What is the New Identity Button in Tor Browser?

The New Identity feature in the Tor Browser is a privacy tool that immediately resets your browsing session to prevent your past online activity from being tied to your future actions. When activated, it closes all open tabs and windows, wipes temporary data like cookies and browsing history, and establishes a brand-new Tor circuit with a new IP address. This article explains how the New Identity button works, what data it clears, when you should use it, and how it differs from simply getting a new circuit for a single website.

How the New Identity Button Works

Clicking the New Identity button (represented by a broom icon or accessed through the application menu) performs a comprehensive reset of the browser environment. Specifically, it executes the following actions:

• Closes Open Windows and Tabs: All currently open webpages are instantly closed to terminate existing active connections.
• Clears Browsing Data: The browser clears all session cookies, cache, site permissions, and browsing history accumulated during the session.
• Re-allocates Tor Circuits: It tells the Tor network process to discard existing relay circuits and build new ones, giving your subsequent requests a completely different exit node and IP address.
• Restarts the Interface: The browser quickly restarts itself with a clean, default state as if you had just launched it for the first time.

When to Use New Identity

You should use the New Identity feature whenever you want to completely separate two distinct browsing activities. Common use cases include:

• After Logging Out: If you log out of a sensitive account (such as personal email or a forum), using New Identity guarantees that no lingering session tokens, trackers, or cookies can link your previous logged-in session to whatever you browse next.
• Context Switching: If you are switching between entirely unrelated tasks—such as researching a topic under an anonymous persona and then conducting general research—triggering a New Identity ensures the activities cannot be correlated.
• Connection Troubleshooting: If you encounter widespread loading errors across multiple websites, resetting the identity forces Tor to establish fresh network routes.

New Identity vs. New Tor Circuit for this Site

Tor Browser offers two distinct identity-reset tools, and it is important not to confuse them:

• New Identity: Resets the entire browser. It closes all tabs, deletes all cached session data, and changes circuits for all future connections.
• New Tor Circuit for this Site: Only changes the relay path and exit node for the active tab without closing your other tabs or clearing cookies and login states. This option is best used when a specific website is blocked, loading slowly, or presenting an unavoidable CAPTCHA.