Manage & delete your Search history

When you search on Google with “Web & App Activity” turned on, Google saves activity like your Search history to your Google Account. To make your experience more personalized, “Web & App Activity” saves data about the things you do across Google services that include associated info like locations. We use your saved activity to give you more personalized experiences, like app and content recommendations.

In My Activity, you can:

• Delete Search history saved to your Google Account.
• Manage Search settings like what activity Google saves and when Google auto deletes your history.

Your Search history can also be saved to your device, like when you use the Google app while you’re signed out of your Google Account. Learn how to manage Search history saved on your device.

Manage & delete Search history

Manage saved Search history

Delete Search history

Important: If you delete Search history that’s saved to your Google Account, you can’t get it back.

You can delete a specific activity, or delete your Search history from a specific day, a custom date range, or all time.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Search history.
3. Choose the Search history you want to delete. You can choose:
   • All your Search history: Above your history, tap Delete Delete all time.
   • A specific time period: Above your history, tap Delete Delete custom range.
   • A specific day: Next to the day, tap Delete activity .
   • A specific activity: Next to the activity, tap Delete activity .

Control your Search history

Tip: To add more security, you can require an extra verification step to find your full history.

Delete your Search history automatically

Important: If you set your Search history to auto-delete, you can still manually delete your history at any time.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Search history Controls.
3. Choose an option to proceed.
   • Depending on when you want to automatically delete your Search history, you can select Auto-delete activity older than and choose 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months.
   • You can select Don't auto-delete activity, if you don't want to delete your Search history automatically.
4. Tap Next.

Pause saving your Search history

Tip: Your Search history isn’t saved to your Google Account when you search and browse in Incognito mode.

To pause saving your history:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Search history Controls.
3. Under "Web & App Activity," tap Turn off.
4. Tap Turn off or Turn off and delete activity.
5. If you choose “Turn off and delete activity,” to select and confirm what activity you want to delete, follow the additional steps.

Manage Search history saved on your device

Delete recent activity in the Search bar

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. Tap the Search bar.
3. Find the activity you want to delete.
4. Swipe it left and tap Delete .

Delete browser history

Even if your Search history isn’t saved to your Google Account, or you delete it from My Activity, your browser might still store it.

You can delete your browser history in:

• Chrome: Learn how to delete browsing history and other browsing data.
• Other browsers: Check your browser’s instructions.

Delete Google app searches saved while signed out of your Google Account

If you use the Google app while you’re signed out of your Google Account, the app saves your Search history to your device.

Tip: If you delete your Search history in the Google app, it might still be saved in your Google Account. To find and delete your Search history saved to your Google Account, go to My Activity.

To delete Search history saved on your device:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. At the top right, tap the Profile picture or Initial Settings Privacy & Safety Clear app history.
3. In the pop-up confirmation dialog, tap Clear all.

To delete searches from the Search bar:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. Tap the Search bar View all.
   • At the top of “Recent searches,” if you find “Manage History,” you’re currently signed in to your Google Account.
3. To delete all your searches, tap Clear all.
4. In the pop-up confirmation dialog, tap Clear all.

Turn off Search customization while signed out of your Google Account

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. At the top right, tap the Person icon Settings Privacy & Safety Signed-out search.
3. Turn off Search customization.

Fix problems with your Search history

Deleted history shows in My Activity

• Connect your device to the internet: If you delete your history from My Activity on one device, you might still find it on a device that’s offline. When your device connects to the internet, it removes your deleted Search history.
• Clear your cache and cookies: Learn how to clear your cache and cookies.

The search bar lists your deleted history

If you use the Google app while you’re signed out of your Google Account, you might have Search customization turned on. If it’s on, Google uses searches from this device to give you more relevant results and recommendations.

To delete Search history saved on your device:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google app .
2. At the top right, tap the Person icon Settings Privacy & Safety Clear app history.
3. In the pop-up confirmation dialog, tap Clear all.

How Google deletes your history in your Google Account

When you select to delete activity manually or activity is deleted automatically based on your auto-delete setting, it starts the process of removal from the product and the systems.

First, we aim to remove it from view and the data may no longer be used to personalize your Google experience.

We then begin a process designed to safely and completely delete the data from our storage systems. 

For limited purposes, like business or legal requirements, Google may retain certain types of data for an extended period of time.

Related articles

• Delete your activity
• View & control your Web & App Activity
• Manage your audio recordings in your Web & App Activity
• Change your Google app settings
• Browse in Incognito mode

• How Search works with your activity