How to clear your Safari browsing history
To delete your history on Safari, open the browser and press Command + Y (Mac) or Ctrl + Y (Windows). This opens the History sidebar. At the top of the sidebar, click Clear History, choose how far back you want to delete (the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time), then click Clear History again to confirm.
On iPhone or iPad, open Settings, scroll down and tap Safari, then tap Clear History and Website Data. A menu appears asking what time period to clear. Select your choice and confirm. This removes your browsing history, cookies, and cached data all at once.
Safari also lets you delete history for specific websites without clearing everything. In the History sidebar on Mac, right-click any website and select Delete. On iPhone, you cannot delete individual sites this way — you must clear all history for your chosen time period.
Key Takeaways
- On Mac, use Command + Y to open History, then click Clear History and choose your time period.
- On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.
- You can clear history for the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time.
- Clearing history also removes cookies and cached website data, which may log you out of some sites.
- Safari does not offer a way to delete individual websites from history on iPhone, only on Mac.
What gets deleted when you clear history
When you clear Safari history, you remove the list of websites you visited and when you visited them. The browser also deletes cookies — small files websites use to remember you — and cached data, which are copies of images and text Safari saved to load pages faster next time.
Clearing history does not delete your bookmarks, reading list, or saved passwords unless you specifically choose those options. On Mac, when you click Clear History, a dropdown menu shows what time period to clear, but not what data types. On iPhone, the Clear History and Website Data option removes history, cookies, and cache together with no separate choices.
One side effect: after clearing history, you may be logged out of websites you visit regularly. This happens because Safari deletes the cookies those sites use to keep you signed in. You will need to log back in the next time you visit.
Clearing history automatically when you quit Safari
Safari can delete your history automatically every time you close the browser. On Mac, open Safari, click Safari in the menu bar, then Settings. Go to the Privacy tab and check the box next to Remove history items. A dropdown menu lets you choose how old items must be before deletion — options include after one day, one week, one month, or one year.
On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings > Safari and look for Clear History and Website Data. Unlike Mac, iPhone does not have a built-in option to clear history automatically on quit. Instead, you can use Screen Time to set app limits or manually clear history each time you close Safari.
Automatic clearing is useful if you share your device or want to keep your browsing private without remembering to delete history manually. The trade-off is that Safari will not show you your browsing history after the time period you set — even if you want to find a site you visited recently.
Using Safari's Private Browsing mode
Private Browsing is an alternative to clearing history after the fact. When you open a private window or tab, Safari does not save your browsing history, cookies, or search history. Each private session starts fresh and leaves no trace on your device.
On Mac, click File in the menu bar and select New Private Window. On iPhone and iPad, tap the Tabs button (the overlapping squares icon) at the bottom right, then tap Private and Done. The address bar turns dark to show you are in private mode.
Private Browsing does not hide your activity from your internet service provider or websites you visit — it only prevents Safari from storing a record on your device. If you need true anonymity online, you would need a VPN or Tor browser, which are separate tools beyond Safari's built-in features.
Deleting individual websites from history on Mac
If you want to remove just one or two websites from your history without clearing everything, Mac lets you do this. Press Command + Y to open the History sidebar. Find the website you want to delete, right-click it, and select Delete. The site disappears from your history immediately.
You can also search for a specific site in the History sidebar using the search box at the top. Type the website name or URL, and Safari filters the list to show only matching entries. Right-click any result and delete it the same way.
This method works for individual pages you visited, not entire domains. If you visited example.com multiple times, you can delete each visit separately, but there is no option to delete all visits to that domain at once. For that, you would need to clear all history for a specific time period.
Clearing Safari data on shared devices
If you share a Mac or iPad with other people, clearing your history regularly helps keep your browsing private from other users. On shared devices, consider turning on automatic history deletion so you do not have to remember to clear it manually.
On Mac, you can also create a separate user account for each person who uses the computer. Each account has its own Safari history, bookmarks, and settings. This is more secure than sharing one account and clearing history afterward, because other users cannot see your browsing even if they access Safari before you clear it.
On iPad, there is no built-in user account system like Mac. If multiple people use the same iPad, the only way to keep browsing private is to clear history and website data regularly. You might also use Private Browsing mode when you do not want your activity saved at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does clearing Safari history delete my passwords?
No. Clearing history removes your browsing history, cookies, and cached data, but not your saved passwords. If you want to delete a saved password, go to Settings > Passwords (on iPhone) or Safari > Settings > Passwords (on Mac), find the password, and delete it individually.
Can I recover Safari history after I delete it?
Once you clear history in Safari, it cannot be recovered through the browser itself. However, if you use iCloud to sync Safari across devices, clearing history on one device may clear it on others too. If you have a backup of your device from before the deletion, you might restore it, but this would overwrite all changes made since the backup.
Why does Safari ask me to log in again after I clear history?
Clearing history also deletes cookies, which websites use to keep you logged in. When you clear cookies, Safari forgets that you were signed in, so the next time you visit that site, it asks for your login information again.
Does Private Browsing hide my activity from my internet provider?
No. Private Browsing only prevents Safari from storing history on your device. Your internet service provider can still see which websites you visit because the data travels through their network. To hide your activity from your ISP, you would need a VPN (virtual private network), which is a separate service.
Can I clear history on Safari without clearing cookies?
Not with Safari's built-in tools. When you clear history on iPhone, it automatically clears cookies and cached data at the same time. On Mac, the Clear History option does the same. If you need to keep cookies but delete history, you would have to use a third-party browser or extension.