diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f6c8dc08..af0d6610 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -517,4 +517,4 @@ For a detailed exploration of our vision, challenges, and solutions, please see
 
 ## Star History
 
-[![Star History Chart](https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=unclecode/crawl4ai&type=Date)](https://star-history.com/#unclecode/crawl4ai&Date)
\ No newline at end of file
+[![Star History Chart](https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=unclecode/crawl4ai&type=Date)](https://star-history.com/#unclecode/crawl4ai&Date)
diff --git a/crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py b/crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py
index a6ba8e50..e7dc9c54 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py
@@ -736,7 +736,7 @@ class AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy(AsyncCrawlerStrategy):
 
             if self.use_cached_html:
                 cache_file_path = os.path.join(
-                    Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "cache", hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest()
+                    os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai", "cache", hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest()
                 )
                 if os.path.exists(cache_file_path):
                     html = ""
@@ -940,7 +940,7 @@ class AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy(AsyncCrawlerStrategy):
            
             if self.use_cached_html:
                 cache_file_path = os.path.join(
-                    Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "cache", hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest()
+                    os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai", "cache", hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest()
                 )
                 with open(cache_file_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
                     f.write(html)
diff --git a/crawl4ai/async_database.py b/crawl4ai/async_database.py
index 19160b6e..3c97e7d1 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/async_database.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/async_database.py
@@ -17,10 +17,9 @@ from .async_logger import AsyncLogger
 logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-base_directory = Path.home()
-DB_PATH = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai")
+base_directory = DB_PATH = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai")
 os.makedirs(DB_PATH, exist_ok=True)
-DB_PATH = os.path.join(DB_PATH, "crawl4ai.db")
+DB_PATH = os.path.join(base_directory, "crawl4ai.db")
 
 class AsyncDatabaseManager:
     def __init__(self, pool_size: int = 10, max_retries: int = 3):
diff --git a/crawl4ai/async_webcrawler.py b/crawl4ai/async_webcrawler.py
index 5fe7822c..7d1814b6 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/async_webcrawler.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/async_webcrawler.py
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ class AsyncWebCrawler:
         crawler_strategy: Optional[AsyncCrawlerStrategy] = None,
         always_bypass_cache: bool = False,
         always_by_pass_cache: Optional[bool] = None,  # Deprecated parameter
-        base_directory: str = str(Path.home()),
+        base_directory: str = str(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home())),
         **kwargs,
     ):
         """
@@ -74,19 +74,7 @@ class AsyncWebCrawler:
             always_bypass_cache: Whether to always bypass cache (new parameter)
             always_by_pass_cache: Deprecated, use always_bypass_cache instead
             base_directory: Base directory for storing cache
-        """
-        # init()
-        # self.log_width = 10  # Width of "[COMPLETE]" 
-        # self.tag_format = lambda tag: f"[{tag}]".ljust(self.log_width, ".")
-        # self.log_icons = {
-        #     'INIT': '→',      # Alternative: '▶' or '►'
-        #     'READY': '✓',     # Alternative: '√'
-        #     'FETCH': '↓',     # Alternative: '▼'
-        #     'SCRAPE': '◆',    # Alternative: '♦'
-        #     'EXTRACT': '■',    # Alternative: '□'
-        #     'COMPLETE': '●',   # Alternative: '○'
-        #     'ERROR': '×' 
-        # }        
+        """  
         self.verbose = kwargs.get("verbose", False)
         self.logger = AsyncLogger(
             log_file=os.path.join(base_directory, ".crawl4ai", "crawler.log"),
diff --git a/crawl4ai/crawler_strategy.py b/crawl4ai/crawler_strategy.py
index 5d6864b5..ce802e49 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/crawler_strategy.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/crawler_strategy.py
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ class LocalSeleniumCrawlerStrategy(CrawlerStrategy):
 
