Best Free PC Cleaners 2026: 8 Options Compared

A PC cleaner does two jobs that people tend to lump together: deleting junk files such as browser caches and temp folders, and tidying up traces like history and registry leftovers. The first job is safe and worth automating. The second is where cheap tools earn their bad reputation, because a registry cleaner can remove an entry something still needs and gains almost no speed in return. The free options below sit on both sides of that line. BleachBit is open source and lets you preview exactly what it will delete. CCleaner is the best-known name and is quick to use, but its free version covers only basic cleaning and the vendor sells upgrades. Windows Storage Sense is already on your machine and handles temp files without installing anything. If your real problem is a full disk rather than clutter, a disk usage viewer such as WinDirStat shows which folders are eating space, and Czkawka finds duplicates and empty files. Mac owners have a separate set of tools, since macOS does not need a registry cleaner at all. Pick one tool, run its preview first, and keep your own backups before you accept any deep clean. The trade-off to accept up front: the more aggressively a cleaner promises to speed up your PC, the less you should trust it, because most of the real gains come from uninstalling programs and clearing disk space, not from scrubbing system files.

BleachBit

Open source, so you can read what it does, and it previews every deletion before it runs. It is free forever with no paid tier, but its interface is plain and the deep-clean options need care.

Price: Free (free forever) (BleachBit pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows, Linux, macOS. GPL-3.0 (open source).

Project activity: 7.3k GitHub stars · latest release v6.0.6 (Oct 22, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026

Best for: Careful users who want a preview.

CCleaner

The familiar choice with a quick one-click clean. Its free version covers basic cleaning only, and the vendor pushes paid editions, so expect upgrade prompts for scheduled and automatic cleaning.

Price: Free (Free version covers basic cleaning) (CCleaner pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: People who want a simple one-click clean.

Compare: CCleaner alternatives

PrivaZer

Freeware that goes deeper on privacy traces than a basic cleaner, with a PRO version offered to contributors. It is proprietary, so you cannot inspect what it deletes.

Price: Free (free; PRO version for contributors) (PrivaZer pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows. Proprietary freeware.

Best for: Privacy-minded Windows users.

Windows Storage Sense

Built into Windows 10 and 11 and off by default. It removes temp files and empties old downloads on a schedule, with nothing extra to install, though it does far less than third-party tools.

Price: Free (built into Windows 10 and 11, off by default) (Windows Storage Sense pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows. Proprietary.

Best for: Anyone who wants no extra software.

Worth knowing: Cleans temp files, Recycle Bin and old Downloads on the system drive only.

Czkawka

Open source cleaner for duplicates, empty folders and large files rather than system caches. A good fit when disk space is the actual problem.

Price: Free (free, open source) (Czkawka pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Android. MIT (core) (open source).

Project activity: 34.6k GitHub stars · latest release 12.0.2 (Sep 9, 2026) · last commit Sep 16, 2026

Best for: Reclaiming disk space safely.

Worth knowing: Finds duplicates, empty folders, big and temporary files; GTK GUI superseded by Krokiet.

WinDirStat

Open source disk usage viewer for Windows. It does not delete junk for you but shows which folders hold the space, which is the fastest way to decide what to remove.

Price: Free (free, open source) (WinDirStat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Windows. GPL-3.0-or-later (open source).

Project activity: 4.4k GitHub stars · latest release release/v2.9.3 (Oct 11, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026

Best for: Finding what fills your drive.

Worth knowing: Treemap disk usage analyzer with a cleanup assistant.

AppCleaner

Free Mac utility that removes an app together with its leftover files. It states no price and is proprietary freeware, so it is a narrow tool, not a general cleaner.

Price: Free (Free download with optional donations; page states no price) (AppCleaner pricing, checked 2026-10-23).

Platforms and license: macOS. Proprietary freeware (not stated).

Best for: Mac users removing leftover app files.

Pearcleaner

Free Mac app cleaner under a source-available license (Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause), not a fully open-source one. Scope is leftover app files.

Price: Free (Free) (Pearcleaner pricing, checked 2026-10-23).

Platforms and license: macOS. Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause (source-available).

Best for: Mac users who like inspectable code.

Which one to pick

• You want to see every deletion before it happens: BleachBit
• You need a one-click clean and nothing more: CCleaner
• Your drive is full and you do not know why: WinDirStat
• You would rather not install anything: Windows Storage Sense