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 computer or phone. This happens 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 erase one search or all your search history from a day, week, or ever.

On your computer, go to your search history in My Activity.
Select a search history you want to erase.
- All your Search history: Click Delete Delete all time.
- Erase searches from a time period: Click Delete Delete custom range.
- Erase searches from a day: Find the day, then click Delete all activity from [day] .
- Erase one search: Find the search, then click 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 computer, go to your search history in My Activity.
On the left, click Controls.
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, click Auto-delete activity older than 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months.
- If you don’t want to erase your search history automatically, click Do not auto-delete activity.
Click 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 computer, go to your search history in My Activity.
On the left or at the top, click Controls.
Under "Web & App Activity," click Turn off.
Click 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 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.

Turn off search customization while signed out of your Google Account

If you’re signed out from your Google Account when you search on Google, you may find recommendations related to your recent search. If you don’t want this, turn off search customization.

On your computer, go to Google.
At the bottom, click Settings Search settings 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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