How to Delete Your Instagram Search History
You can delete your Instagram search history in two ways. In Meta Account (or Accounts Center), go to Your information and permissions > Search history, pick the account and tap Remove next to a search. If you don’t have that setting, open Your activity > Recent searches and tap Clear all; on a computer, click Search, then Clear all.
That is how to delete the search history on Instagram according to Instagram’s Help Center, which gives the Meta Account route first and Clear all as the fallback. It adds one warning: a search you clear can reappear once you search for it again. This guide is part of our how to use Instagram series. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Clear your Instagram search history
Table of Contents
- How to delete the search history on Instagram
- How to clear Instagram search history on a computer
- Why does my Instagram search history keep coming back?
- How to clear Instagram search suggestions
- What else can you clear in Your activity?
- FAQ
How to delete the search history on Instagram
Start with Meta Account if your app has it: Menu > Meta Account > Your information and permissions > Search history, then choose an account and tap Remove next to each search you want gone. Instagram notes that “not everyone will be able to access this setting” yet. If your menu doesn’t lead there, use Your activity > Recent searches > Clear all, which empties the list in one go.
Route 1: Meta Account (or Accounts Center)
Instagram is moving people to Meta Account settings gradually, so you may see Accounts Center in its place.
On iPhone:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap Menu in the top right.
- Tap Meta Account, then tap Your information and permissions.
- Tap Search history.
- Tap the account for which you'd like to clear recent searches.
- Tap Remove next to a recent search to remove it from your search history.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Clear your Instagram search history.
Instagram publishes the same steps for Android. The step where you choose an account matters if you have more than one there: Instagram’s steps for this route work per account and remove one search at a time.
Route 2: Your activity > Recent searches
When the Meta Account setting isn’t there or doesn’t work for you, Instagram’s fallback in the app is a single Clear all:
On iPhone:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap Menu in the top right.
- Below How you use Instagram, tap Your activity.
- Tap Recent searches.
- Tap Clear all, then tap Clear all to confirm.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Clear your Instagram search history.
Android uses the same steps. On a phone, Instagram’s steps for this screen cover only Clear all. To delete one search and keep the rest, use route 1 or the web steps below.
The two routes compared
| Meta Account route | Recent searches route | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is | Meta Account (or Accounts Center) > Your information and permissions > Search history | App: Your activity > Recent searches. Web: Search |
| Remove one search | Yes, with Remove | On the web, with Remove |
| Clear the whole list at once | Not in Instagram’s steps | Yes, with Clear all |
| Who has it | Not everyone yet, Instagram says | Instagram’s fallback when Meta Account doesn’t work |
How to clear Instagram search history on a computer
On instagram.com, click Search on the left, then click Clear all next to Recent, or Remove next to a single search. Outside Meta Account, that’s the only documented way to delete one search and keep the others. Instagram also documents the Meta Account route for computers, starting from More > Settings.
On the web:
- Click Search on the left.
- Click Remove next to a recent search to remove it, or click Clear all next to Recent to clear your search history.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Clear your Instagram search history.
To use Meta Account on a computer instead:
On the web:
- Click More in the bottom left, then click Settings.
- Click Meta Account, then click Your information and permissions.
- Click Search history.
- Click on the account for which you'd like to clear recent searches.
- Click Remove next to a recent search to remove it from your search history.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Clear your Instagram search history.
Why does my Instagram search history keep coming back?
Because Instagram treats clearing as temporary. Its help article says: “Keep in mind that clearing your search history is temporary, and that searches you clear may reappear in your history after you search for them again.” So if you clear a name and later look it up again, expect it back in your recent searches. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Clear your Instagram search history
Meta’s explainer for Instagram Search, updated 23 June 2026, gives the same warning in almost the same words. Checked against Meta Transparency Center: Instagram Search (updated 23 June 2026)
Recent searches aren’t the same as suggestions
Your recent searches are your history. The accounts, keywords and hashtags that appear once you start typing are a ranked list of predictions: Meta says Instagram Search estimates “how likely you are to click an account that appears after you start typing in the search bar,” and makes the same kind of prediction for suggested keywords and hashtags.
