Clear Browsing Data from Safari on iPhone & iPad

Safari on iPhone and iPad builds up history, cookies, and cached files with every page you open. Left alone, that stored data piles up until pages feel slow or anyone holding your device can see where you have been.

One screen in Settings wipes all three: Apps → Safari → Clear History and Website Data. Want to stay signed in? Clear only cookies and cache from the Advanced menu, or remove history alone from inside Safari.

In this guide, I have covered:

Clear History, Cookies, and Cache from Safari Settings

You want a clean slate on your iPhone or iPad: no history, no cookies, no cached files. Safari keeps all three in one place, and a single screen in Settings wipes them together.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down and tap Apps. On iOS 17 and earlier, Safari sat directly on the main Settings list, so you can skip this step.
3. Scroll to and tap Safari.
4. Tap Clear History and Website Data.
5. Pick a timeframe: Last Hour, Today, Today & Yesterday, or All History.
6. (Optional) Turn on Close All Tabs if you want Safari to close every open tab in the same pass.
7. Tap Clear History and Data to confirm.

History, cookies, and cached files disappear in one pass. The catch: any site that kept you signed in with a cookie will ask for your password again.

Clear Cookies and Cache Only (Keep Browsing History)

You want to sign out of every site and refresh cached files, but you would rather not lose the record of where you have been. The Advanced pane has a separate Website Data screen for exactly that.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Apps, then tap Safari.
3. Scroll to the bottom and tap Advanced.
4. Tap Website Data.
5. Tap Remove All Website Data at the bottom.
6. Tap Remove Now to confirm.

Every cookie and cached file is flushed across all sites. Browsing history stays exactly where it was. You’ll know it worked when the sites that used to remember you start asking for a sign-in.

TIP: Only need one site gone? Swipe left on its entry in the Website Data list and tap Delete. Every other site keeps its data.

If you want to see how much space each site is holding before you wipe it, our guide to viewing and clearing site storage in Safari on iPhone and iPad breaks down the list.

Clear Browsing History from Inside the Safari App

Sometimes history is the only thing you want gone. The in-app route through the menu removes it without touching cookies or cache, so you stay signed in everywhere else.

1. Open Safari on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the menu at the bottom-right of the toolbar.
3. Tap Bookmarks.
4. Tap the history tab at the top.
5. Tap Clear at the bottom of the page.
6. Pick the timeframe you want to remove.

History is removed. Cookies and cached files stay where they were, which means your usual sites keep you logged in.

Cleared more than you meant to? History is also where Safari stores recently closed tabs, so you can often get a tab back. Our guide to reopening recently closed tabs in Safari on iPhone and iPad covers the steps.

Other Safari Settings Worth Knowing

Clearing data solves today’s problem. A few settings nearby decide how much Safari collects in the first place, and one of them shows what it has already blocked.

Under Apps → Safari → Advanced, the Block All Cookies switch stops Safari from accepting new cookies from any site. Plenty of sign-in flows break when it is on, so leave it off unless you have a specific reason. For a closer look at how cookies work in Safari, see our guide to blocking or allowing cookies in Safari on iPhone and iPad.

To see the trackers Safari stopped in the last 30 days, open Safari, tap the menu, and tap Privacy Report. For the rest of the privacy controls, including tracking protection, secure connections, and fraud warnings, see the full Safari privacy and security settings guide for iPhone and iPad.

If you also browse on a Mac, you can clear the same stored data from Safari on your Mac so both devices start from the same clean state.

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