Deleting the browsing history will not automatically delete your Google search history. Here’s how you remove your search history or just a specific URL on your PC, Mac, iPhone or Android phone.
How to delete your Google search history on a computer
If you want some privacy and don’t want people to find out where you’ve been surfing on the internet, you’ll probably delete your browsing history. Which is good, but not perfect: Only removing the browsing history won’t remove the search history (and vice versa: deleting the searches won’t delete the browsing history). This is how you delete your Google search history on a PC or Mac:
- The first option is to open Google’s website My Activity. Sign in (if you’re not already logged in to your account).
- In order to delete your browsing history (completely or for a certain time range), click “Delete activity by” in the column on the left side of the screen.
- In the pop-up box, choose an option to delete your activity during the last hour, the last day, all time or for a custom range. Then confirm that you want to delete the data.
- As an alternative to the method above, you can use Google’s website My Account. Sign in (if you’re not already logged in to your account).
- The first option you’ll see there is “Privacy & personalization”. Click “Manage your data & personalization.”
- Scroll down to “Activity and timeline”. Click “My Activity.”
- In the column on the left side of your screen, click “Delete activity by”. Choose a time range and confirm that you want to delete the data.
How to delete a certain URL
Maybe you don’t want to delete your entire Google search history, but only a specific URL. Follow these steps:
- Open Google’s website My Activity and sign in if needed.
- Scroll down. You’ll see a list of the websites you’ve visited. Find the URL that you want to delete. (You can also use the search box at the top of the page.)
- To the right side of each URL, there are three vertical dots. Click on the dots to open a dropdown list. In the list, click “Delete”.
How to clear your Google search history on an iPhone or Android phone
Similarly, you can delete your complete search history or just one link on your iPhone or Android phone:
- Using a mobile browser of your choice, open Google’s website My Activity.
- If you want all your searches to be deleted, click the option “Delete” in the top right corner of your screen (see image below).
- Choose a time range: last hour, last day, all time or a custom range.
- Confirm that you want to delete the data for that time range.
- If you want to delete only a specific URL, ignore that “Delete” option in the top right corner and scroll down.
- In the list that you see there or by using the search box (at the top of your screen), search the activity/URL that you want to delete.
- Next to that activity, there are three vertical dots. Click on them and then on “Delete” in the dropdown list.
