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How to clear browsing history on Safari on iPhone or Mac

You can clear your Safari browsing history on both iOS and Mac

As tracking goes, Safari keeping your browsing history is less about privacy-busting security and more about just being useful. It's your history that means Safari remembers where to go to when you choose forward and back within a site, for instance.

It's also how Safari is able to offer you a list of sites that you regularly go to, on account of how handy it is to be able to back to them with a click. History also does keep things you may not expect, though, such as a list of items you've downloaded.

If you don't want that, though, or you're just fed up of Safari going to site addresses you haven't looked at in years, you can wipe the whole browsing history.

On a Mac, you can also wipe, for instance, just the last hour's browsing history. So if you share Safari and it's someone's special birthday coming up, you can avoid them inadvertently finding out you plan to surprise them with dance lessons.

How to clear search history on Safari on Mac

• In Safari, choose the History menu
• Select Clear History from the very bottom of the menu
• In the dialog box that appears, choose from clearing the last hour , today , today and yesterday , or all history
• Click on Clear History

Alternatively, within Safari you can press Command-Y and the current page will be replaced by a history list. There's a Clear History... button toward the top right.

Clicking on that gives you exactly the same dialog about choosing how far back you want to clear your browsing history. But this page does also give you one extra option — the ability to delete one specific item.

How to clear one item from Safari search history on Mac

• In Safari, press Command-Y
• From the long list, click once on a history item to select it
• Right-click to bring up a menu, then choose Delete

Alternatively, if you select one, two, or more items in the history list, you can then press the Delete key to remove them all.

That kind of precision removal is only possible on your Mac, not on iOS . However, whether it's precision or wholesale clearing of your history, though, there is a way to replicate it on iOS.

If you have set iCloud to share your Safari history, then just doing this on your Mac also removes the history from your iPhone, and iPad.

Otherwise, you're stuck with going to your iOS device. And then with clearing the entire history.

How to clear search history on iPhone

• Go to Settings on your iOS device
• Tap on Safari
• Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data
• Tap that, then tap Clear History and Data to confirm

One important thing to note is that you can't selectively remove, say, today's browsing history on the iPhone or iPad . It's all or nothing, with iOS.

What you leave behind

Clearing your history like this does remove the list of sites and pages you've visited. It does mean you can't go back to that site you read last Tuesday, not without remembering what it was and going there yourself.

What it doesn't remove, though, is the information that gets used by something like AutoFill. If you have your address, for instance, and you're used to online forms being filled out with it, you've still got that feature.

You've also still got anything you downloaded. It's purely that Safari won't keep the list of downloads.

Keep up with AppleInsider by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS, and follow us on YouTube , Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos.

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How to Manage Your Browsing History in Safari

Revisit websites or remove them from your Safari search history

In This Article

Jump to a Section

• Step-by-Step: Manage History on macOS
• Use Private Browsing in Safari
• Step-by-Step: Manage History on iOS Devices
• Use Private Browsing on iOS

The Apple Safari web browser keeps a log of your search history and the websites that you visit. Learn how to manage your browsing history in Safari and how to browse privately.

Instructions in this article apply to Safari for Mac computers with OS X Yosemite (10.10) through macOS Catalina (10.15) and Apple mobile devices with iOS 8 through iOS 14.

How to Manage Safari History on macOS

Safari has long been the standard web browser for macOS . Here's how to manage Safari's history on a Mac:

Open the Safari browser and select  History  in the menu bar located at the top of the screen.

You'll see a drop-down menu with the titles of the web pages you visited recently. Select a website to load the respective page or select one of the previous days at the bottom of the menu to see more options.

To clear your Safari browsing history and other site-specific data that's stored locally, choose  Clear History  at the bottom of the History  drop-down menu.

If you want to keep website data (like saved passwords and other autofill information), go to  History  >  Show All History . Press Cmd + A  to select everything, then press  Delete to remove your browser history while retaining website data.

Select the period you want to clear from the drop-down menu. Options include the last hour , today , today and yesterday , and all history .

Select Clear History to delete the list of sites.

