Delete your search history in three steps
Go to myactivity.google.com in any browser. Sign in with the Google account you use for search. On the left side, click Delete activity. Choose All time from the dropdown menu, make sure Search is checked, then click Delete. Google will remove all your search records from that account within a few minutes.
If you want to delete only some searches — say, the last week or a specific search term — the same page lets you do that. Click the date dropdown and pick a shorter range, or use the search box at the top to find individual searches and delete them one at a time.
You can also delete history from your phone. On Android, open the Google app, tap your profile picture, go to Manage your Google Account, then Data & privacy, then My Activity. On iPhone, the process is the same but through the Google app's settings menu. The deletions sync across all your devices.
Key Takeaways
- Visit myactivity.google.com, sign in, and click Delete activity to remove all your searches at once.
- You can delete searches from a specific date range or search for and delete individual queries.
- Deletions take effect within minutes and sync across all devices using that Google account.
- Turning on auto-delete in your Google Account settings will remove searches older than 3 or 18 months automatically.
- Deleting your search history does not affect your search results or how Google's search engine works.
How to set up automatic deletion
If you want Google to delete your searches without you having to do it manually, you can turn on auto-delete. Go to myactivity.google.com, click the three-line menu on the left, then Settings. Under Data & privacy, find Auto-delete activity and turn it on.
You will see two options: delete searches older than 3 months, or delete searches older than 18 months. Pick whichever fits your comfort level. Google will then remove searches automatically on that schedule. You can turn this off at any time by going back to the same settings page.
What happens to searches you delete
When you delete a search from your activity, Google removes it from the account tied to that search. The search no longer appears in your activity history, and Google stops using it to personalize your search results or ads.
Deleting your search history does not change how search results appear to you going forward. Google's search engine still works the same way — it still ranks pages by relevance and quality. What changes is that Google no longer has a record of what you personally searched for, so it cannot use your past searches to guess what you might want to search for next.
Deleting searches on different devices
If you use Google Search on a phone, tablet, and computer, deletions made on one device show up on all the others. This is because they all connect to the same Google account. When you delete your history on your phone, that deletion syncs to your computer within a few minutes.
If you use multiple Google accounts — say, one for work and one for personal use — each account has its own search history. You have to delete the history for each account separately by signing in to that account and visiting myactivity.google.com.
Clearing search history from your browser instead
Your browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) also keeps a record of websites you visit. This is separate from your Google search history. If you want to delete the websites you visited, you need to clear your browser history, not your Google activity.
In Chrome, press Ctrl + H on Windows or Command + Y on Mac to open your history. Click Clear browsing data on the left, choose your time range, make sure Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files are checked, then click Clear data. In Safari, Firefox, and Edge, the process is similar but the menu names differ slightly — look for "Clear History" or "Clear Recent History" in the main menu.
Clearing your browser history removes the websites you visited but not the searches you typed into Google. To remove both, you need to delete your Google search history and clear your browser history.
Why you might want to delete your search history
Some people delete their search history for privacy reasons — they do not want Google to have a record of what they search for. Others delete it because they share a device with family members and do not want their searches to show up in someone else's activity. Some delete it straightforward because they do not like the idea of a company storing their information.
Deleting your history does not make you anonymous to Google or your internet service provider. Google still knows you visited myactivity.google.com and made a deletion request. But it does mean Google no longer has a searchable record of your past searches tied to your account.
What you should know about private browsing
If you use private browsing mode (called Incognito in Chrome, Private in Safari and Firefox), Google does not save your searches to your activity history. When you close an Incognito window, that browsing session is not recorded. This is useful if you want to search for something without it being added to your account's history.
Private browsing does not hide your searches from your internet service provider or your network administrator. It only hides them from your browser and Google's activity log. If you are on a work network, your employer may still see what you search for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does deleting my search history delete my Google account?
No. Deleting your search history only removes the record of searches you have made. Your Google account, email, photos, and all other data stay in place. You are only removing the activity log.
Can I recover searches I deleted by mistake?
Google does not offer a way to recover deleted searches. Once you delete them from myactivity.google.com, they are gone. If you deleted them recently, you might remember what you searched for and search again, but Google cannot restore the deleted records.
If I delete my search history, will my search results change?
No. Deleting your history does not change how search results appear to you. Google still ranks results by relevance and quality. What changes is that Google no longer uses your past searches to personalize future results or ads.
Does deleting my Google search history also delete my YouTube watch history?
No. YouTube has its own separate activity log. To delete your YouTube history, go to myactivity.google.com, click the filter on the left, uncheck Search, and check YouTube instead. Then click Delete activity. You can delete YouTube and Google Search history separately or together.
Will Google know I deleted my search history?
Yes. Google records that you visited myactivity.google.com and made a deletion request. But Google no longer has a record of the searches you deleted. The deletion itself is logged, but the searches are gone.