How to Clear Your X Search History in 2025

Deleting Individual Searches on X

You may not want to delete your entire X search history. You may just not want to see any more suggestions for a topic you looked up when you were bored one day. There’s a way to cherry pick unwanted search terms, too. It’s more or less the same on desktops and mobile devices.

Desktops

1. Click on the search bar.
2. Find the search term you want to delete.
3. Click the “x” icon.

Mobile Devices

1. Tap the search bar.
2. Find the search term you want to delete.
3. Long tap the search term.
4. Press “Clear” in the dialogue box.

That’s it!

Clearing Your X Cache in Your Browser

Deleting your “X cache” means deleting all the data from your X activity stored in your browser(s) and by the X app. In the wrong hands, that data — which includes login credentials and very likely personal media — is grist for phishing scams and even identity theft. Here’s a brief run-through of how to delete your browser cache, and by extension your X data, on Chrome and Safari.

>> Learn More: How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

Desktop

Chrome Browser 

1. Click the More menu to the right of the address bar.
2. In the dropdown menu, click Delete Browsing Data.
3. Click Privacy and Security > Delete browsing data.
4. Select the items you want to delete (the more the better) and a timeframe (the longer the better), then click Delete data.

>> Read More: Clearing Your Search History on Chrome

Safari Browser 

1. Click “Clear History” in the Safari toolbar tab
2. Select a timeframe and click the “Clear History” button in the dialogue box

>> Also: Clearing Your Search History on Safari

Mobile Devices

Android

To clear your X cache on Android devices, tap Settings > Apps > X. Then tap Storage & cache > Clear cache.

iPhone

As of this writing, there’s no way to clear your X cache on the iPhone. The only workaround we’ve discovered is to uninstall X, then reinstall the app. This won’t delete your X account, but it will effectively delete any media and app data stored on your phone.

>> Using an iPad? Here’s our complete guide to clearing your browser search history on an iPad.

Protecting Your Digital Privacy on X

When using digital platforms, our security experts always advocate erring on the side of privacy. Here are the privacy and security tweaks we recommend for X.

Desktops: If you’re using X on your desktop, click the More menu (three dots above the Post button). Your X Settings will appear in a second menu. Click Settings and privacy, then find the Privacy and safety tab.

Mobiles: If you’re using X on an Android or iPhone, tap your profile picture (top left.) Then tap Settings and privacy in the sidebar. In the Settings menu, find Privacy and safety.

Under Activity

• Audience, media and tagging. Toggle on “Protect your posts” and “Protect your videos.” This is a really easy way to keep your content and any personally identifiable information, PII,  it may include off the radar of potential predators and criminals.

>> Learn More: How to Remove Your Sensitive Details from the Web

Under Data sharing and personalization

• Ads preferences. We always say no to personalized ads because we like limiting our exposure to data brokers any way we can. Of course, this is your call.
• Cookies. Again, your choice, but we recommend opting out of all but essential cookies. Cookies aren’t just annoying; they’re identifiers that hackers can use to siphon sensitive details off our devices.
• Data sharing with business partners. We gave this a hard pass. Big Tech has collected enough of our data already.
• Grok & Third party Collaborators. As we mentioned up top, Grok is X’s AI assistant. Our participation is automatically toggled on. Not only can you toggle that off, and thereby opt out of training Grok. You can also delete your entire conversation history if you’ve been training Grok without knowing it.

For more on how to opt out of data collection on the web, read our guide to data removal services.

Why We Recommend Clearing Your X Search History

Your X search history is more of a privacy liability than a direct security threat. However, bad actors can still use our searches to target us for fraud and worse.

Fraudsters and identity thieves. Our search histories are a treasure trove of soft data that can be built into profiles for phishing scams. A grifter notices you’ve been following a lot of self-help accounts recently, for example, then reaches out with a scammy link to some “helpful advice.”

Marketing networks and snoops. X harvests our data from our searches: what we like, who we follow, and more. That data doesn’t stay in X’s coffers; X shares it with its “business collaborators.” Because we don’t know who these entities are, we recommend clearing your search history and cache from time to time and always using a virtual private network, or VPN, while you’re online.

>> Learn More: Five Easy Opt-Outs to Protect Your Data and Privacy

Hackers: Hackers can turn your search history against you without even targeting you.2 You might follow someone famous like Taylor Swift. They hack Taylor Swift’s account and then post a scam link in her name. You click and now they’ve got you.

>> Related: The Worst Digital Scams and How to Avoid Them

Recap

Many times it isn’t the hard hack that gets us, it’s the soft data we scatter all over the internet unwittingly. Thieves scrape that up and find backdoors onto our devices, accounts, and personal lives. For that reason, we strongly recommend pruning back your digital footprint from time to time. Cleaning up your search histories — especially on your browsers but also on X — is one way to do that. But also make sure you’re following digital hygiene best practices. And, as we’ve said so many times before, never set foot online without a VPN.