To check your Screen Time on an iPhone running iOS 26, open Settings, tap Screen Time, then tap See All App & Website Activity. You’ll see how long you used your phone, which apps took that time, how often you picked the phone up and which apps sent you the most notifications. Tap Day or Week to switch views.
That’s the whole answer to where it is. The more useful part is reading it, because the first number you see isn’t always the one that matters.
Turn it on first, if you never have
If you don’t see any usage when you open Screen Time, App & Website Activity may be off. Apple’s Get started with Screen Time page gives the steps:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Screen Time.
- Tap App & Website Activity, then tap Turn On App & Website Activity.
From then on, your iPhone keeps track of your use and you can open the report any time. Give it a few days before you read much into it. A single Monday tells you about Monday.
Open your Screen Time report
Once it’s on, here’s the path from Apple’s iOS 26 guide. The iOS 18 version of the same guide gives the same path for the first four steps. If your screens look different, check Apple’s guide for the iOS version you’re on.
- Open Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap See All App & Website Activity.
- Tap Devices if you want to choose which device’s use you see.
- Tap Week for a summary of the whole week, or Day for a single day.
- Swipe left or right on the summary to go back through earlier days or weeks.
Users describe the same path in Apple’s own support community. If you just want the headline number, you don’t need the full report at all. More on the shortcuts below.
Check which device you’re looking at
This one is easy to miss. Screen Time can sync your settings and reports across the iPhone, iPad and Mac signed in to the same Apple Account, using a switch called Share Across Devices (on iOS 26 it’s on the main Screen Time screen; you may need to scroll down). With it on, you can see your combined activity across all of them.
That’s handy if you want the honest total. It’s confusing if you only meant to check your phone and you also watch an hour of video on an iPad every night. If the number looks too high, tap Devices in the report and pick your iPhone.
One thing to know before you switch Share Across Devices off: it also shares your limits and Downtime schedules. Apple’s guide says that with it off, each device keeps its own separate Screen Time settings. So a limit you set on your iPhone would no longer apply on your iPad.
What the report shows
Apple describes the summary as a report of how much time you spend in certain kinds of apps, how often you pick up your iPhone and other devices, which apps send you the most notifications, and more. Here’s how to read each part without overthinking it.
Categories
Screen Time groups your use into categories, like Entertainment and Creativity. Apple notes that activity that doesn’t fit a category may show up grey.
Categories are useful for one question: what kind of time is it? Two hours of “Productivity” on a workday and two hours of “Social” at 11pm are not the same problem, even if the total is identical.
Most used apps
The report also lists your most used apps. This is often the most useful part of the whole report. Look at how much of your total the top one or two apps take. If it’s most of it, those apps are the place to start.
Pickups
Pickups show how often you pick up your phone. Read them next to your total time. Lots of pickups and a modest total means many quick checks. Few pickups and a big total means a few long sessions. Each pattern points to a different fix: for quick checks, try fewer notifications first; for long sessions, a limit that ends them is the better bet.
Notifications
This section shows which apps send you the most notifications. It’s worth a look every week, because every notification is an invitation to pick the phone up. If an app you don’t care about is near the top, turn it off: go to Settings, then Notifications, tap the app, then turn off Allow Notifications. That’s straight from Apple’s notification settings guide, and the iOS 18 version has the same path.
Faster ways to check
You don’t have to dig through Settings every time.
- The Screen Time widget. Add it to your Home Screen like any other widget. Apple says it shows information from your Screen Time summary, and the larger the widget, the more it shows. It’s a good choice if you want the number in front of you without opening anything.
- The Weekly Report notification. When a Screen Time Weekly Report notification appears, tap it to open your summary. If it disappears before you tap it, you can find it in Notification Center.
Both come from Apple’s Screen Time guide. The widget can be a nudge in itself: a number you see every time you go to your Home Screen is harder to ignore.
What to do with the numbers
Checking your screen time once is mildly interesting. Checking it every week is only useful if it changes something. A simple routine:
- Pick one number to watch. Usually it’s the time in your top app, not the total. The total also counts apps like maps and messages, and you probably don’t want less of those.
- Compare weeks, not days. Days jump around. Week view shows whether a change is actually working.
- Turn off notifications for the top senders you don’t need. This takes two minutes and helps if your pickup count is high.
- Put a limit on the one app that took the most time. Screen Time’s App Limits can do this, and Downtime can switch apps off at set hours. Our Downtime vs App Limits post explains which one to use for what.
If you’ve set limits before and kept tapping past them, you’re in good company. Our post on Screen Time limits that don’t work goes through the usual reasons, and how to block apps on iPhone covers the stricter options.
Turning Screen Time off stops more than the report
If you decide you don’t want the tracking at all, be careful which switch you use. Apple’s guide says that turning off App & Website Activity turns off reporting, Downtime, App Limits and Always Allowed, all at once. If you only want to drop one limit, tap App Limits, swipe left on that limit, then tap Delete. If you only want Downtime off, tap Downtime and turn off Scheduled.
When the report isn’t enough
The Screen Time report is a mirror. It shows you what happened, and that’s genuinely useful, but it doesn’t stop anything from happening again. For many people, the shock of a big number wears off fast.
That’s where PeerPause comes in. It’s an iPhone app built on Apple’s Screen Time. It has its own Stats tab with your time, pickups and notifications per app, and your app usage never leaves your phone. The main difference is the limits: when you hit one and want more time, you don’t type a passcode you know. You ask your Time Buddy, a friend you choose, and they approve or deny it. The trade-off is that you need a friend who’s willing to answer, and their reply isn’t instant. Being someone’s Time Buddy costs nothing; setting limits on your own apps needs PeerPause Pro.
Whatever you use, the order is the same: check the report, find the one app that matters, and put something between you and it that’s harder to ignore than a number.