Find & erase your Google Search history

When you search on Google with “Web & App Activity” on, Google saves activity like your search history to your Google Account. It helps Google improve your search results and suggestions.

With My Activity, you can:

Erase the search history saved to your Google Account.
Change your search settings. You can pick what Google saves and when Google 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

Change your saved search history

Erase your search history

Important: Once you erase your search history, you can’t get it back.

You can delete a specific activity, or delete your search history from a specific day, week, or ever.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Search history.
Choose the search history you want to delete.
- All your search history: Above your history, tap Delete Delete all time.
- Erase searches from a time period: Above your history, tap Delete Delete custom range.
- Erase searches from a day: Next to the day, tap Delete all activity from [day] .
- Erase one search: Next to the activity, tap Delete activity item .

Control your search history

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

Erase your search history automatically

Important: If you set your search history to erase automatically, you can still erase it yourself.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Search history Controls.
On the "Web & App Activity" card, tap the option under "Auto-delete (Off)" or "Auto-delete (On).”
Find "Web & App Activity."
Click the words under "Auto-delete (Off)" or "Auto-delete (On)."
Pick what you want to do.
- Based on when you want to automatically erase your search history, you can tap Auto-delete activity older than and choose:
  - 3 months
  - 18 months
  - 36 months
- If you don't want to delete your search history automatically, tap Don't auto-delete activity.
Tap Next.

Stop saving your search history

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

To stop saving your history:

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Search history Controls.
Under "Web & App Activity," tap Turn off.
Tap Turn off or Turn off and delete activity.
If you choose “Turn off and delete activity,” follow the steps to pick what you want to erase.

Change search history saved on your computer

Erase recent searches in the Google app

When you erase your recent searches from the search bar, it’s also erased from My Activity.

On your Android phone or tablet, tap the Google search bar.
If you don’t find the search bar, open the Google app .
Touch and hold the recent Query .
Tap Delete.

Erase browser history

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

You can erase your browser history in:

Chrome: Learn how to erase browsing history and other browsing data.
Other browsers: Look for the instructions in your browser.

Tip: When you use the Google App, it saves visited web pages in Chrome's browser history. To erase it, follow the instructions for Chrome above.

Turn off search customization while signed out of your Google Account

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Settings Privacy & Safety.
Tap Search customization.
Turn off Search customization.

Fix problems with your search history

Erased history shows in My Activity

Connect your device to the internet: If you erase your history from My Activity on one device, it can show on another device that’s offline. When that device connects, it erases the search history.
Clear your cache and cookies: Learn how to clear your cache and cookies.

The search bar still shows erased history

If you use the Google app while you’re not signed in, search customization can be on. This helps Google give better suggestions.

To turn off search customization:

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial Settings General.
Tap Search customization.
Turn off Search customization.

How Google erases your history in your Google Account

When you erase activity manually or it’s erased automatically, the process starts to remove it from the product and systems.

We aim to remove it from view, and the data no longer personalizes your Google experience.

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

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

Related resources

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