That gives two documented reasons a name can be back in front of you after you’ve cleared everything: you searched for it again, which can return it to your recent searches, or Instagram is predicting it as you type.
How to clear Instagram search suggestions
Instagram documents how to clear your search history, not the suggestions that appear as you type, and Meta’s Search explainer describes no way to delete them either. What you can clear is your recent searches, with either route above. Meta lists two more Search controls: filtering results “by category, such as accounts, audio, hashtags and places,” and viewing “search results that aren’t personalized specifically to you.” Meta’s page doesn’t say where in the app that last option sits.
So if you’re wondering how to delete Instagram search suggestions when typing, the documented answer is indirect: clear your recent searches, and treat what appears as you type as Instagram’s prediction, not your history. Meta explains Search separately from Feed, Reels and Explore; for how those are ranked, see how the Instagram algorithm works.
What else can you clear in Your activity?
Link history is the closest relative of search history: Instagram lets you remove one link or clear them all. Your activity, under Menu on your profile, also lists time spent, posts and reels you’ve shared, highlights, likes, comments and sticker responses, tags, account history, archived and recently deleted content, ad interactions, content you marked “not interested,” and a download of your data. Instagram’s list includes no Reels watch history.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Your Activity settings on Instagram.
That missing watch history is covered in our guide to Instagram watch history. Likes appear in Your activity as a list of posts you’ve liked; hiding like counts is a different setting, covered in how to hide likes on Instagram.
Clear your link history
Instagram keeps the websites you opened in its in-app browser for 30 days. It notes that “links visited in chats on Instagram are not saved to link history.”
On iPhone:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap Menu in the top right.
- Below How you use Instagram, tap Your activity.
- Tap Link history.
- Tap a link to revisit it, tap the X to the right of a link and then Clear to remove it, or tap Clear all in the top right and then Clear.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: See your link history on Instagram.
The Android steps are the same.
Can anyone else see your searches?
Instagram doesn’t describe showing your searches to anyone. Its article on how notifications work lists likes, comments, mentions, new followers or follow requests, and photo tags; a search isn’t among them, any more than a screenshot is. That’s an absence of documentation rather than a guarantee, and Instagram documents no way to see another person’s search history either. Checked against Instagram Help Center: How notifications work on Instagram (no screenshot notification listed)Not verified
Try Outfeed AI for scheduling Instagram feed posts
FAQ
How do I delete individual searches on Instagram?
Use Remove. Instagram documents it in two places: Meta Account (or Accounts Center) > Your information and permissions > Search history, where you pick the account and tap Remove next to a search, and Search on instagram.com, where Remove sits next to each recent search. Instagram’s steps for the app’s Recent searches screen cover only Clear all.
Why does my Instagram search history keep coming back?
Instagram says clearing your search history is temporary, and that searches you clear may reappear in your history after you search for them again. Names can also come back as suggestions while you type: Meta says Instagram Search predicts how likely you are to click an account that appears after you start typing, and makes similar predictions for suggested keywords and hashtags.
Can people see what you search on Instagram?
Instagram doesn’t describe showing your searches to anyone else. Its article on how notifications work lists likes, comments, mentions, new followers or follow requests, and photo tags, and searches aren’t among them. That’s an absence of documentation rather than a guarantee, and Instagram documents no way to see another person’s search history.
How do I clear Instagram search history on a computer?
On instagram.com, click Search on the left, then click Clear all next to Recent, or Remove next to a single search. If you have Meta Account settings, you can also click More, then Settings, then Meta Account, Your information and permissions and Search history, choose the account and click Remove next to a search.
Does deleting Instagram search history delete it permanently?
Instagram calls it temporary. Its help article says clearing your search history is temporary and that searches you clear may reappear in your history after you search for them again, and Meta’s explainer for Instagram Search gives the same warning.