How to Update Homebrew and Formulae

Full Homebrew Update Command

All-in-one command you can run to update everything (formulae, casks, and Homebrew itself) and clean up old versions afterward

brew update && brew upgrade && brew upgrade --cask && brew cleanup

🧩 What Each Part Does

brew update Updates Homebrew itself (the package manager, not your apps).

brew upgrade Upgrades all outdated formulae (CLI tools & libraries).

brew upgrade --cask Upgrades all outdated casks (GUI apps).

brew cleanup Removes old versions and caches to free up space.

⚡ Optional: Faster, All-in-One Short Version

If you just want something concise to paste regularly:

brew update && brew upgrade --greedy && brew cleanup -s

--greedy also updates casks that are auto-updated by themselves (like Chrome or VSCode).

-s does an aggressive cleanup, reclaiming even more disk space.

🧠 Bonus Tip – Check Status Before Updating

If you just want to see what’s outdated first:

brew outdated This is the command you already ran — helpful to review before committing to a full upgrade.