The best browser for your Mac is the one that comes with your Mac. Safari is faster and more energy-efficient than other browsers, so sites are more responsive and your notebook battery lasts longer between charges. Built-in privacy features help keep your browsing your business. Handy tools help you save, find and share your favourites. And Safari works with iCloud to let you browse seamlessly across all your devices.
With a blazing-fast JavaScript engine, Safari is the world’s fastest desktop browser, outperforming both Mac and PC browsers in benchmark after benchmark on the same Mac.1
JavaScript performance using modern ECMAScript 6 syntax1
JavaScript performance on advanced web applications1
Rendering performance of animated content1
Web application responsiveness1
Safari is engineered specifically for Mac, so it takes advantage of the powerful technologies built into every one. And Safari offers native support for Netflix and plays HTML5 video everywhere it’s available. So compared with Chrome and Firefox, you can browse for up to two hours longer and watch Netflix videos up to four hours longer.2
browsing compared to Chrome and Firefox
watching Netflix videos compared to Chrome and Firefox
Safari now prevents unexpected and unwanted videos with audio from automatically playing while you browse. Just click the play button if you want to view them. Have a favourite site where you always want videos to play? Use per‑site settings in Safari to enable media autoplay.
Privacy and security aren’t just something you should hope for — they’re something you should expect. That’s why features to help protect your privacy and keep your Mac secure are built into Safari.
Remember when you looked at that green mountain bike online? And then saw annoying green mountain bike ads everywhere you browsed? Safari now uses machine learning to identify advertisers and others who track your online behaviour, and removes the cross‑site tracking data they leave behind. So your browsing stays your business.
When you use Private Browsing, Safari doesn’t remember the pages you visit, your search history or your AutoFill information. You can also use DuckDuckGo, a built-in search engine that doesn’t track you, to make your web searches private too.
Sandboxing provides built-in protection against malicious code and malware by restricting what websites can do. And because Safari runs web pages in separate processes, any harmful code you come across in one page is confined to a single browser tab, so it can’t crash the whole browser or access your data.
Safari helps protect you against fraudulent Internet sites and those that harbour malware — before you visit them. If a website looks suspicious, Safari prevents it from loading and warns you.
Your Mac has always been the perfect place to sit down and do some serious online shopping. Now it’s an even easier and more secure place to pay using Apple Pay in Safari. Look for Apple Pay on participating shopping sites, then complete your purchase with Touch ID on your iPhone or MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, or by double-clicking the side button on your Apple Watch. Your credit card details are never shared when you use Apple Pay, and your transactions are protected with industry-leading security.
Not only does Safari come on every Mac — it comes on every iPhone, iPad and iPod touch too. And thanks to iCloud, your passwords, bookmarks, history, tabs and Reading List are always up to date, no matter which device you’re using.
iCloud Keychain securely stores your user names, passwords and credit card numbers, and keeps them up to date on your trusted devices. So you can easily sign in to your favourite websites and quickly make online purchases. And everything is protected with robust 256-bit AES encryption.
With Bookmarks in Safari, your favourite sites are always close at hand. Bookmark a web page on your Mac, and it automatically appears on all your iCloud-connected devices.
With Tab view, the last websites you had open on your Mac are available in Safari on your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch — and vice versa. So you can go from one device to another without having to search for the web pages you were reading.
Save web pages you want to read later simply by adding them to your Reading List. Then view them on any of your iCloud-connected devices — even if you’re not connected to the Internet.
The best browsing experience.
Features in Safari help you surf smarter, and easily manage and share what you find.
Per-site settings. Personalise your browsing experience in Safari with settings for individual websites, like page zoom level, location services and content blockers. So each website appears just how you like it.
Reader. Always on. Automatically use Safari Reader for every web article that supports it, so you can read without ads, navigation and other distractions. Customise your view by selecting your font size and style, and choose Sepia and Night themes.
AirPlay web video. Play video from a web page to your TV with Apple TV — without showing everything else on your desktop. Just click the AirPlay icon that appears on compatible web videos and you can watch your video on the big screen.
Picture in Picture. Float a video window from Safari over your desktop or a full-screen app. Play the video in any corner of the desktop, and resize it to see more or less of what’s behind it. So you can catch up on your favourite show while you catch up on email. Or watch the big game while playing a game yourself.
Mute a tab. Want to stop the music without hunting for the tab it’s coming from? You can mute it straight from the Smart Search field. If you’re listening to audio in one tab and another website starts to play, you can mute the one you don’t want to hear. And if what you really want is silence, you can mute all audio from your browser too.
Safari suggestions. With Spotlight built into every Mac, you’re never far from the information you want. As you type in the Smart Search field, you’ll see Safari suggestions from sources like Wikipedia, news sites, Maps and iTunes, as well as flight statuses, weather, stocks and sports.3
Share menu. Share anything you come across on the web without leaving Safari. Just click the Share button, then choose how you want to send it off. Use Mail, Messages or AirDrop, or add it to a note. Tweet or post to Facebook, and even include comments and locations.
Deep WebKit integration between Mac hardware and macOS allows Safari to deliver the fastest performance and longest battery life of any browser on the platform. WebKit in macOS High Sierra adds optimisations and support for additional web standards, which enable even richer browser experiences.
Safari Extensions are a great way to bring new features to Safari. Customise your browsing experience by adding your favourite extensions.