If you sync your Safari data with any Apple mobile devices using iCloud , the history on those devices is cleared as well.

How to Use Private Browsing in Safari

To prevent websites from appearing in the browser history, use Private Browsing. To open a private window in Safari, go to File > New Private Window , or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + N .

When you close the private window, Safari doesn't remember your search history, the web pages you visited, or any autofill information. The only distinguishing feature of the new window is that the address bar is tinted dark gray. The browsing history for all tabs in this window remains private.

In Safari for Windows , select the settings gear and choose Private Browsing from the drop-down menu.

How to Manage History in Safari on iOS Devices

The Safari app is part of the iOS operating system used in the Apple iPhone , iPad, and iPod touch . To manage the Safari browsing history on an iOS device:

Tap the  Safari app to open it.

Tap the Bookmarks  icon at the bottom of the screen. It resembles an open book.

Tap the History icon at the top of the screen that opens. It resembles a clock face.

Scroll through the screen for a website to open. Tap an entry to open the page in Safari.

To clear the browsing history, tap  Clear  at the bottom of the History screen.

Choose one of the four options:  The last hour , Today , Today and yesterday , and  All time .

Clearing your Safari history also removes cookies and other browsing data. If your iOS device is signed into your iCloud account, the browsing history is removed from other devices that are signed in.

Tap  Done  to exit the screen and return to the browser page.

If you only want to remove individual sites from your Safari history, swipe left on the entry, then tap Delete .

How to Use Private Browsing in Safari on iOS Devices

You can also use Private Browsing in iOS to prevent your Safari search history and web data from being saved:

Open the Safari app and then press and hold the tabs icon (the two overlapping boxes) at the bottom of the screen.

Tap Private .

Tap the plus sign to open a private browsing window.

When you are in private browsing, the background of the URL address bar is black instead of light gray. Enter a URL or search term as usual.

When you are ready to go back to regular browsing, tap the tabs icon and then tap Private to turn off private browsing.

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How-To Geek

How to wipe your browsing history automatically in safari on mac.

Safari records all your web activity, so it's best to occasionally clear it with Safari's self-destruct tool. Here's how it works.

Your browser records all your web activity. Therefore, for added privacy, it's best to regularly clear your browsing history. Safari on your Mac can take care of this for you and automatically wipe your history every once in a while. Here's how to set it up.

Launch Safari on your Mac from the Launchpad or by looking it up on Spotlight .

Next, click "Safari" from the left corner of the menu bar and select "Preferences." Alternatively, you can press Cmd+comma on your keyboard to head directly into this menu.

Under the "General" tab, locate the "Remove History Items" option.

From the dropdown beside it, you can select how often Safari should delete your browsing history. You can have it cleared as frequently as every day or every year.

When you enable this setting, Safari automatically wipes logs of the websites you visit, your web searches, and more.

If you prefer reviewing your browsing history before clearing it, you can choose "Manually" from the dropdown and periodically erase your web activity from Safari yourself.

At the bottom of the "General" section, you'll also find a separate setting called "Remove download list items." With this option, you can configure Safari to automatically remove the list of files you downloaded (but not the files themselves).

You can have them wiped after a day, as soon as you quit Safari, or when the download is unsuccessful.

Enabling these won't affect your Safari browsing data on other Apple devices such as an iPhone or an iPad. As of yet, the options to automatically wipe your browsing history and the download list are not available on Safari's iOS and iPadOS apps.

There's a lot more you can do for a more secure experience on Safari, including browsing in incognito mode by default and optimizing it for maximum privacy .

PowerUninstall

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How to View and Clear Your Safari History on Mac

Written By Chloe Turner

Last updated: February 11, 2022

Technical Writing Specialist who creates different types of articles, from reviews to how-to types of articles for Mac.

We all spend a vast proportion of our time surfing, that’s why your Mac swarms with a list of sites you have browsed in the past. Safari uses iCloud to maintain the same browsing history across your Macs and iOS devices. You only need to have Safari toggled on in iCloud preferences. Macs preserve your browsing history for up to a year, while iOS devices keep it for a month.

