We’ve all been there. You start by looking up a recipe for dinner, and forty-five minutes later, you have twenty-seven tabs open ranging from "best cast iron pans" to "why does my cat stare at the wall." It’s a digital mess. Safari is great at keeping things fast, but it’s even better at helping us hoard information until our iPhones and Macs feel like they’re gasping for air. Honestly, knowing how to close multiple tabs in Safari isn't just a technical skill; it’s a form of digital hygiene that keeps your device from lagging.
The struggle is real.
If you're staring at a sea of open windows and feeling that low-level anxiety rise, don't worry. You don't have to swipe them away one by one like some sort of digital Sisyphus. There are built-in shortcuts that most people completely overlook because Apple likes to hide them behind long-presses and subtle menus.
The iPhone Shortcut You’ll Actually Use
Most people tap the tab icon (those two overlapping squares) and start swiping left. Stop doing that. It’s a waste of time.
If you want to clear the deck instantly, find that same Tabs icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. Instead of tapping it, press and hold it. A haptic menu will pop up—it feels like a little vibration under your thumb. Right there at the top, usually in red text, you'll see an option to close all your open tabs at once. It’ll even tell you exactly how many you’re about to kill, like "Close All 42 Tabs." It’s incredibly satisfying.
But maybe you don't want to go scorched earth.
Sometimes you just need to clear out the junk while keeping your important work open. In that case, tap the Tabs icon normally to enter the grid view. Look at the search bar at the top (you might have to scroll up slightly to see it). Type in a keyword, like "Amazon" or "News." Safari will filter your open tabs to show only the ones matching that word. Now, long-press the Cancel button next to the search bar. You’ll get an option to close only the tabs that match that specific search. This is the surgical approach to how to close multiple tabs in Safari without losing your place in that long-form article you’ve been meaning to read for three weeks.
What About the Mac?
Desktop Safari users have it even easier, yet many still hunt for those tiny "x" buttons.
If you have a dozen tabs open and you only want to keep the one you're currently looking at, right-click (or Control-click) the tab itself in the tab bar. A menu appears with the option Close Other Tabs. Boom. Everything else vanishes. If you’re a keyboard shortcut person, you can use Option + Command + W to close all tabs except the active one. It’s a power move.
Apple also introduced "Tab Groups" a couple of years ago. It’s a polarizing feature. Some people love it for organizing projects; others find it makes the "multiple tab" problem even worse because you can have dozens of tabs hidden inside a group you forgot existed. To clear these out, you have to open the sidebar, right-click the group name, and hit close.
📖 Related: Why the 15 inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar Space Gray is the Most Controversial Mac Ever Made
Automation Is the Real Secret
Let's be real: you're going to forget to do this. You'll be back at fifty tabs by next Tuesday.
The smartest thing you can do is let Safari handle the cleanup for you. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Safari. Scroll down until you see "Close Tabs." By default, it’s set to "Manually," which is why your phone is currently a mess. Change that to "After One Day," "After One Week," or "After One Month."
Most of the stuff we browse is ephemeral. If you haven't looked at that tab in a week, you probably don't need it. If it was actually important, you would have bookmarked it or sent it to your Reading List.
Why Does This Even Matter?
You might think, "My phone has 8GB of RAM, who cares if I have 100 tabs open?"
Well, iOS is aggressive about "freezing" tabs to save memory, but Safari still has to track the state of those pages. Every open tab is a tiny bit of data that your system has to manage. When you have hundreds of them, you might notice your keyboard lagging, or your battery draining just a little bit faster than it should. It’s also about mental overhead. Visual clutter leads to mental clutter.
👉 See also: Is the Yamaha RX V377 Receiver Still Worth Buying Today?
Common Mistakes and Misconceptions
One big mistake people make is thinking that "Private" tabs don't count toward their tab limit. They do. In fact, Private tabs can be even more annoying because if Safari crashes, they’re often harder to recover. You should treat your Private tab session with the same "close all" discipline as your regular browsing.
Another weird quirk: if you use iCloud Tabs (where you can see what’s open on your Mac from your iPhone), closing a tab on your phone doesn't always immediately close it on your Mac. There can be a sync delay. If you're trying to hide your browsing habits from a family member on a shared iPad, manually closing them on each device is the only way to be sure.
A Quick Recap of the Best Methods:
- The Long Press: Hold the Tab icon on iPhone to close everything instantly.
- The Search Filter: Use the search bar in tab view to close specific groups of tabs.
- The Right Click: On Mac, right-click a tab to "Close Others."
- Auto-Cleanup: Set Safari to close tabs automatically after a week in your Settings.
Putting This Into Practice
The next time you feel overwhelmed by your browser, don't just close the app. Closing the app doesn't close the tabs; they’ll be right there waiting for you when you reopen it. Instead, take five seconds to use the long-press shortcut.
Start by going to your iPhone Settings right now. Change that "Close Tabs" setting to "After One Month." It’s the perfect balance between keeping things you might still need and preventing a total digital hoard. This one change will do more for your browsing experience than almost any other "hack" out there.
👉 See also: Mean Value Theorem Practice Problems: Why This Calculus Bridge Actually Matters
If you're on a Mac, try to memorize Command + W to close the current tab and Option + Command + W to clear the rest. Your computer’s fans—and your own brain—will thank you for the extra breathing room. Digital minimalism starts with the tools you use every single day. Safari is a powerful browser, but it's only as organized as you allow it to be. Take control of your tabs before they take control of your device.