How to Delete Search History in Gmail

Whenever you place your cursor on the search bar, Gmail automatically shows you the most recent search results. While it may be useful if you intentionally want to look it up, you may not want it to show up for privacy reasons.

For instance, if you want to search for something and show it to someone else, you don’t want Gmail to show something that’s personal to you. Luckily, Gmail also provides a cross icon next to your search result, which you can use to remove the result. However, it still exists in your browser history.

So without further ado, let’s get into the article to completely wipe your search history in Gmail as well as disable Gmail from storing your search history.

How to Delete Search History in Gmail?

If you are using Gmail on a web browser, you can use the cross icon next to the search result to remove the history.

On the other hand, you only view the search history under the Recent email searches section on the mobile app version. To remove it, you need to navigate inside the Gmail settings.

Using Gmail Settings

Here’re the steps to delete search history in Gmail using the Gmail settings on several devices.

On the Web (Desktop)

1. Sign in to your Gmail account.
2. Click on the search bar, and your most recent search results appear as a dropdown.
3. Delete the search by clicking the cross icon that appears next to it.
   

On Android

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Tap the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) in the top left corner.
   
3. Scroll down and tap on Settings.
4. Tap on General settings.
   
5. Now, tap the three dots icon in the top right corner.
6. Tap on Clear search history.
   
7. On the next prompt, tap Clear.
   

On iPhone

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Tap on the hamburger icon and select Settings.
   
3. Now, tap on your profile.
   
4. Next, scroll down to the Privacy section and tap on Clear search history.
   
5. Choose Clear to confirm.

Using Google Workspace Search History

While Gmail shows only the recent search history on the search bar, you can delete older Gmail search results on the Google Workspace search history. This is because everything searched on Gmail ultimately ends up there.

1. Open up the Google Workspace search history page on Google My Activity for your particular google account.
2. Scroll down and click the cross icon next to every Gmail search result you want to delete. Look for it under the Gmail section.
   

Alternatively, you can even disable Gmail from storing your search history as follows.

1. Under the above page URL, click the Google Workspace search history under the Your Personalization Settings section.
   
2. Toggle off the button under the Google Workspace search history.
   

How to Delete Gmail Search History on a Web Browser?

The above methods will only delete the search history inside the Gmail app. However, if you are still signed in, you can still find them in the browser history, particularly in the Chrome browser. To remove the search results from the browser.

1. Launch the Chrome browser.
2. Press Ctrl/Command + H to open history.
3. On the Search History search bar, type “gmail search results”.
4. Select the checkbox next to each search result on Gmail.
   
5. Click the Delete button on the top bar.