Firefox stores your history by default, and you can delete it all at once or choose what to remove

When you browse in Firefox, the browser records which sites you visited, when you visited them, and what you searched for. This history helps Firefox autocomplete addresses and makes it faster to find sites you've been to before. But you can delete some or all of it whenever you want — it takes about 30 seconds.

The fastest way is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Delete (on Windows or Linux) or Command+Shift+Delete (on Mac). This opens Firefox's history-clearing window directly. If you prefer using menus, go to the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top right, select History, then select "Clear Recent History".

Key Takeaways

  • You can delete all your Firefox history at once, or choose a specific time range like "the last hour" or "the last day".
  • The clearing window lets you pick what types of data to delete — browsing history, search history, cookies, cached files, or all of them together.
  • Deleting history does not sign you out of websites, but it does remove saved passwords if you choose to clear that category.
  • Firefox's Private Browsing mode does not save history at all, so nothing gets recorded while that window is open.

Deleting all history at once

Open the history-clearing window with Ctrl+Shift+Delete (Windows/Linux) or Command+Shift+Delete (Mac). At the top, you'll see a dropdown that says "Time range to clear". Click it and select "Everything" to delete your entire browsing history.

Below that, you'll see checkboxes for different types of data. "Browsing & download history" is checked by default — this removes the list of sites you visited. Leave the other boxes unchecked unless you want to delete cookies, cached files, or other data too. Then click the "Clear Now" button.

Deleting history from a specific time period

If you only want to remove recent history, use the "Time range to clear" dropdown instead of selecting "Everything". Your options are "the last hour", "the last two hours", "the last four hours", "today", or "everything". Pick whichever matches what you want to delete.

This is useful if you browsed something you'd rather not have in your history, but you want to keep older history intact. For example, you might delete "the last hour" to remove a recent search, while keeping the rest of your history from the past month.

Choosing what data to delete alongside history

The clearing window shows several checkboxes. "Browsing & download history" removes sites you visited and files you downloaded. "Search and form history" removes searches you typed into the address bar and form entries Firefox remembered. "Cookies and site data" removes login sessions and tracking data stored by websites. "Cached web content" removes temporary copies of images and pages Firefox saved to load them faster next time.

You don't have to delete all of these at once. If you only want to remove your browsing history but keep yourself logged into websites, uncheck "Cookies and site data" and click "Clear Now". If you want to remove everything, check all the boxes.

What happens when you delete history

Deleting your browsing history removes the list of sites from Firefox's records. If you search for a site name in the address bar, Firefox won't suggest it anymore. Your download list also clears if you checked that box. However, the websites themselves still have records that you visited — deleting Firefox history does not hide your activity from your internet service provider, your employer's network, or the websites you visited.

If you checked "Cookies and site data", you'll be logged out of most websites. The next time you visit them, you'll need to log in again. If you only delete browsing history without touching cookies, you'll stay logged in.

Using Private Browsing to avoid saving history

If you want Firefox to stop recording history from the start, open a Private Browsing window instead of a regular one. Click the hamburger menu, select "New Private Window", or use Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Command+Shift+P (Mac). Nothing you do in that window — no sites visited, no searches, no downloads — gets saved to your history when you close it.

Private Browsing is not the same as being anonymous online. Websites can still see that you visited them, and your internet service provider can still see your traffic. But Firefox itself won't keep a record of where you went.

Clearing history automatically when Firefox closes

You can tell Firefox to delete your history automatically every time you close the browser. Go to the hamburger menu, select Settings, then click Privacy & Security on the left. Under "History", find the dropdown that says "Firefox will" and select "Use custom settings for history".

Check the box that says "Clear history when Firefox closes". You can then click the Settings button next to it to choose what gets deleted — browsing history, download history, cookies, cached files, and more. From that point on, Firefox will clear whatever you selected every time you shut down the browser, without asking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does deleting Firefox history delete it from my computer entirely?

Deleting history from Firefox removes it from Firefox's records, but the data may still exist on your hard drive until it's overwritten by other files. If you need to ensure data is unrecoverable, you would need to use a separate secure deletion tool, which is beyond what Firefox's built-in history clearing does.

Will deleting history log me out of websites?

Only if you also delete cookies and site data. If you delete only browsing history, you stay logged in. If you want to remove history but stay logged in, uncheck "Cookies and site data" before clicking "Clear Now".

Can I delete history for just one website?

Firefox doesn't have a built-in way to delete history for a single site. You can delete history by time range (last hour, last day, etc.) or delete everything, but not by individual website. Private Browsing is the easiest way to avoid recording history for specific browsing sessions.

What's the difference between clearing history and using Private Browsing?

Clearing history removes past records from Firefox. Private Browsing prevents Firefox from recording anything in the first place while that window is open. Private Browsing is better if you want to avoid saving history before it happens; clearing history is better if you want to remove something you already browsed.

Does Firefox save history if I'm signed into my Firefox account?

Yes. Signing into a Firefox account lets you sync history across devices, but it doesn't change whether history is saved locally. You still delete it the same way. If you don't want history synced to your account, you can turn off sync in Settings under "Sync" and uncheck "History".