Delete your browsing history in Firefox in three steps
Open Firefox and press Ctrl+H on Windows or Cmd+Y on Mac to open your History sidebar. At the top of that sidebar, click "Clear Recent History". A window will pop up asking what time range you want to clear — choose "Everything" if you want your entire history gone, or pick a specific range like "Last Hour" or "Last 24 Hours". Check the boxes next to "Browsing & Download History" and any other data you want removed, then click "Clear Now".
That's the fastest way. If you want Firefox to delete your history automatically every time you close the browser, you can set that up in Settings instead, and we'll walk through that below. You can also delete history from individual websites, clear just your search bar suggestions, or wipe out cookies and cached files at the same time — each of those is a different process depending on what you're trying to remove.
Key Takeaways
- Press Ctrl+H (Windows) or Cmd+Y (Mac), click "Clear Recent History", choose your time range, and click "Clear Now" to delete browsing history immediately.
- You can delete history from a specific website by right-clicking it in your History sidebar and selecting "Forget About This Site".
- To make Firefox delete history automatically when you close it, go to Settings, find the History section, and choose "Firefox will use custom settings for history".
- Clearing browsing history does not delete cookies or cached files unless you check those boxes in the "Clear Recent History" window.
- Deleting history from Firefox does not affect history stored on websites themselves — only what Firefox saved on your computer.
Clear history for a specific time period
When you open the "Clear Recent History" window, Firefox gives you four time-range options. "Last Hour" removes only sites you visited in the past 60 minutes. "Last 2 Hours" covers the last two hours. "Last 4 Hours" covers four hours. "Everything" deletes your entire browsing history with no time limit.
The time range you pick applies to all the data types you select — so if you choose "Last Hour" and check both "Browsing & Download History" and "Cookies", Firefox will delete both your browsing history and cookies from the last hour only. Sites you visited four hours ago will still be in your history.
Delete history from a single website
If you only want to remove history from one site — say, you visited a retailer and don't want that in your history — you don't have to clear everything. Open your History sidebar with Ctrl+H (Windows) or Cmd+Y (Mac), find the website in the list, right-click it, and select "Forget About This Site".
Firefox will delete all history, cookies, and cached data for that domain. This is more thorough than just removing the page from your history — it also clears any login information Firefox saved for that site, so you'll have to sign in again the next time you visit. If you only want to delete the page from your history without touching cookies or login data, right-click the page and choose "Delete" instead.
Set Firefox to delete history automatically when you close it
To make Firefox clear your history every time you close the browser, open Firefox Settings by clicking the menu button (three horizontal lines) in the top right, then select "Settings". On the left sidebar, click "Privacy & Security".
Scroll down to the "History" section. You'll see a dropdown that says "Firefox will remember history" by default. Click that dropdown and select "Firefox will use custom settings for history". Two new checkboxes will appear: "Always use private browsing mode" and "Clear history when Firefox closes". Check the second box.
Once you check "Clear history when Firefox closes", a link will appear that says "Settings". Click it to choose what gets deleted — you can clear just browsing history, or also remove cookies, cached files, and other data. After you set your preferences and close the Settings tab, Firefox will automatically delete the selected data every time you quit the browser.
Clear cookies and cached files at the same time
Browsing history is separate from cookies (small files websites use to remember you) and cached files (images and data Firefox saves to load pages faster). When you open "Clear Recent History", you can delete all three at once by checking multiple boxes.
In the "Clear Recent History" window, you'll see checkboxes for "Browsing & Download History", "Cookies", "Cache", "Active Logins", "Site Preferences", and others. Check whichever ones you want to clear. If you're not sure what something does, hover over the question mark icon next to it for an explanation. Then select your time range and click "Clear Now".
Clearing cookies will log you out of most websites, so you'll have to sign in again. Clearing cache will make pages load slightly slower the next time you visit them because Firefox has to download all the images and files again instead of using saved copies.
Remove search suggestions from the Firefox search bar
When you type in the Firefox search bar, it shows suggestions based on sites you've visited and searches you've done. To clear those suggestions, open the "Clear Recent History" window (Ctrl+H or Cmd+Y, then click "Clear Recent History"), make sure your time range is set to "Everything", check the box for "Browsing & Download History", and click "Clear Now".
If you want to stop Firefox from saving search suggestions in the future, go to Settings, click "Privacy & Security", scroll to "History", and uncheck "Remember search and form history". Firefox will still show you suggestions based on your bookmarks and open tabs, but not based on your past searches.
What deleting history does and doesn't do
Deleting your Firefox history removes the record of sites you visited from your computer. It does not delete your activity from the websites themselves — if you logged into your email or a social media account, those services still have a record that you visited. Deleting Firefox history also does not affect your internet service provider's records or any network administrator's logs if you're on a work or school network.
If you want websites to have less information about you, you can use Firefox's Private Browsing mode, which doesn't save history, cookies, or search suggestions at all. Open a private window by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+P (Mac). Anything you do in that window won't be saved to your history, though your internet service provider can still see which sites you visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does clearing history delete my saved passwords?
No. Clearing browsing history does not touch your saved passwords. If you want to delete a saved password, go to Settings, click "Privacy & Security", scroll to "Passwords", and click "Saved Passwords". Find the password you want to remove and click the trash icon next to it.
Will deleting history log me out of websites?
Only if you also clear cookies. Browsing history alone doesn't contain login information. If you check the "Cookies" box in the "Clear Recent History" window, you will be logged out of most sites and will have to sign in again.
Can I recover history after I delete it?
No. Once you clear history from Firefox, it's gone from your computer. Firefox does not have an undo button for history deletion. If you need to find a site you visited, try searching your email for confirmation messages, checking your credit card statements, or asking someone you shared the link with.
What's the difference between clearing history and using Private Browsing?
Clearing history removes past activity from your computer after the fact. Private Browsing prevents Firefox from saving anything in the first place — no history, cookies, or search suggestions are stored while you're in a private window. When you close the private window, there's nothing to delete.
Does Firefox delete history if I don't manually clear it?
By default, no. Firefox keeps your history until you delete it or until it reaches a certain age (usually several months). You can change this in Settings by choosing "Firefox will use custom settings for history" and checking "Clear history when Firefox closes".