How to Reset Cookie Clicker (Start Over Guide)

Cookie Clicker is famously hard to leave alone. Once you’re deep into a save, the temptation to restart fresh and play the whole arc again is real — and Julien “Orteil” Thiennot built two reset paths into the game, with your browser offering a third. How to reset Cookie Clicker depends on what kind of fresh start you want. A full wipe takes seconds. A prestige reset (ascension, which keeps your prestige and heavenly upgrades) is the main progression mechanic. Clearing the site’s data in your browser removes even your settings. This guide covers Orteil’s original at orteil.dashnet.org; if you’re playing our simpler Cookie Clicker game, the “Reset progress” button under the cookie wipes it after one confirmation.

The basic reset — Options menu

The fastest way to fully reset Cookie Clicker is through the in-game Options menu:

1. Click the Options button in the top menu bar.
2. Find the “Wipe save” button next to the save, export and import options (it’s styled as a warning, with the note “Delete all your progress, including your achievements”).
3. Click Wipe save.
4. The game asks “Do you REALLY want to wipe your save?” — click Yes.
5. A second prompt asks if you’re really, REALLY sure — confirm it to finish the wipe.

This wipes your cookies, buildings, upgrades, achievements, heavenly chips and prestige, and building levels. The game restarts as if you’d just opened it for the first time. Your settings (particles, numbers, sound) are generally preserved.

Export your save first

Before any reset, the Options menu also has an “Export save” button. Click it, and the game shows you a long encoded string representing your entire save state. Copy the string and paste it somewhere safe — a text file, a note app, anywhere you can retrieve it later.

If you regret the reset, you can re-import the save through “Import save” in the same menu. This restores everything exactly as it was. Many players export periodically as a backup, even if they’re not planning to reset.

Prestige (ascension) — the intended reset path

Cookie Clicker has a built-in progression reset called Ascension or Prestige. You ascend through the Legacy button at the top of the screen; you only gain prestige once you’ve baked at least a trillion cookies all-time. Ascending wipes your cookies, buildings, and regular upgrades, but you keep your prestige, heavenly upgrades and achievements — plus building levels and sugar lumps once those are unlocked.

This is the intended way to “reset” the game while still feeling progression. Prestige and heavenly upgrades grant permanent bonuses across all future runs. After enough ascensions, you start the game with permanent buffs that make subsequent runs faster.

For deep prestige strategy and ascension timing, see our Cookie Clicker late-game guide.

When to use each reset

The three reset paths serve different purposes:

• Wipe save: You want a completely fresh start. New player experience, no permanent bonuses, no history. Use this if you want to play the whole arc from scratch.
• Prestige: You want to restart your run but keep the meta-progression. This is the normal in-game mechanic and how Cookie Clicker is intended to be played long-term.
• Clear site data: You want to truly start over including settings, with no trace of previous play in that browser. Useful if you’re handing the game to a new player on your computer.

The hard reset — clearing site data

If the Options menu wipe isn’t enough — say you want to clear your settings as well, or there’s some corrupted state — you can clear all site data for the Cookie Clicker domain. The exact menu names vary by browser and version:

In Chrome:

1. Click the site-information icon next to the URL.
2. Choose “Cookies and site data” or “Site settings”.
3. Delete the stored data for orteil.dashnet.org (or wherever you play).
4. Reload the page.

In Firefox:

1. Click the shield/lock icon next to the URL.
2. Choose “Clear cookies and site data”.
3. Confirm the clear.
4. Reload the page.

This wipes the site’s localStorage (where the browser version keeps its save), cookies, and other stored data. The game starts as if you’d never visited it. Settings, save data, achievements — all gone. It only affects that browser: the Steam version keeps its saves separately.

Partial resets — the underused options

Cookie Clicker has a few partial reset mechanisms that don’t fully wipe you:

• Sell buildings: Switch the store to Sell mode and you get back a quarter of a building’s price. It’s a poor refund, but it can undo a bad purchase.
• Upgrades: Most regular upgrades are permanent within a run; only a few toggles, like seasonal switches and the Elder Pledge, can be changed.
• Garden: Harvest all clears the plot, and the “Sacrifice garden” option wipes the plot and your unlocked seeds (except Baker’s wheat) in exchange for 10 sugar lumps.
• Stock market: You can sell off all your goods at any time to cash out of the Bank’s trading minigame.

