We use our iPhone, a small portable pocket computer, to browse the internet from anywhere for checking emails, doing internet banking, logging in to social media accounts, etc. With time, details of your online browsing activities get accumulated on your iPhone.
These activities include the address of the websites you’ve visited, ad preferences, your social media login credentials, your credit/debit card details, etc. While these stored data, often called cookies, enhance your browsing experience, at the same time, they can expose you to fraud and identity theft.
So, clearing your iPhone’s browsing history gives your browser a fresh start, protects your sensitive data from potential misuse, and speeds up the web browsing experience.
This blog walks you through how to clear browsing history on iPhone across Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. It also explains how to permanently erase search history on iPhone, learn the benefits of clearing your browsing history, and discover how often you should do it for better privacy and performance.
Benefits of Clearing Browsing History on iPhone
- Protects Your Privacy: Clearing your browsing history helps protect sensitive information from prying eyes, as well as from friends and family, if you share your device.
- Improves Browser Performance: Regularly clearing browsing history helps free up storage space and keeps web browsing smoother and faster.
- Fixes Loading & Formatting Issues: Clearing browsing history removes outdated cache and cookies data, helping websites load properly and fixing display or login errors
- Frees Up Storage Space: With time, temporary internet files, images, and cookies can occupy significant storage space on your iPhone. Clearing browsing history can free up valuable storage space for apps, photos, or videos.
- Provides a Fresh Start: Whether you’re troubleshooting browser issues or want to reset your web browser, clearing browsing history gives you a clean slate.
How to Clear Safari Browsing History on iPhone?
Safari is the default browser on iPhones, and it stores your browsing history, cache, and cookies. Safari is by far the dominant browser on Apple devices, and holds about 22.9% of the global mobile browser, making it second only to Chrome.
How to Remove a Website from Your Safari Browsing History
- Open the Safari app, tap on the Bookmarks icon, and go to the History tab.
- Swipe left any website that you want to remove and tap Delete.
How to Clear All Search History on Safari via Time Periods
- Open Safari, go to Bookmarks, tap Clear on the bottom-right, and select the desired time range.
How to Clear All History on Safari
- Open Settings, go to Safari, and tap Clear History and Website Data.
- Again, tap Clear History and Data to erase the history of the iPhone.
How to Clear Google Chrome’s Browsing History on iPhone?
According to StatCounter, as of mid-2025, Google Chrome dominates the global smartphone browser with approximately 69.9% share. However, it is the second most popular browser on iOS after Safari. If you use Chrome on your iPhone, clearing your browsing history can help protect your privacy and fix browsing issues. Here’s how to clear Chrome browsing history on iPhone:
How to Clear All Browsing History on Chrome
- Open the Chrome app and tap three gray dots.
- Tap History and next, tap Clear Browsing Data.
- Ensure that the checkbox next to Browsing History has been marked.
- Tap the Clear Browsing data button and confirm the choice on the pop-up box that appears.
How to Remove a Website From Your Chrome Browsing History
- Open the Chrome app, tap the three gray dots, and then click History.
- Tap Edit at the bottom-right and select the websites you want to delete. Click Delete.
How to Clear iPhone Browsing History on Mozilla Firefox?
While Safari and Google Chrome dominate the mobile browsing market, some iPhone users prefer Mozilla Firefox for its privacy features. If you use Firefox on your iPhone, here’s how to clear your browsing history:
How to Clear All Browsing History on Firefox
- Open the Firefox app, and tap the hamburger icon in the bottom-right corner.
- Tap Settings, scroll down, and select Data Management.
- Ensure the Browsing History toggle is on, tap Clear Private Data, and confirm the choice by clicking OK.
How to Clear the History of Individual Websites on Firefox
- Open the Firefox app and tap the Hamburger icon.
- Go to History, select and swipe left the websites, and tap Delete.
How to Permanently Delete Your Browsing History on iPhone?
It’s important to remember here that simple deletion of Browsing History from Google Chrome, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox browsers on iPhone will not help, as it doesn’t really delete it permanently in the sense that the data is still “retrievable” by various data recovery tools. Thus, to protect your privacy, it is essential to erase iPhone browsing history permanently using Stellar Eraser for iPhone.
This professional iOS eraser software is designed for the permanent deletion of sensitive files, browser history, photos, cookies, etc., stored on your iPhone. Files erased using Stellar Eraser for iPhone cannot be recovered using any data recovery tool or technique.
Here’s how to Erase History on iPhone Permanently Using the iOS Erasure Tool
- Download and install Stellar Toolkit for iPhone on your system.
- Launch the software and click on the Erase Data module.
- Click Next on the Erase iPhone Data screen.
- When you see the Click Device to Select screen, connect your iPhone to the system.
- Click Erase and select Yes in the Erase Process dialog box to initiate the erasure process.
- Once the process completes, an ‘all data on the selected device eraser successfully’ message appears. Click OK.
How Often Should You Clear Browsing History on iPhone?
Just like tidying up your physical space, regularly clearing your iPhone browsing history helps keep your digital life organized. Here are some tips:
- Regularly Cleaning: Clear your browsing history daily if you frequently use public Wi-Fi, share your iPhone with others, or access sensitive content.
- Monthly Reminder: Set a monthly reminder to clear your browsing history to keep your device running smoothly.
- Before Transactions: Clear your browsing history on iPhone before entering sensitive information, like credit or debit card details, for added security.
- Website Trouble: If you are facing trouble while browsing a website, clearing the browsing history can sometimes resolve the problem.
- After Logging Out: After you log out of any social media account, clear your browsing data to ensure your login details aren’t stored.
Final Thoughts
Maintaining browser hygiene on iPhone or any other device is essential for keeping your data private and secure. Deleting browsing history on iPhone from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari browsers isn’t a failsafe process for this purpose, as various data recovery tools can retrieve the deleted data.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use a professional iOS erasure tool that overwrites the data to ensure permanent deletion of browsing history on iPhone, beyond the scope of recovery.
