Safari stores your browsing history by default, and you can clear it in under a minute
Open the Safari app on your iPhone. Tap the book icon at the bottom of the screen (on older iPhones, look for the clock icon). Tap "History" at the bottom. Tap "Clear History and Website Data" in the bottom right corner. Choose how far back you want to clear: the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time. Tap "Clear History and Website Data" again to confirm. That's it — your history is gone.
If you want Safari to stop saving your history altogether, you can turn on Private Browsing. When Private Browsing is on, Safari won't store any history, cookies, or search information from that session. Tap the tabs icon (two overlapping squares) at the bottom right of Safari, then tap "Private" in the bottom left corner. The address bar will turn dark, showing you're in Private Browsing mode.
Key Takeaways
- You can delete all your Safari history at once by opening Safari, tapping the book icon, selecting History, and choosing "Clear History and Website Data."
- You can clear only recent history — the last hour, today, or today and yesterday — instead of everything.
- Private Browsing mode prevents Safari from saving any history, cookies, or search data while you're using it.
- Clearing history on your iPhone does not affect history on other devices signed into the same iCloud account unless you turn off iCloud sync for Safari.
- Deleted history cannot be recovered, so make sure you want to clear it before you confirm.
Why you might want to clear your history
You clear Safari history for different reasons. You might want privacy from someone else using your phone. You might want to free up storage space, though history takes up very little room. You might want to remove autofill suggestions — when you start typing a web address, Safari suggests sites you've visited before, and clearing history removes those suggestions.
If you share your iPhone with family members, clearing history is a straightforward way to keep your browsing private. If you're selling or giving away your phone, clearing history is one step in wiping your personal data before you hand it over.
The difference between clearing history and Private Browsing
Clearing history removes what Safari has already saved. Private Browsing stops Safari from saving anything in the first place. If you clear your history once and then browse normally, Safari will start saving your new history right away. If you use Private Browsing, nothing gets saved during that session.
Private Browsing is useful when you're on a shared device or a public computer and don't want your activity recorded. On your own iPhone, you might use it when you're shopping for a gift for someone else, or when you're researching something you don't want showing up in your suggestions later.
What happens to history synced across your devices
If you use iCloud and have Safari sync turned on, your history syncs across your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and any other Apple devices signed into the same iCloud account. When you clear history on your iPhone, it clears on those other devices too. If you don't want this to happen, you can turn off Safari sync in Settings before you clear your history.
To turn off Safari sync, go to Settings, tap your name at the top, tap iCloud, scroll down to Safari, and turn off the toggle. After you clear your history on your iPhone, you can turn Safari sync back on. Your other devices will keep their history because the sync was off when you cleared it.
Clearing individual sites instead of everything
Safari doesn't have a built-in way to delete one site from your history while keeping everything else. Your options are to clear all history, or to clear history from a specific time period. If you want to hide one site, Private Browsing is a better choice — use it for that browsing session, and nothing gets saved.
Some people use the "Frequently Visited" section on the Safari home page as a shortcut to sites they visit often. You can remove a site from that section by long-pressing it and tapping "Remove," but this doesn't delete it from your full history — it just removes the shortcut.
Clearing cookies and website data separately
When you tap "Clear History and Website Data," you're clearing three things at once: your browsing history, cookies, and cached website data. Cookies are small files that websites store on your phone to remember your preferences and login information. Website data includes things like saved passwords and autofill information.
If you want to clear only cookies and website data without touching your history, go to Settings, tap Safari, scroll down, and tap "Clear History and Website Data." Wait — that's the same button. Safari doesn't give you a way to clear cookies alone without also clearing history. If you need to clear cookies for a specific site, you can go to Settings, tap Safari, tap "Advanced," tap "Website Data," find the site, and swipe left to delete it.
What clearing history does and doesn't do
Clearing your Safari history removes the list of sites you've visited, but it doesn't hide your activity from your internet service provider or from the websites themselves. Those sites still know you visited them — they have their own records. Clearing history only removes the record from your phone.
If you're concerned about your internet service provider seeing what you browse, you would need to use a VPN (virtual private network), not just clear your history. If you're concerned about websites tracking you, you can turn on Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Settings under Safari, which limits how much data websites can collect about you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I recover history after I delete it?
No. Once you clear your Safari history, it's permanently deleted from your iPhone. If you synced that history to iCloud, clearing it on your iPhone also clears it from your other devices. There's no undo button, so make sure you want to delete it before you confirm.
Does clearing history delete my saved passwords?
No. Clearing history and website data removes cookies and cached data, but not passwords. Your saved passwords stay in Safari's password manager. If you want to delete a saved password, go to Settings, tap Passwords, find the site, and tap "Delete."
Will clearing history speed up my iPhone?
Slightly, but not noticeably. Safari history takes up very little storage space. If your iPhone is slow, clearing history won't fix it. Restarting your phone or closing apps running in the background will have a bigger effect.
What's the difference between clearing history and turning off history?
Clearing history removes what's already saved. Turning off history (Private Browsing) stops Safari from saving anything new. You can't permanently turn off history in regular Safari — you have to use Private Browsing for each session.
If I clear history on my iPhone, does it clear on my Mac?
Yes, if you have iCloud sync turned on for Safari. The two devices share the same history. If you don't want this, turn off Safari sync in iCloud Settings before you clear history on either device.