You’ve to manage your browsing history to determine what goes to your Apple data download. However, erasing it will not give you a clean slate due to iCloud backups. So in this article, we will show you how to view history on Safari , and ways to delete them. Let’s get started.

Contents: Part 1. Understanding Search Browser History & Why You Need to Turn It off Part 2. How to View and Clear Safari History on Mac Manually Part 3. How to Clear Other Browser History Manually Part 4. Other Choices to Clear Browser History Part 5. Conclusion

Part 1. Understanding Search Browser History & Why You Need to Turn It off

Unpacking Search Browser History

Your browser memorizes every website you visit. To prevent this, enable Incognito Mode or Private Browsing. Otherwise, your browser stores all these pages systematically and they’re inextricably linked to your account. Sites you visit can pop up in autofill Google search forms if you track them. They stick out in violet in your search results.

Browsers also save information about the time when you surfed any page. Browsing history doubles as a website retrieval tool to home on any page from corpus items through the search bar.

Why would you mull over a nuked browsing history?

Sometimes, you wipe out this data for privacy, regulatory compliance, business secrecy, anxiety or simply spruce up your Mac. So, no website you opened will appear in your browser search results titled “ already visited ”.

When you want to sell or give away your Mac, failure to erase browser history could expose troves of your online data to prying eyes. Equally, clearing your history will throw a snooping eye off the scent if someone attempts to look up your surfing history.

Wipe Out Browser History in a Click with a Dedicated Removal Tool

Automate your way of handling histories with a versatile browser removal tool for clockwork accuracy. Privacy tool adds an extra layer of security in safeguarding your privacy with the total annihilation of surfed pages.

We recommend you use the module Privacy of iMyMac PowerMyMac to automatically wipe away history details, cookies, and other pieces of data regurgitated by browsers. This software works like stink to clear out various types of Apple data download records.

It also allows you to determine the cookies you wish to retain like the frequently-visited-sites. It boasts powerful algorithms that scan faster and delete in a single click. Try it out to wipe out your online footprint.

Part 2. How to View and Clear Safari History on Mac Manually

How to View Safari History on Mac

• Search the web browsing history in Safari on your Mac. You can search your browsing history to quickly find webpages you visited before.
• In the Safari app on your Mac, choose History > Show All History.
• Type in the Search field at the top-right corner of the window.

How to Clear Safari History on Mac

• Launch Safari from the dock.
• Click on history in the menu bar at the upper parts of your screen. You can pore over your recent browsing history by drifting the mouse over the latest date in this list of entries.
• Choose Show All History at the upper drop-down menu. This throws up the entire browser history exhibited by date. Use the keyboard shortcut ⌘Command+Y to launch the history in Safari.
• Click ▶ on the left of any date to extend the browser archives for that date in a complete list. You can wipe out the history by clicking on Clear history on the upper-right of the page.

Part 3. How to Clear Other Browser History Manually

Google chrome.

• Launch Chrome.
• Click on History from the menu bar on the crest of the screen. This spew up a collection of Recently Closed websites and an assortment of Recently Visited
• Click on Show Full History at the foot of the drop-down menu. This reveals a list of your Chrome browsing history.
• Scroll down to see your browser history. The pages appear incrementally and you can keep looking through to go back months earlier. You can discard your history by clicking on Clear browsing data at the top left of the window.
• Launch the Firefox browser.
• Click on the History tab at the top of the menu bar.
• Select “ Clear Recent History ”.
• Decide the time range you want wiping out (“Everything” will erase all history).
• Hover over the Details arrow, click it.
• Select “ Browsing and Download History ”.
• Un-check the other options.
• Select “ Clear now ” to wrap up.

Part 4. Other Choices to Clear Browser History

Icloud apple’s data.

You don’t have to panic about iCloud backups associated with browsing history. Turn on Safari iCloud syncing and clear out your history across your able devices. Follow the steps under Safari with iCloud sync enabled.

Sign Out your Accounts

Browsing without having social media, iTunes or Google account logged in prevents search engines from tying up pages visited you. However, these pages still exist in your browser history. But these pages will no longer appear as “already visited”. Alternatively, use the Incognito Mode or Private Browsing to dissociate listed pages with your accounts.

