How to Find and Delete Every node_modules Folder on Mac

20 October 2026 · 3 min read · By Himanshu Singh, maker of DiskMac

Every JavaScript project you clone gets its own node_modules, often 200 MB to over 1 GB. Multiply by every tutorial, side project and client repo you ever ran npm install in, and it’s common to find 20–40 GB.

The good news: deleting node_modules is completely safe. Your package.json and lockfile describe exactly what to reinstall.

1. Find them all, with sizes

find ~ -name node_modules -type d -prune -exec du -sh {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -rh

-prune stops find from descending into nested node_modules inside node_modules, which makes it far faster and avoids double counting.

2. Delete them interactively with npkill

cd ~/code
npx npkill

npkill lists every node_modules under the current folder with its size. Arrow to one, press space to delete.

3. Delete all of them under a folder

# preview first
find ~/code -name node_modules -type d -prune

# then delete
find ~/code -name node_modules -type d -prune -exec rm -rf {} +

Run this on a projects folder, not on ~ as a whole — some apps (VS Code extensions, Electron apps) keep node_modules they need.

4. Only delete stale projects

You probably don’t want to wipe the project you’re working on today. DiskMac’s Developer mode lists every project’s node_modules with when you last touched the project, so you can clear the ones from projects you haven’t opened in months and keep the rest. It also understands pnpm’s hard-linked store, so it doesn’t promise savings you won’t actually get.

5. Clean the package manager caches too

npm cache clean --force       # ~/.npm/_cacache
pnpm store prune              # unreferenced packages in the pnpm store
yarn cache clean              # yarn classic and berry

And old Node versions: nvm ls, then nvm uninstall <version>.

6. Use less space next time

• pnpm stores each package version once and hard-links it into projects, often saving most of the duplication.
• Delete node_modules when you archive a project.
• Don’t forget framework build output: .next, .turbo, .parcel-cache, dist.

FAQ