The town's settlement began circa 1854, with a name reportedly derived from the word "Sabbath", the day the first settler arrived. Sabetha was incorporated as a city in 1874.

On the evening of June 13, 1998, a tornado damaged much of the downtown, which led to the demolition of the City Hall building. No casualties were reported. The downtown area received little warning as the tornado struck less than 1 minute after the tornado siren began to sound. The siren located atop the city hall was cut off when it was tossed off the roof of the city hall by the tornado. The tornado caused $2 million to this building alone. Damage from the tornado was later assessed as being F2 on the Fujita scale.

Sabetha is located at 39°54′11″N 95°47′58″W / 39.90306°N 95.79944°W / 39.90306; -95.79944 (39.903109, -95.799408). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.47 square miles (8.99 km²), of which, 3.46 square miles (8.96 km²) is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km²) is water.

As of the census of 2010, there were 2,571 people, 1,090 households, and 645 families residing in the city. The population density was 743.1 inhabitants per square mile (286.9/km²). There were 1,230 housing units at an average density of 355.5 per square mile (137.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.6% White, 0.9% African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.0% of the population.

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