Third-Party Tool

Erasing browser history ensures your history doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Browser Cleanup Tool "Privacy" of PowerMyMac blazes the trail as dedicated software to securely and quickly wipe out browser history from Macs, from the first day. It provides a safe pair of hands to clean up browsers in a split-second. Download it for free so you won’t soil your hands with digital dirt.

Furthermore, Mac stores info on your internet activity with caches, logs, outdated files, and downloads. Privacy (Browser Cleanup) from iMyMac PowerMyMac offers a new broom to brush away all bits of your browser history.

2 Simple Ways to Clear History in Safari

Last Updated: January 4, 2024

This article was co-authored by Luigi Oppido . Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years. This article has been viewed 124,835 times.

You can delete all of your web browsing history or specific entries on both the OS X and the iOS versions of Safari. This can come in handy if you're on a public computer, or need to remove a certain website from your browsing history. No matter what system you're using, it will only take a few moments.

OS X (All History)

• If you're using an older version of Safari, click the "History" menu instead and select "Clear History".

• Note that this will delete history across all devices connected to your iCloud account.

OS X (Single Entries)

iOS (All History)

• If you want to delete a single entry, click here .

iOS (Single Entries)

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://osxdaily.com/2014/11/28/clear-recent-web-history-safari-mac-os-x/
• ↑ http://osxdaily.com/2014/11/21/delete-specific-history-safari-ios/

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20 years of Safari: A visual history

By D. Griffin Jones • 6:01 am, January 7, 2023

• Top stories

Over the past 20 years, Apple’s Safari web browser grew from a speedy young upstart to a polished professional. Released on this day in 2003 as a free download, Safari has been bundled with every version of the Mac operating system since.

Take a trip down memory lane as we look at how Safari has evolved over the years.

A visual history of Apple’s web browser, Safari

Like any Apple product that survives more than one generation, the look of Safari has morphed over time. Both the browser’s design and its features changed as Cupertino strived to make Safari the best it could be. And, as with so many Apple products, the browser that started out fast but buggy evolved over the next two decades into something beautiful and reliable.

Perhaps surprisingly, our saga doesn’t start with Safari itself …

Internet Explorer: Safari’s predecessor

No, our story actually begins with Internet Explorer, the browser that first shipped with Mac OS 8.1 in 1997. This was a controversial shift away from Netscape , which had been the default for a few years prior.

Everyone knew the internet was going to be big. Apple would later center the iMac’s marketing on it being a great, easy-to-use computer for the internet . The partnership with Microsoft, which landed Internet Explorer on Macs, kept Apple afloat and helped it ride the internet wave.

But by 2003, Apple had got its feet on the ground. Cupertino no longer needed Bill Gates’ money.

Safari 1: A new kind of browser

Steve Jobs unveiled Safari at Macworld San Francisco in 2003. Watch the introduction, and you will see people cheering and applauding Safari for taking only 16 seconds to load a web page.

The biggest selling point was the simple fact that it was an internet browser designed by Apple. Its dead-simple user interface looks shockingly modern to this day. It clearly wasn’t designed for Windows and grafted over; it was designed first and foremost for Mac OS X.

Safari 2 and 3: Made for the wide world of blogging

Safari 2 added a big feature for the golden age of independent blogging: RSS. Visit your favorite internet blog, click the RSS button in the address bar, and you enter what looks a bit like Reader Mode.

Safari 3 brought tabbed browsing to the Mac, catching up with competitors Firefox and OmniWeb .

Safari 4: Crisis averted

The Safari 4 beta controversially moved the tab bar to the top of the browser window . People complained that it was hard to distinguish between clicking and moving around the window versus reordering tabs, and that the lack of a proper title bar broke Mac conventions.

Apple reversed this design and never made any controversial choices regarding the tab bar ever again until the next time it did.

An iOS version for iPhones

The biggest innovation to Safari since its introduction was shrinking it down to run on the original iPhone. This was a heck of a feat.

