, and anything you open again simply downloads again.
At a glance
| Owner app | Telegram |
|---|---|
| Typical size | 1–20 GB; more with busy groups and channels |
| Safe to delete? | Rebuilds itself |
| Comes back? | Yes, as you open chats and media again |
| What you lose | Nothing is lost: everything stays in Telegram's cloud and downloads again when you open a chat. Telegram's own Settings > Data and Storage > Storage Usage does the same with more control. |
| Where it is | ~/ |
What it is
When you open a chat, Telegram downloads the photos, videos, voice messages, stickers and files in it and keeps a copy on your Mac, so they open instantly next time. These copies live in the media folder of your account inside Telegram’s Group Containers folder.
Nothing removes them on its own unless you set a limit, and channels and large groups send a lot of media. On the Mac we checked, the media folder held more than 100,000 files and took 3.0 GB of the 6.4 GB Telegram uses.
Everything from regular chats, groups and channels stays in Telegram’s cloud, so deleting the downloaded copies loses nothing: Telegram says so itself when you clear the cache. The rest of the Telegram folder holds your login and message database, and Gigabroom keeps that out of reach.
Delete it by hand
- The simplest way is in Telegram itself: open Settings › Data and Storage › Storage Usage, then click Clear Entire Cache, or pick chats and media types to clear.
- In the same Storage Usage screen, Keep Media and Maximum Cache Size limit how much Telegram keeps from now on.
- To do it in Finder instead, quit Telegram and choose Go › Go to Folder… with
~/.Library/ Group Containers/ 6N38VWS5BX.ru.keepcoder.Telegram/ appstore - Open the folder named
account-followed by a number, thenpostbox, and move only themediafolder to the Trash. Leave everything else in place.
With Gigabroom
- Open Gigabroom and wait for the scan.
- In Clean Up, open Messages & Media. Telegram's downloaded media is listed as Downloaded photos and videos, labeled Rebuilds itself.
- Your Telegram account data is listed separately as Keep and cannot be selected, so your login and chats are never touched.
- Click Clean Up. The media goes to the Trash, and Put Back is available until you empty it.
Before you delete
If you use Secret Chats on this Mac, their photos and videos are not stored in Telegram's cloud and cannot be downloaded again. Never delete the whole Telegram folder in Group Containers: that signs you out and removes Secret Chats.
Related folders
| Folder | Safe to delete? | Typical size |
|---|---|---|
~/ | Keep | — |
~/ | Rebuilds itself | — |
~/ | Rebuilds itself | — |
~/ | Check first | 1–20 GB; more with busy group chats |
Questions
Will I lose my messages?
No. Messages are in Telegram's cloud and are not in this folder. Only downloaded copies of media are removed, and Telegram fetches them again when you open them.
Why does it fill up again?
Telegram downloads photos and short videos automatically as you scroll through chats, groups and channels. Set Keep Media to a shorter period, or lower Maximum Cache Size, in Settings › Data and Storage › Storage Usage.
Is Clear Entire Cache in Telegram the same thing?
It does the same job from inside the app and shows how much each chat uses, which helps if you want to clear only some chats.
I use Telegram Desktop, not the App Store version. Where is its cache?
Telegram Desktop from telegram.org keeps its files in a different folder, `~/Library/Application Support/Telegram Desktop`. Its own Settings › Advanced › Manage local storage clears them.
Last checked on macOS 27.0.1 · 2026-11-10