How to see how much time you spend on each website on a Mac

25 September 2026 · 6 min read

Your browser’s history shows which sites you opened, not how long each one held your attention. For time per site on a Mac, use Screen Time if you browse in Safari, an extension if you are comfortable with what it keeps, or itemized browsing in Punchcard if you use Chrome, Brave, Edge or Vivaldi. Here is what each one measures, and where each one stops.

Why browser history cannot answer the question

History is a list of visits: this page, opened at this time. It records the moment a page loaded and nothing about what happened next. A document you opened once at nine and worked in until lunch is one entry. A news site you glanced at twenty times, a few seconds each, is twenty entries. Counted by visits, the news site wins. Counted by time, it is not close.

History also cannot tell a tab you were reading from one that sat behind eleven others all afternoon.

Time per site needs a record that notices which page is in front, again and again through the day, while you are at the Mac. Every method below works that way; they differ in which browsers they cover and how much of each address they keep.

Screen Time: built in, and it covers Safari

Start with what macOS already records.

1. Open System Settings.
2. Choose Screen Time in the sidebar.
3. Open App & Website Activity.

Screen Time’s website list covers Safari: sites you used in Safari appear with their own times. Chrome, Brave, Edge, Firefox and other browsers appear as one app each, with no breakdown by site.

For a Safari user with a one-off question, such as whether one site is eating the afternoons, this is the right first stop. It counts the whole day, evenings included, and it lives in a settings pane you have to remember to open.

Your browser is the biggest line on your time report covers another approach that works with any app-level record: moving your main web tools into apps of their own.

Browser extensions: read what they keep

The other common route is an extension that tracks time per site. It runs inside the browser and sees every page you open, with its full address. That is how it works, not a flaw, but it makes one question matter more than the feature list: what does it keep? Check these before you add one:

• Full addresses or site names. A full address can carry search terms, document names, order numbers and account details. A site name is far less revealing.
• Where the data goes. Stored in the browser on your Mac, or synced to an account on someone else’s server.
• Whether you can export and delete it. If you cannot get the data out, or wipe it, you do not really control it.
• Which browser it covers. An extension measures the browser it is installed in, and nothing outside it.

One detail about private windows: in Chrome, extensions are off in Incognito windows unless you turn on “Allow in Incognito” for that extension. If you have switched that on for a tracker, it sees your Incognito pages too.

Itemized browsing in Punchcard (Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi)

Punchcard is a menu bar app that notices which app is in front during your day and prints a paper receipt of it at the closing time you set, with the time for each app. Out of the box it records app names only, so the browser is one line. Itemized browsing, off by default, splits that line into sites.

To switch it on:

1. Open Punchcard’s Settings and turn on Itemize websites.
2. Bring Chrome, Brave, Edge or Vivaldi to the front. macOS asks once per browser, with a prompt that reads “Punchcard wants access to control Google Chrome” (or the browser you use). Allow it.
3. Look at Settings again. Each browser shows where it stands: Itemizing, Blocked (with a Fix in Settings button), Waiting for your OK, or Checks in when you open it.

If you never go looking, Punchcard may offer it: once a supported browser has been in front for a while in a day, a one-time menu bar hint asks “Itemize Chrome by website?”.

What prints. At closing time, browser time appears as the sites you used, each on its own line: GitHub, YouTube, Google Docs. Sites compete with apps for the receipt’s top five lines, and the rest are grouped as MISC. A site Punchcard does not recognize prints as its bare name, such as acme.io, with a globe. The day total does not change; the browser’s time is only divided up. For the full list rather than the top five, export your data as CSV: there is one row per session, with a site column when itemized browsing is on, so any spreadsheet can total it by site.

What it keeps. The site name, and nothing else from the address. Punchcard reads the front tab’s address over Apple Events and keeps only the host, lower-cased, with a leading www. removed: https://www.GitHub.com/a/b?c#d becomes github.com. Never the full address, the path, search terms or the page title. New tabs, settings pages, local files and extension pages are not websites and are never kept. The record stays in one file on your Mac. If a site should never appear on paper, Settings has Hide a website.

Private windows. Before it asks for an address, Punchcard asks the browser for the window’s mode, and requests the address only when the answer is “normal”. Incognito, InPrivate, Private (including Brave’s Private window with Tor) and Guest windows are never read, and their time stays on the browser’s own line. You do not have to take our word for it: Does your time tracker see incognito windows? shows how to check any tool yourself.

To turn it off, switch off Itemize websites in Settings, or revoke it per browser in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Automation.

The limits, plainly

• Safari stays one line in Punchcard. Safari’s scripting cannot tell a Private window from a normal one, so we do not read Safari at all. Use Screen Time for Safari. Why website time tracking skips Safari explains the reasoning and the alternatives.
• Firefox and Arc are not itemized. Their time stays on their own app lines.
• Front tab only. Punchcard checks the front tab of the front window, every few seconds, while a supported browser is the app in front and you are not idle. A video playing in a background tab while you work in another app is not counted as that site, and neither is a page open in a window behind the one you are using.
• Short visits stay on the browser line. Sites under a minute are not split out.
• Site, not page. You see github.com, not which repository; youtube.com, not which video. Per-page detail needs a tool that keeps full addresses, so read what it does with them.
• Not projects or clients. Punchcard has no per-project or per-client tracking. It answers “where did my day go”, not “what do I bill”.

Questions

Does Chrome’s history show how long I spent on a page?

No. Its history page lists the pages you opened and when, not how long each one stayed in front of you. For time, you need a record that watches the front tab over the day.

How do I see time per website in Safari?

Screen Time: System Settings, Screen Time, App & Website Activity. Its website list covers Safari. Punchcard records Safari as one line and does not itemize it.

Does itemized browsing need Accessibility or Screen Recording?

No. Punchcard needs no macOS permissions to work. Itemized browsing adds one optional permission, Automation, asked once per browser and only after you switch it on.