Before the iPhone arrived in 2007, cellphones technically had web browsers in much the same way an airplane can technically drive on a road. They were tiny, they were slow, and most of them were entirely text-based. Keep in mind an Apple Watch has a bigger screen than a lot of cellphones from the mid-2000s.

With Safari on iPhone, running the full, desktop-capable web on a smartphone was kind of a big deal. The internet was no longer a place in your house you sat down to use. You can watch Jobs show it off here .

A safari to the far-off lands of … the PC?

Then, an even crazier thing happened: Safari came to Windows XP and Vista. This short-lived experiment lasted from 2008 to 2012, ending with the release of Safari 6.

Safari joined iTunes as Apple’s second major app (or as they say on the PC, the second major program ) for Windows. But obviously, people didn’t take to it. iTunes lives on to this day, and Microsoft has even announced that Apple is working on brand-new Music and TV apps for the PC platform .

A fresh coat of paint glass

Safari got its biggest visual shakeup alongside the rest of OS X Yosemite in 2014. The fresh coat of paint brightened the look of the Mac. The new design rolled the title bar and toolbar together to make for a slimmer UI.

Safari was one of many apps for OS X and iOS to introduce Continuity , a handy set of features for seamlessly switching between your Mac and your iPhone. When you approach your Mac with your phone in hand (and Safari open), you’ll see an extra Safari icon in the Dock on your Mac. Click it, and you’ll be taken to the same page you had open. I still use this feature nearly every day.

In the mid-2010s, as people became more concerned about data privacy on the internet, Safari added some privacy-conscious features . Intelligent Tracking Prevention puts strict limits on cookies to keep data miners from following your activity across the web. Automatic Strong Passwords generates unique, complicated passwords for each online account you create in the browser, syncing with all your devices over iCloud Keychain.

Apple introduced Sign In With Apple and Apple Pay on the Web more than three years ago to a mild splash of excitement, but over time they have become essential features for many users.

One interface forward, two steps back

Apple completely redesigned Safari in 2021, delivering a more universal look across the Mac, iPhone and iPad. The minimal, all-in-one navigation bar blended into the website you visited and tucked away all the controls.

Boy, were people angry. People don’t  want the same exact interface on the Mac as they do on the iPhone — they’re completely different devices.

Apple slowly walked back the design, piece by piece, over the months between June and September, but you can still enable the abandoned unified tab bar design in Safari Preferences.

Smarter features for the future of the web

Throughout Safari’s two-decade history, Apple consistently stuck to one simple philosophy while engineering its browser: It’s never allowed to get slower. Every new feature, every change, needs to make Safari faster. Slower is simply unacceptable.

Plus, Safari gets smarter every year. It’s been my browser of choice ever since I’ve had a Mac. So, happy birthday, Safari. Here’s to the next 20.

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Why Can’t I Clear My History on Safari? Solutions and Answers

• Safari allows you to clear your history for a certain length of time, or you can clear the whole thing.
• You may just need to restart your device to clear your history.
• Remember that the steps for iPhone and iPad will be roughly the same. 

If you’re having issues because you can’t clear your Safari history, know that a solution isn’t too far behind. I love using Safari for a great browsing experience, but I was recently unable to clear my history, which was giving me some problems. Fortunately, I discovered a solution to my problem. Let’s take a look at some troubleshooting steps and solutions. 

Why Is My Clear History Button Grey?

If your Clear History button is grey, the most likely reason is that you do not have any History to clear. However, you may also be experiencing a grey Clear History button due to certain Content & Privacy Restrictions within Screen Time being enabled. You can check on iPhone via Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps and ensure that Safari is enabled. Note, however, that this will require your password.

On Mac, you can disable Screen Time via System Settings > Screen Time>  Content & Privacy > Content Restrictions . Ensure Access to Web Content is set to  Unrestricted.  Of course, if you didn’t set up Screen Time in the first place, this likely isn’t your issue. Keep reading for further solutions.

How Do I Clear My Safari History and Cache?

1. how to clear your safari browser history.

