Introduced by Opera in the mid-2000s and subsequently adopted by all web browsers, the tab is a central element of Internet browsing! It's hard to imagine browsing with just one page open today. In fact, I currently have no fewer than 20 tabs open in Chrome as I write these lines!
But navigating between tabs and keeping them organized can quickly become a challenge, especially if you like to keep tons of them open. We'll show you some super handy keyboard shortcuts for Google Chrome which should help you a lot on a daily basis.
All web browsers have many keyboard shortcuts that you may not be aware of. One thing is for sure, it's much faster to keep your fingers on the keyboard than to move your mouse. Many of the shortcuts below exist on other browsers as well, but we'll focus on Google Chrome.
Windows Keyboard Shortcuts for Managing Google Chrome Tabs
To start, we’ll talk about shortcuts for Windows OS users. So, PCs running Windows 11, Windows 10, and even older versions of Windows can use the following shortcuts. These shortcuts also apply to Chromebooks and Chrome on Linux.
You'll see, we're going to heat up the Control (Ctrl) key on your keyboard!
Quick reminder of Windows key abbreviations:
Ctrl = Control
Tabl = Tabulation
Maj = Uppercase (Shift)
Pg.Prev = Previous page (⇞)
NextPg = Next page (⇟)
- Open a new tab: Ctrl + T
- Close the current tab: Ctrl + W
- Open last closed tab: Ctrl + Shift + T
- Open a new tab in a new browser window: Ctrl + N
- Open a private browsing window: Ctrl + Shift + N
- Go to next tab: Ctrl + Tab
- Go to previous tab: Ctrl + Shift + Tab
- Move the current tab to the right: Ctrl+Shift+PageDown
- Move the current tab to the left: Ctrl+Shift+PageUp
- Go to a specific tab: Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+8 (accesses the first 8 tabs, numbered 1 to 8)
- Go to the last tab: Ctrl + 9
- Open a link in a new tab: Ctrl+click on the link
- Close the current window (and all its tabs): Alt + F4
Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Managing Google Chrome Tabs
Since life would be too simple if all operating systems worked the same way, the keyboard shortcuts for macOS are a little different from those for Windows.
Quick reminder of Mac key abbreviations:
Cmd = Command (⌘)
Ctrl = Control
Tab = Tabulation
Maj = Uppercase (Shift)
- Open a new tab: Cmd+T
- Close the current tab: Cmd+W
- Open last closed tab: Ctrl + Shift + T
- Open a new tab in a new browser window: Cmd+N
- Open a private browsing window: Cmd+Shift+N
- Go to next tab: Ctrl + Tab
- Go to previous tab: Ctrl + Shift + Tab
- Move the current tab to the right: Ctrl+Shift+⬇
- Move the current tab to the left: Ctrl+Shift+⬆
- Go to a specific tab: Cmd+1 to Cmd+8 (accesses the first 8 tabs, numbered 1 to 8)
- Go to the last tab: Cmd+9
- Open a link in a new tab: Cmd+click on the link
- Close the current window (and all its tabs): Cmd+Shift+W
I've found that people don't use keyboard shortcuts as much as they should. Controlling tabs is just one of the things you can do with keyboard shortcuts in Chrome. There are tons of other really useful shortcuts to know like these 6 Keyboard Shortcuts in Gmail. We even talked here abouta site listing keyboard shortcuts for many programs ! In short, it's time to get started!
In any case, concerning Google Chrome, I think the shortcut I use the most is the one that allows you to open a link in a new tab! And you, which ones do you use the most?
Thanks for these tips, some of which were a discovery.
Addition: to close the current tab, I use CTRL-F4 (which therefore appears to be the equivalent of CTRL-W).
You can also add the F5 key to refresh (reload) the page, which is very practical on sites that suddenly start to lag...
Thank you for all this monitoring!!