Quick answer: Save the tabs you still need (touch and hold the Bookmarks button and choose Add Bookmarks for Tabs, or add them to Reading List), then touch and hold the Tabs button and tap Close All Tabs. Set Safari to close tabs automatically after a week or a month.
Written for iOS 18 and iOS 26. Menu names can differ slightly on older versions.
Hundreds of open tabs slow Safari down and make it impossible to find anything. Closing them feels risky, so here's how to do it safely.
Save everything first, in one move
- Touch and hold the Bookmarks button.
- Tap Add Bookmarks for [number] Tabs.
- Save them into a new folder, like "Tabs October 2026".
Now nothing is lost, and you can close every tab.
Close all tabs
Touch and hold the Tabs button and tap Close All Tabs. Or open the tab overview, touch and hold Done, and close them from there.
Close tabs automatically
Settings›Apps›Safari›Close Tabs›After One Week
On older iOS versions, Safari is directly in Settings rather than under Apps.
Use Tab Groups for ongoing projects
In the tab overview, tap the tab count at the bottom, then New Empty Tab Group. Keep a group per project, like a trip or a purchase you're researching, so they don't mix with everything else.
Search open tabs
In the tab overview, scroll to the top to reveal a search field and type part of a page title or site.
Decide what each tab is
- To read once: Reading List. Reading List vs Bookmarks.
- A site you revisit: a bookmark.
- Information you'll need later: save the link with a name somewhere searchable, like Snugit.
- Everything else: close it. You can always find it again.
Download Snugit and close tabs without the fear of losing them.