If you need to clear your Safari history, you can check out our full guide here . However, note that on iOS, clearing your history is as easy as going to Settings >  Safari > Clear History and Website Data . For Mac, all you need to do is open Safari and select History > Clear History from the menu bar. With both Mac and iOS you are able to choose how much of your history you delete based on time. 

2. Disable iCloud Sync for Safari

If you’re still having issues clearing your Safari browsing history, it may just be that you need to disable iCloud sync for Safari. This default option shares your history and your reading lists across all your Apple devices. It may be the case that some history or content did not sync properly. 

Disable iCloud Sync iOS

Time needed:  2 minutes

If you need to disable iCloud Sync on iOS, follow these steps.

Disable iCloud Sync macOS

• From the Apple Menu, go to System Settings .
• Select [Your Name] .

3. Reset Network Settings (iOS Only)

If you are still looking for an effective solution to your clear history issue, you may want to consider resetting your network settings. 

• Go to the Settings app. 

4. Delete History Manually (Mac Only)

If you need to clear your Safari history on Mac and are having problems, remember you can delete your history manually. 

• While holding down the Command key, select the following items: History.db , History.db-lock , History.db.shm and History.db.wal . 

• Empty your Trash. 

Why Can’t I Clear History in Safari?

The most likely reason that you’re unable to clear your Safari history is that there is no history left to clear. However, if you’re having issues, look at basic things, such as restarting your Apple device or ensuring that Screen Time restrictions are not preventing you from clearing your history. You may also want to consider that iCloud Sync may prevent you from properly clearing your history. 

Being able to clear your entire history from Safari is incredibly useful. However, it’s only useful if it’s working correctly. Fortunately, solutions for your history clearing problems are rather easy, so there’s little to worry about. Not clearing your history can be a common issue for many users. However, a comprehensive solution is available.

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• Nick deCourville

Google Chrome vs. Apple Safari: Which browser is better on Mac

• Cross-platform availability can make the switch from Chrome to Safari seamless, with data and preferences intact across devices.
• Safari's user interface impresses with a clean layout, while Google Chrome offers more customization options in its Material You makeover.
• Safari's memory usage advantage over Chrome on Mac with 8GB of RAM is a key factor to consider if performance is a concern.

As the default web browser on Mac, Safari has received a steady stream of updates over the last few years. Apple releases new builds for all its apps and services with yearly OS updates. While we applaud Safari improvements on Mac, the burning question remains the same: is it good enough to prevent users from switching to Chrome? How does it compare to everyone’s favorite web browser out there? Read our comparison post before you change the default browser on your Mac , iPhone, or iPad.

Google Chrome vs Microsoft Edge: Which browser is better?

Cross-platform availability.

Before we pit Safari against Chrome, let’s check their cross-platform availability first. After all, you won’t want to leave your web bookmarks, history, quick links, and other preferences behind when you switch to another platform.

As expected, alternating is a breeze with Chrome, since the browser is available on most smart platforms you can think of. Whether you use Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, or ChromeOS, you are ready to surf the web with all of your personal data and a familiar interface. In contrast, Apple’s walled garden approach has limited Safari’s availability to the company’s devices only.

User interface and theme

Being the first-party app on macOS, Apple has nailed the esthetics of Safari. Let’s start with the homepage. It carries all the essential elements you need when you fire up the browser. You can check your favorites, recently closed tabs, reading list, privacy report, Siri suggestions, and even apply minimal wallpaper to the background. If it’s too busy for you, customize the entire homepage from the bottom menu. Overall, it’s not as busy as Microsoft Edge and doesn’t look as bland as Chrome’s homepage. Safari also offers a cool translucent effect at the top when you scroll through webpages. Unlike Chrome, there is no theme store to change the look and feel with a single click.

Google Chrome recently received a neat Material You makeover on the web. While Material You on Chrome matches the rest of Google services, it does look slightly out of place with other Mac apps.

Tab management

Do you often have dozens of tabs open during long research sessions? Managing and switching between them can be cumbersome after a while. Here’s where Chrome and Safari’s tab groups come into play, where you can organize relevant tabs under different groups. Safari does have a couple of additional tricks up its sleeve though.