         # chromedriver_autoinstaller.install()
         # import chromedriver_autoinstaller
-        # crawl4ai_folder = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai")
+        # crawl4ai_folder = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai")
         # driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=ChromeService(ChromeDriverManager().install()), options=self.options)
         # chromedriver_path = chromedriver_autoinstaller.install()
         # chromedriver_path = chromedriver_autoinstaller.utils.download_chromedriver()
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ class LocalSeleniumCrawlerStrategy(CrawlerStrategy):
         url_hash = hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest()
         
         if self.use_cached_html:
-            cache_file_path = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "cache", url_hash)
+            cache_file_path = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai", "cache", url_hash)
             if os.path.exists(cache_file_path):
                 with open(cache_file_path, "r") as f:
                     return sanitize_input_encode(f.read())
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ class LocalSeleniumCrawlerStrategy(CrawlerStrategy):
             self.driver = self.execute_hook('before_return_html', self.driver, html)
             
             # Store in cache
-            cache_file_path = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "cache", url_hash)
+            cache_file_path = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai", "cache", url_hash)
             with open(cache_file_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
                 f.write(html)
                 
diff --git a/crawl4ai/database.py b/crawl4ai/database.py
index 37d94463..42ad7017 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/database.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/database.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 import sqlite3
 from typing import Optional, Tuple
 
-DB_PATH = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai")
+DB_PATH = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai")
 os.makedirs(DB_PATH, exist_ok=True)
 DB_PATH = os.path.join(DB_PATH, "crawl4ai.db")
 
diff --git a/crawl4ai/model_loader.py b/crawl4ai/model_loader.py
index 7b3a2846..d1872d7e 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/model_loader.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/model_loader.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def set_model_device(model):
 
 @lru_cache()
 def get_home_folder():
-    home_folder = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai")
+    home_folder = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai")
     os.makedirs(home_folder, exist_ok=True)
     os.makedirs(f"{home_folder}/cache", exist_ok=True)
     os.makedirs(f"{home_folder}/models", exist_ok=True)
diff --git a/crawl4ai/utils.py b/crawl4ai/utils.py
index a80cf09a..9abc5784 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/utils.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/utils.py
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def get_system_memory():
         raise OSError("Unsupported operating system")
 
 def get_home_folder():
-    home_folder = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai")
+    home_folder = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home())), ".crawl4ai")
     os.makedirs(home_folder, exist_ok=True)
     os.makedirs(f"{home_folder}/cache", exist_ok=True)
     os.makedirs(f"{home_folder}/models", exist_ok=True)
diff --git a/crawl4ai/web_crawler.py b/crawl4ai/web_crawler.py
index c97a9cf4..6cfef6f0 100644
--- a/crawl4ai/web_crawler.py
+++ b/crawl4ai/web_crawler.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class WebCrawler:
     def __init__(self, crawler_strategy: CrawlerStrategy = None, always_by_pass_cache: bool = False, verbose: bool = False):
         self.crawler_strategy = crawler_strategy or LocalSeleniumCrawlerStrategy(verbose=verbose)
         self.always_by_pass_cache = always_by_pass_cache
-        self.crawl4ai_folder = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai")
+        self.crawl4ai_folder = os.path.join(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()), ".crawl4ai")
         os.makedirs(self.crawl4ai_folder, exist_ok=True)
         os.makedirs(f"{self.crawl4ai_folder}/cache", exist_ok=True)
         init_db()
diff --git a/docs/md_v2/api/async-webcrawler.md b/docs/md_v2/api/async-webcrawler.md
index 25164f6c..be956101 100644
--- a/docs/md_v2/api/async-webcrawler.md
+++ b/docs/md_v2/api/async-webcrawler.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ AsyncWebCrawler(
     
     # Cache Settings
     always_by_pass_cache: bool = False,     # Always bypass cache
-    base_directory: str = str(Path.home()), # Base directory for cache
+    base_directory: str = str(os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home())), # Base directory for cache
     
     # Network Settings
     proxy: str = None,                      # Simple proxy URL
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index bbc03026..f5f3cf2d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@ import subprocess
 import sys
 import asyncio
 
-# Create the .crawl4ai folder structure
-crawl4ai_folder = Path.home() / ".crawl4ai"
+# Create the .crawl4ai folder in the user's home directory if it doesn't exist
+# If the folder already exists, remove the cache folder
+crawl4ai_folder = os.getenv("CRAWL4_AI_BASE_DIRECTORY", Path.home()) / ".crawl4ai"
 cache_folder = crawl4ai_folder / "cache"
 content_folders = ['html_content', 'cleaned_html', 'markdown_content', 
                   'extracted_content', 'screenshots']