Phone heat gauge metaphor for Safari overheating
Safari can make your iPhone feel noticeably warm (sometimes hot) when a website, tab, or background process starts using too much CPU/GPU. The good news: you can usually isolate the cause in a few minutes without resetting your phone.

Start with the mobile steps below, then move to the Mac steps if you also see the same behavior on desktop Safari.

Quick safety note: if your device shows a temperature warning screen or becomes too hot to hold, stop using it, remove the case, and let it cool down before troubleshooting.

Before you change anything, try this quick test: open Safari, load one “problem” site, and watch if heat builds within 1–3 minutes. Then open a lightweight site (like a simple text page) and compare.

If only one site triggers it, you’re likely dealing with a heavy script, ad loop, video/animation, or a stuck tab.

1. iPhone/iPad: Close runaway tabs and force-stop Safari (the fastest win)

Runaway Safari tab causing high CPU usage
A single stuck tab (especially with video, live sports tickers, crypto tickers, infinite scroll feeds, or aggressive ads) can peg your CPU.

  • In Safari, long-press the tab switcher button, then choose Close All Tabs (or close tabs until only one remains).
  • Then force-close Safari: open the app switcher and swipe Safari away.
  • Reopen Safari and test the same site again.

If heat stops after closing tabs, the issue was likely a specific page or a tab that didn’t “sleep” properly.

2. iPhone/iPad: Turn off background activity that makes pages heavier

These settings don’t “fix” a bad site, but they reduce how hard Safari has to work.

  • Enable Low Power Mode temporarily (Settings → Battery). Test Safari again.
  • Try disabling Background App Refresh for a short test (Settings → General → Background App Refresh).
  • If the issue happens on cellular, try switching to Wi‑Fi (or the other way around) to rule out repeated reloads/timeouts.

One common overheating pattern is a page constantly retrying failed requests in the background, which looks like “nothing is happening” but keeps the phone working hard.

3. iPhone/iPad: Reduce video/animation load (and block the usual culprits)

Autoplay video loop draining battery and heating device
Auto-playing video and heavy animation are among the top real-world causes of “Safari gets hot fast.”

  • On the problem site, look for video that auto-plays and pause it (even if it’s off-screen).
  • If you use Reader mode on article pages, try it (it can strip scripts and reduce CPU load).
  • Consider using a reputable content blocker in Safari (Settings → Apps → Safari → Extensions) and re-test the site.

If a content blocker makes the heat stop on a specific site, the cause is often an ad loop, tracker script, or a poorly optimized embedded player.

4. iPhone/iPad: Clear Safari website data for just the problem domain

Clearing everything can be annoying (it logs you out). If possible, remove data for only the site that triggers overheating.

  • Go to Settings → Apps → Safari → Advanced → Website Data.
  • Search for the domain and delete its stored data.
  • Reopen Safari and test again.

If the issue was a corrupted cache item or an endless script loop tied to local storage, this often helps immediately.

5. iPhone/iPad: Update iOS and Safari (because performance fixes ship quietly)

Safari performance and heat issues are often improved by WebKit updates in iOS.

  • Update iOS (Settings → General → Software Update).
  • After updating, restart the device and test the same site again.

Also check whether the overheating started right after a specific iOS update—some sites take time to adapt to changes in the browser engine.

6. Mac (desktop steps): Identify the tab or extension that’s spiking CPU

If you also see Safari overheating your Mac (fans ramping up, battery dropping fast), treat it similarly: one tab or extension is usually to blame.

  • In Safari, open the tab overview and close anything playing media, showing live dashboards, or running web apps you don’t need.
  • Open Activity Monitor and sort by % CPU. If Safari jumps to the top, note whether it happens only on one website.
  • Temporarily disable Safari extensions (Safari → Settings → Extensions), then re-test.

If disabling extensions fixes it, re-enable them one by one to find the specific extension that’s triggering extra work on certain pages.

7. Mac: Clear the problem site’s data and reduce autoplay

On Mac you can be more selective (and avoid wiping everything).

  • Safari → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data, search the domain, remove it.
  • Safari → Settings → Websites → Auto-Play, set the problem site to Never Auto-Play.
  • If the site is a web app you keep open all day, consider using one tab only and avoid duplicates (multiple instances multiply CPU usage).

A single auto-playing background video (even muted) can be enough to keep your Mac warm and your battery dropping steadily.

Final thoughts

When Safari overheats, it’s usually not “Safari in general”—it’s one site, one tab, or one extension behaving badly. The mobile-first approach is: close tabs, force-stop, reduce autoplay/animations, then clear data for the specific domain.

If you can, note the exact site (and whether heat starts with video, scrolling, or idle time). That clue is what makes the fix stick.