When you create several tab groups on Safari, you can check the entire list from the vertical sidebar. Safari also lets you create different profiles to keep your browsing data separate, such as tabs, history, cookies and website data.

You can assign a different symbol, color, and separate extension list for Work, School, or Personal profiles. There is also an option to share a tab group with your iMessage contacts.

Chrome vs. Safari: Features

Let’s compare Safari and Chrome based on extension support, reading mode, and other novelty features.

Reading mode

Apple offers a seamless reading mode on Safari that you can customize with different backgrounds, fonts, and sizes. In comparison, Chrome’s reader mode leaves a lot to be desired. It opens the article in a sidebar and doesn’t necessarily hide all the distracting elements. Safari wins hands down here.

While Safari covers the essential extensions from top VPNs, password managers, and other third-party developers like Grammarly, Pocket, Raindrop, and Notion, the overall collection is still slim compared to Google Chrome.

If your workflow depends on dozens of extensions, think twice before switching from Chrome to Safari.

Seamless sharing

Shared with You is a niche Safari feature that is tightly backed in iMessage. Links shared with you in the Messages app automatically appear in the Share with You section in Safari. It is only useful for those who frequently exchange weblinks in iMessage conversations.

Instant conversion and translation

Both Safari and Chrome support instant currency conversion and basic math equations. For example, you can quickly get a final number when you type $1000 to INR or 45*3 in the address bar. Chrome goes a step further with Google Translate integration - you can simply type Hello in French and get results instantly.

Chrome vs. Safari: Password management

Both browsers offer basic password management to save your login credentials. Safari uses iCloud Passwords that can sync with all your devices. It supports autofill, Passkeys, verification codes, notes, and more.

Google Password Manager also supports notes and checkup. Like security recommendations on Safari, Chrome Password Manager’s checkup tool shows your leaked, reused, and weak passwords.

Privacy and security

The built-in standard protection on Chrome warns you of harmful files, extensions, and corrupt sites. Safari is a step ahead with iCloud Private Relay. It’s a privacy add-on for Apple One and iCloud+ subscribers to hide your IP address from websites you visit. The option is enabled by default and works silently in the background. When you visit a website in Safari, no one, including Apple, can see who you are or which sites you are visiting. It’s not as extreme as a VPN connection and doesn’t break your browsing setup. You can check out our dedicated guide if you'd like to learn more about iCloud Private Relay .

Safari also offers a privacy report that shows the number of trackers it has blocked from profiling you in the last 30 days.

Performance

When it comes to performance, you won’t find any major differences between Chrome and Safari on a high-speed internet connection. However, if your Mac has a slow network connection, you may notice that Safari can load webpages faster than Chrome, something that Avast confirmed in their dedicated speed comparison for major browsers.

While we are on the topic of performance, we should also factor in compatibility. Since Google Chrome (built on Chromium) is the most popular web browser out there, developers test and optimize their offerings for it. You may run into performance issues with specific websites (like Photopea, a web-based Photoshop alternative) on Safari.

Memory usage

Safari is a relatively lightweight web browser compared to Chrome. This is expected, since Chrome has been infamous for high RAM usage. We opened a couple of identical tabs on Chrome and Safari and checked their memory usage from the Activity Monitor. We will let the screenshot below do the talking.

Mac users with 8GB of RAM will surely appreciate Safari’s approach to memory usage.

Chrome vs. Safari: Mobile experience

Both Apple and Google have done a solid job with their iOS apps. They use a bottom bar with all the essential options. You can also use Chrome password manager as the default method to autofill login info. Chrome’s default Discover menu with news articles may irritate some users. Interestingly, Google has done a better job than Apple when it comes to widgets, as Chrome offers more widget options than Safari. Most notably, Chrome offers lock screen widgets which are missing from Safari.

Browse the web in style

Are you still unsure about the pros and cons of Chrome and Safari? Allow us to simplify the situation. Safari shines with better UI, low memory usage, and integration with other Apple apps. Chrome strikes back with cross-platform availability, rich extension support, and Google Translate integration. If you notice performance glitches while browsing the web, check CPU usage on Mac .