These are useful when you’ve made a specific mistake (planted the wrong seeds, bought the wrong goods) without wanting to lose your whole run. They’re partial resets, not full ones.

Why people reset

There are a few common reasons players choose to reset Cookie Clicker:

• Bad save state: A mod conflict, an autoclicker bug, or some other glitch produced numbers that don’t feel earned.
• New player experience: Some players reset specifically to replay the early-game arc, which has a different feel from the late game.
• Mod testing: Mod developers reset to test their work against a fresh save.
• Account sharing: Multiple people playing on the same computer might want to take turns with fresh starts.

The most common reason is just the desire to play through the early game again. Cookie Clicker’s first few hours have a distinct feel — the building unlocks come fast, every upgrade matters, the cookie counter keeps surprising you. Late-game play is mostly idle waiting punctuated by occasional decisions. A reset puts you back in the early-game rhythm.

Backing up before resetting — best practice

Always export your save before any reset operation. The export string is plain text — paste it into a note file, an email to yourself, a cloud document, anywhere you’ll find it later. If you change your mind, you can import the string and restore the exact state.

The export/import functionality is one of Cookie Clicker’s most user-friendly features. The game treats your save data as portable in a way few browser games do. Use that portability — there’s no downside to keeping backups, and there’s significant downside to losing years of play to an accidental wipe.

What doesn’t reset

A few things stay even after a Wipe save:

• Your settings, which live alongside the save but aren’t cleared by the wipe.
• Browser-side preferences that aren’t part of the game save (font size, zoom level).
• Any browser extensions or mods you have installed (these run separately).

If you want a truly fresh state — no extensions, no mods, no residual browser context — you’d need to use a different browser or a fresh user profile. For most purposes, the in-game Wipe save is enough.

Can you undo a reset?

If you exported your save before resetting, yes — re-import the string and your old state is back exactly as it was. If you didn’t export, no. The Wipe save action is permanent.

This is why the export step matters. Cookie Clicker doesn’t auto-backup before a reset, and there’s no recovery mechanism for un-exported saves. The export is your only safety net.

The Cookie Clicker history of save formats

The save string format has evolved since Cookie Clicker launched in 2013. The game generally handles migration — if you import an older save, the engine converts it to the current format — but very old saves from before the game’s major 2.0 overhaul may not carry everything over.

For more on Cookie Clicker’s development history and version progression, the Wikipedia entry on Cookie Clicker covers the major version changes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I reset Cookie Clicker?

Open the Options menu and click “Wipe save”. The game asks you to confirm twice. This wipes all progress, achievements, and heavenly chips. Export your save first if you want a backup.

What’s the difference between Wipe Save and Ascend?

Wipe Save erases everything — cookies, buildings, achievements, heavenly chips, prestige. Ascend (Prestige) resets your current run but keeps your prestige, heavenly upgrades and achievements, which grant permanent bonuses in future runs. Ascend is the intended in-game progression reset.

Can I undo a Cookie Clicker reset?

Only if you exported your save before resetting. The export button (Options menu) creates a long string you can copy somewhere safe. Re-importing it restores your exact state. Without a backup, the reset is permanent.

How do I do a hard reset of Cookie Clicker?

In the game itself, “Wipe save” is the hard reset (older versions called it exactly that). For an even cleaner slate, clear all site data for the Cookie Clicker domain through your browser’s site-settings menu, which also removes your settings.

Will resetting Cookie Clicker delete my achievements?

Yes. Wipe Save deletes all achievements along with everything else. Ascending (prestige) keeps your achievements. If you only want to lose your run progress, ascend instead of wiping.

The takeaway

Resetting Cookie Clicker is a deliberate, well-supported feature. Use Wipe Save for a clean start, Ascend for the intended progression reset, and clear site data only if you need a truly fresh state. Export your save first, every time, no exceptions. For a browser game where reset isn’t really a concept, the Chrome Dino game is the opposite design — every run starts fresh by default.

Related: What Is a Clicker Game? The Cookie Clicker Effect · Cookie Clicker Speedrun Categories Explained · The Cookie Clicker Grandma Lore Explained