It’s always better to close tabs when they are not in use. Otherwise, they will remain active in the background, eating into the battery life unnecessarily. And if you fail to take the needed action proactively, a ton of open tabs will slow down your browser and gobble up plenty of precious data. Not only that, they may even expose your private browsing, thereby leaving you deeply embarrassed. Fortunately, there are 5 pretty straightforward ways to close Safari tabs in iOS 18 on iPhone and iPad.
Close Safari Tabs in iOS 18 on iPhone and iPad: Quick Guide
So, how does the removal of Safari tabs work? Well, the Apple browser lets you not only kill specific tabs but also wipe out the entire cluster of browsing tabs at once. However, if you are forgetful and often tend to leave tabs open for days, there is a hidden automatic method as well. Hence, you can customize Safari to automatically eliminate tabs after a certain time. with that in mind, let’s get started with the quick steps!
1. Close Specific Safari Tabs on iPhone and iPad
- To get started, open Safari on your iPhone or iPad -> tap on the tabs icon at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Now, find the tab that you want to get rid of and then hit the “X” button at the top right corner to close the tab.

2. Close the Currently Open Safari Tab on iPhone and iPad
- If you want to close the currently open tab, touch and hold/long-press the tabs icon at the bottom right corner of the screen -> Close This Tab.

3. Manually Close All Safari Tabs on iPhone and iPad
If you ever want to remove all open tabs in a jiffy, follow the steps below.
- To get going, launch Safari on your iPhone or iPad -> long-press the tabs icon at the bottom right corner of the screen and hit the red “Close All ‘X’ Tabs” in the menu.

4. Automatically Close All Safari Tabs on iPhone and iPad
- Navigate to the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad -> scroll down and tap on Safari.
- Now, tap on Close Tabs. Then, choose Manually, After One Day, After One Week, or After One Month as per your needs and you are good to go.
- From now onwards, all Safari tabs on your iOS/iPadOS device will be automatically removed after the stipulated time.

5. Close All Tabs When Cleaning Safari History and Website Data
With iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, you can choose to close all Safari tabs at once while cleaning up the history and website data.
- On your iPhone or iPad, head into the Settings app -> Safari -> Clear History and Website Data -> choose the timeframe -> select the specific Safari profile.
- After that, turn on the toggle next to Close All Tabs.
- Next, tap on the Clear History option and you are done.

For more info, check out the video below:
Stay Tuned In For More Such Handy Tips…
There you go! So, that’s how you can prevent Safari tabs from slowing down your browsing experience and also eating into the precious resource unnecessarily. I guess you are now fully aware of how to deal with the tabs and take control of them.
Read more: 3 Ways to Delete Safari Website Data on iPhone and iPad