Safari User Guide

• Change your homepage
• Import bookmarks, history, and passwords
• Make Safari your default web browser
• Go to websites
• Find what you’re looking for
• Bookmark webpages that you want to revisit
• See your favorite websites
• Use tabs for webpages
• Pin frequently visited websites
• Play web videos
• Mute audio in tabs
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• Autofill contact info
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading articles
• Translate a webpage
• Download items from the web
• Share or post webpages
• Add passes to Wallet
• Save part or all of a webpage
• Print or create a PDF of a webpage
• Customize a start page
• Customize the Safari window
• Customize settings per website
• Zoom in on webpages
• Get extensions
• Manage cookies and website data
• Block pop-ups
• Clear your browsing history
• Browse privately
• Autofill user name and password info
• Prevent cross-site tracking
• View a Privacy Report
• Change Safari preferences
• Keyboard and other shortcuts
• Troubleshooting

Search your web browsing history in Safari on Mac

You can search your browsing history to quickly find webpages you visited.

Open Safari for me

Type in the Search field at the top-right corner of the window.

Safari uses iCloud to keep your browsing history the same on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac computers that have Safari turned on in iCloud preferences . On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [ your name ] > iCloud, then make sure Safari is turned on. Your Mac can keep your browsing history for as long as a year, while some iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models keep browsing history for a month. To change how often your Mac removes history items, see Change General preferences in Safari .

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Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 192 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview , the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed the ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

The current ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release is compatible with machines running macOS Ventura and macOS Sonoma , the latest version of macOS that Apple released in September 2023.

The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser . Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website .

Apple's aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

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Top Rated Comments

Safari 17.5 with MacOS 14.5 scored a 14.2, Safari Tech Preview 192 was 13.3, and the latest Google Chrome was 26.8. Uggg....

"and Performance Improvements" Sooooo...at long last, it's the most snappiest Safari we've ever created. You're going to love it

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, how to hide the sidebar in microsoft edge.

Microsoft Edge is a surprisingly good web browser with some unique capabilities, like direct and easy GPT 4 access , and it has been a fun browser to experiment with as my new default . But, like many Microsoft software products, the appearance can be a little cluttered if you’re accustomed to the more minimalist designs of browsers like Safari. For an obvious example which we’ll discuss here, when you launch Microsoft Edge, you’ll see there’s a prominent sidebar on the right side with a bunch of icons for things that you may not have any interest in using.

Let’s hide that sidebar in Microsoft Edge, giving you a cleaner and more streamlined user interface.

How to Hide the Microsoft Edge Sidebar to Reduce GUI Clutter

This is covered on a Mac, but presumably hiding the sidebar is the same on other platforms with Edge too:

• Open Microsoft Edge if you haven’t done so already
• Look at the sidebar on the right side of Edge, and click on the gear icon in the bottom right corner
• Choose “Always Show Sidebar” so that it’s no longer checked

• The sidebar will immediately be hidden from view

You’ll now have a cleaner and more streamlined user interface in Microsoft Edge, and you’ll see that it now looks a bit more like Chrome. That makes sense, because Edge uses the Chromium Engine.

If part of the appeal of using Edge for you is that you use Copilot and GPT 4 often, don’t worry, hiding the sidebar does not hide the Copilot/GPT button, it’ll still be right there and available at any time.

For users of the Microsoft Edge browser who want a cleaner interface, you’re likely to appreciate decluttering and hiding that sidebar with its various icons for things like shopping, search, games, etc. If you frequently use the sidebar and its various buttons then you obviously won’t want to hide the sidebar.

Like any other settings change, this is not permanent, and you can always show the sidebar again by returning to the settings for Edge.

Have you ever used Microsoft Edge browser on your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android, or elsewhere? What do you think of the browser? We have a variety of other tips for Microsoft Edge here if you’re intrigued.

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Related articles:

• How to Run Microsoft Edge Web Browser in Mac OS X
• How to Install iCloud Passwords Extension on Microsoft Edge
• How to Use ChatGPT-4 for Free with Microsoft Edge
• How to Download Microsoft Edge Beta for Mac Right Now

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