Why and when to clear your browsing history
Clearing your browsing history removes the record of websites you have visited from your browser. Your browser stores this history so you can search for sites you visited before, but it also means anyone with access to your device can see where you have been online. Clearing history is useful if you share a device, want to remove traces of sites you visited, or straightforward want to free up storage space.
The timing matters. If you clear history when ready after visiting a site, it is gone. If you wait weeks, your browser may have already stored copies of pages, images, and login information in other places — the cache, cookies, and autofill data — so clearing history alone will not erase everything. Most people clear history weekly or monthly, or after a specific browsing session they want to keep private.
Keep in mind that clearing your browser history does not hide your activity from your internet service provider, your employer if you are on a work network, or the websites themselves. Those organisations have their own records of your visits. Clearing history only removes the local record stored on your device.
Key Takeaways
- Clearing browsing history removes the list of websites you visited from your browser, but does not erase cache, cookies, or autofill data unless you clear those separately.
- Each browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — has its own history menu, and the steps differ slightly between them.
- You can set your browser to clear history automatically when you close it, which removes the need to do it manually.
- Clearing history on your device does not hide your activity from your internet service provider, your employer, or the websites you visited.
How to clear history in Chrome
Open Chrome and press Ctrl+H on Windows or Command+Y on Mac. This opens your history page. On the left side, click Clear browsing data. A window will pop up asking what time range you want to clear — you can choose the last hour, the last day, the last week, the last four weeks, or all time.
At the top of that window, make sure the box next to Cookies and other site data is checked if you want to log out of websites automatically. The box next to Cached images and files removes temporary copies of web pages, which saves storage space. Leave Browsing history checked. Then click Clear data. The window closes and your history is gone.
How to clear history in Firefox
Open Firefox and press Ctrl+H on Windows or Command+Y on Mac to open the history sidebar. At the top of the sidebar, click the three horizontal lines (the menu icon) and select Clear Recent History. A window opens asking what time range to clear — choose from the last hour, two hours, four hours, today, or everything.
Below the time range, you will see checkboxes for what to clear. Make sure Browsing & read History is checked. You can also check Cookies to log out of sites and Cache to free up space. Click Clear Now. Firefox will clear your data and close the window.
How to clear history in Safari
Open Safari and click History in the menu bar at the top of your screen. A dropdown menu appears. Click Clear History. A window pops up asking how far back you want to clear — you can choose the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history.
Select your time range and click Clear History. Safari will clear your browsing history for that period. Note that Safari does not show separate options for cookies and cache in this menu — to clear those, you need to go to Safari > Settings > Privacy and click Manage Website Data, then Remove All.
How to clear history in Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and press Ctrl+Shift+Delete on Windows. This opens the clear browsing data window directly. Choose your time range from the dropdown menu at the top — options include the last hour, last 24 hours, last 7 days, last 4 weeks, or all time.
Make sure Browsing history is checked. You can also check Cookies and other site data to log out of websites and Cached images and files to save space. Click Clear now. Edge will clear your data and the window closes.
Set your browser to clear history automatically
Instead of clearing history manually each time, you can tell your browser to clear it automatically when you close the browser. In Chrome, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data. Turn on Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome. In Firefox, go to Settings > Privacy & Security and scroll to History. Under Firefox will, choose Use custom settings for history, then check Clear history when Firefox closes.
In Safari, go to Settings > Privacy and check Remove history items, then choose how often from the dropdown — options are after one day, one week, two weeks, one month, or manually. In Edge, go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services and turn on Clear browsing data. Then choose what to clear from the dropdown menu and turn on Choose what to clear every time you close the browser.
What clearing history does and does not do
Clearing your browsing history removes the list of websites from your browser's history menu. It does not automatically remove cookies, which are small files that websites use to remember you, or the cache, which stores temporary copies of web pages to load them faster next time. If you want to log out of all websites and free up storage, you need to clear those separately — most browsers let you do this in the same window where you clear history.
Clearing history also does not remove autofill data, which is the information your browser remembers when you type into forms. To clear autofill, go to your browser's settings and search for "autofill" or "passwords" — each browser stores this in a different place. Clearing history does not affect bookmarks or saved passwords unless you specifically choose to delete those as well.
If you are trying to hide your activity from someone else on your device, clearing history is only a partial solution. A determined person can recover deleted history using data recovery tools, or they can check your internet service provider's records. If privacy from other people on your device is important to you, consider using your browser's private or incognito mode instead, which does not save history at all while you are using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can someone recover my browsing history after I clear it?
Clearing history removes it from your browser's menu, but the data may still exist on your device's hard drive until it is overwritten by new data. A person with technical knowledge and the right tools could potentially recover it. If you need to permanently erase your activity, you would need to use a find deletion tool, which is beyond what a standard clear history function does.
Does clearing history log me out of websites?
Clearing history alone does not log you out. You need to also clear cookies, which is the separate checkbox in the clear browsing data window. If you check both Browsing history and Cookies and site data at the same time, you will be logged out of most websites when you clear.
What is the difference between clearing history and private browsing mode?
Private or incognito mode prevents your browser from saving history in the first place — when you close the window, nothing is stored. Clearing history removes what your browser already saved. Private mode is useful if you know in advance you want a session to be private. Clearing history is useful after the fact.
Will clearing my history speed up my browser?
Clearing history and cache frees up a small amount of storage space on your device, but it will not noticeably speed up your browser's performance. Clearing cache may help if your device is very low on storage, but the main reason to clear history is privacy, not speed.
Do I need to clear history on my phone the same way as my computer?
The steps are similar but slightly different on phones. On iPhone Safari, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. On Android Chrome, tap the three dots in the top right, go to Settings > Privacy > Clear browsing data. The options and menus are the same, just arranged for a smaller screen.