diff --git a/packages/nuxt/src/app/composables/cookie.ts b/packages/nuxt/src/app/composables/cookie.ts
index a05773cd79..3e3a5dfd10 100644
--- a/packages/nuxt/src/app/composables/cookie.ts
+++ b/packages/nuxt/src/app/composables/cookie.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import type { Ref } from 'vue'
 import { ref, watch } from 'vue'
 import type { CookieParseOptions, CookieSerializeOptions } from 'cookie-es'
 import { parse, serialize } from 'cookie-es'
-import { appendResponseHeader } from 'h3'
+import { deleteCookie, getCookie, setCookie } from 'h3'
 import type { H3Event } from 'h3'
 import destr from 'destr'
 import { isEqual } from 'ohash'
@@ -80,7 +80,16 @@ function writeClientCookie (name: string, value: any, opts: CookieSerializeOptio
 
 function writeServerCookie (event: H3Event, name: string, value: any, opts: CookieSerializeOptions = {}) {
   if (event) {
-    // TODO: Try to smart join with existing Set-Cookie headers
-    appendResponseHeader(event, 'Set-Cookie', serializeCookie(name, value, opts))
+    // update if value is set
+    if (value !== null && value !== undefined) {
+      return setCookie(event, name, value, opts)
+    }
+
+    // delete if cookie exists in browser and value is null/undefined
+    if (getCookie(event, name) !== undefined) {
+      return deleteCookie(event, name, opts)
+    }
+
+    // else ignore if cookie doesn't exist in browser and value is null/undefined
   }
 }
diff --git a/test/basic.test.ts b/test/basic.test.ts
index c44f5569d0..656d3ab5cc 100644
--- a/test/basic.test.ts
+++ b/test/basic.test.ts
@@ -399,6 +399,21 @@ describe('nuxt composables', () => {
     const html = await $fetch('/url')
     expect(html).toContain('path: /url')
   })
+  it('sets cookies correctly', async () => {
+    const res = await fetch('/cookies', {
+      headers: {
+        cookie: Object.entries({
+          'browser-accessed-but-not-used': 'provided-by-browser',
+          'browser-accessed-with-default-value': 'provided-by-browser',
+          'browser-set': 'provided-by-browser',
+          'browser-set-to-null': 'provided-by-browser',
+          'browser-set-to-null-with-default': 'provided-by-browser'
+        }).map(([key, value]) => `${key}=${value}`).join('; ')
+      }
+    })
+    const cookies = res.headers.get('set-cookie')
+    expect(cookies).toMatchInlineSnapshot('"set-in-plugin=true; Path=/, set=set; Path=/, browser-set=set; Path=/, browser-set-to-null=; Max-Age=0; Path=/, browser-set-to-null-with-default=; Max-Age=0; Path=/"')
+  })
 })
 
 describe('rich payloads', () => {
diff --git a/test/fixtures/basic/pages/cookies.vue b/test/fixtures/basic/pages/cookies.vue
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..45c67460df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/basic/pages/cookies.vue
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<script setup>
+useCookie('accessed-but-not-used')
+useCookie('accessed-with-default-value', () => 'default')
+useCookie('set').value = 'set'
+useCookie('set-to-null').value = null
+useCookie('set-to-null-with-default', () => 'default').value = null
+// the next set are all sent by browser
+useCookie('browser-accessed-but-not-used')
+useCookie('browser-accessed-with-default-value', () => 'default')
+useCookie('browser-set').value = 'set'
+useCookie('browser-set-to-null').value = null
+useCookie('browser-set-to-null-with-default', () => 'default').value = null
+</script>
+
+<template>
+  <div>
+    <div>cookies testing page</div>
+  </div>
+</template>