How to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on iPhone or iPad

To find tab history, open the Safari app on your iPhone or iPad, then tap and hold the back button at the bottom left.

Viewing and wiping your web browsing history on the best iPhones and iPads in Apple's Safari web browser has been an easy task for years.

When you browse the web, a record is always kept of where you've been online, which can be stored on your device for days, weeks, or even months. Most of us don't need to look back on our web browsing, so being able to wipe it on our Apple devices is a straightforward affair.

However, you may be someone who regularly wipes your browsing history so you can make a clean start when you next use Safari. There may be other moments when you're wiping your browsing history so you can hide a surprise birthday present from a friend.

In any case, viewing and wiping your web browsing history on iPhone and iPad is simple, and can be done in minutes. Here's how to do it.

How to find your web-browsing history

Viewing your web history in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 is very easy to do, here's how:

1. In Safari, tap the Bookmarks button in the toolbar that's below the address bar.
2. Tap the History icon in the upper right corner. Here, you can view your entire web history.

To search for bookmarks, tap the Bookmarks button in the toolbar at the bottom of the app, then select the Bookmark icon. (Image credit: iMore)

3. Use the History search bar to find previously viewed pages.

To find History, tap the History menu. Then use the search to find previously viewed information. (Image credit: iMore)

How to clear your web browsing history

If the time calls to wipe most or all of your web browsing history in Safari, here's how to do it on both iPhone and iPad.

To note, the below steps will be the same if you attempt to wipe your web browsing history on an iPhone 15 Pro Max or an iPad Mini 6, all Apple devices require the same steps.

1. In Safari, tap the Bookmarks button.
2. Select the History icon in the upper right corner.
3. Tap Clear and select how much history you'd like to clear: the last hour, the last day, 48 hours' worth, or all recorded history.

To clear History, tap the Bookmarks button, then choose the History icon. Tap Clear than select how much history you'd like to erase. (Image credit: Future / Apple)

One more thing… A feature no one talks about

Privacy on the web matters more than ever in these modern times. Websites store the pages you click on, especially when you sign into a page that can contain personal information about you.

It's great to have a feature like this in Safari — but it would be good to have this automated as an Apple Intelligence feature in iOS 18 someday. If Apple's web browser could automatically clear history after 24 hours it would be very useful, as you wouldn't leave a trail behind.

Regardless, it's still a good feature, and one you should use every week.