Use Topics to Organize Safari Bookmarks

Bookmarks pile up fast, and the folder you built months ago no longer matches how you actually save pages. Safari's Topics feature leans on Apple Intelligence to group related bookmarks, Reading List items, and open tabs for you.

Here's where the topic headers and tab chips show up on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, how to switch the tab grouping off, and what to check when nothing appears.

In this guide, I have covered:

What Safari Topics actually does

Somewhere past a few dozen saves, your bookmarks folder stops being useful. Topics is Apple’s answer to that mess: an Apple Intelligence feature that groups related items inside Safari so you don’t maintain folders by hand.

When Safari detects three or more bookmarks or Reading List items sharing a theme, a topic header with thumbnails appears on the Bookmarks page. Click the topic to see every page in the group. Click any thumbnail to open it.

Open tabs work the same way. Two or more tabs on one subject produce a topic chip in the tab bar with a small count badge. Hover that chip on Mac and you get a preview of every page in the group without leaving what you’re reading.

What you need before Topics will work

Topics stays invisible on an older Mac, or when Apple Intelligence is switched off. Check these four things first.

• A Mac running a recent macOS release that supports Apple Intelligence.
• Apple Intelligence enabled in System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri.
• Device and Siri language set to one of the languages Apple Intelligence currently supports.
• At least three bookmarks or two tabs that clearly cover the same subject, so Safari has enough signal to form a topic.

Topics is generated locally by Apple Intelligence, so the contents of your bookmarks, Reading List, and open tabs stay on your Mac and are not uploaded to build the groups.

See your bookmarks grouped by topic on Mac

Topics only appear after Safari has clustered at least three related items, so save a few more bookmarks on a shared subject before you go looking for headers.

1. Open Safari on your Mac.
2. Click the sidebar button in the toolbar to open the Bookmarks panel.
3. Scroll to the top: recently saved bookmarks and Reading List items appear first, newest on the left.
4. Look for a topic header, a short label such as “Recipes” or “Trip planning”, sitting above a cluster of matching items.
5. Click the topic to expand the thumbnails, then click any thumbnail to open that page in a new tab.

Nothing yet? Bookmark a couple more pages on the same subject and reopen the panel. Safari rebuilds the groups in the background.

Browse tabs by topic in Safari on Mac

Tab topics appear as soon as Safari spots two or more tabs on the same subject, and they sit right in the tab bar so you can hop between related pages. New to tab handling? The guide to Open Private Browsing Mode and New Tabs in Safari on Mac covers the surrounding controls.

1. Open Safari and load several pages on related subjects, for example three flight-comparison sites.
2. Watch the tab bar: a topic chip with a count badge appears once Safari recognizes the cluster.
3. Hover the chip to see a thumbnail strip of every tab in the group without leaving your current page.
4. Click any thumbnail to jump to that tab, or click the chip itself to expand or collapse the strip.

TIP: If the chips feel cluttered, turn them off in the next section. Your bookmarks stay grouped either way.

Turn tab Topics on or off in Safari on Mac

This switch controls open tabs only. Safari on Mac has no manual toggle for bookmark topics, because Apple Intelligence organizes those automatically.

1. Open Safari.
2. Click Safari in the menu bar, then click Settings….
3. Click the Tabs tab.
4. Find the option that controls automatically creating topics for open tabs and toggle it on or off.

To confirm the change, open a handful of related tabs. The chip should appear or vanish in the tab bar within a few seconds.

Use Topics for bookmarks on iPhone and iPad

The same feature groups bookmarks and Reading List items on iPhone and iPad, but the toggle lives behind the tab switcher instead of in Settings. For the surrounding controls, see privacy and security settings in Safari on iPhone and iPad.

1. Open Safari on the iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the tabs button to open the tab overview.
3. Tap the organize button at the top of the tab grid.
4. Tap Automatically Create Topics to turn it on, or tap Never to stop Safari from grouping tabs.

To see topics inside saved bookmarks on iPhone or iPad, open the start page, tap the bookmarks button, and scroll to the top. Topic headers sit above your recent items.

RELATED: Open New Tabs and Private Tabs in Safari on iPhone & iPad

What to try if Topics never shows up

You’ve saved plenty of related bookmarks and still see no topic headers. Work through these checks in order.

1. Confirm Apple Intelligence is on by opening System Settings and reviewing Apple Intelligence & Siri.
2. Check that your device and Siri language are set to a supported option. Topics appears only when the system language matches one Apple Intelligence understands.
3. Save at least three more bookmarks that clearly share a theme, for example the same recipe site, the same news outlet, or the same trip.
4. Relaunch Safari so it can rebuild its topic suggestions from the latest bookmarks.
5. Update macOS, iOS, and iPadOS to the latest release if the option still doesn’t appear. Apple rolls Topics out gradually and the exact wording can change between versions.

Apple also asks for feedback on every topic. In the iPhone tab overview, you can tap Looks Good or Something Isn’t Right to teach the system what you actually want grouped.