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Keyboard shortcuts

Google Chrome shortcuts and hidden tricks you'll use every day

Reopen closed tabs, search your open tabs, paste without formatting, save pages as PDF and more. The Chrome shortcuts and built-in features worth knowing, for Windows and Mac.

By The Applio team6 min read

Most of a working day now happens inside a browser tab, so small Chrome habits add up. This guide has two parts: the keyboard shortcuts that remove the most clicking, and the built-in features that many people never find in the menus.

On a Mac, use Cmd wherever the Windows shortcut uses Ctrl, unless the table lists something different.

Tabs and windows

Windows Mac What it does
Ctrl + T Cmd + T New tab
Ctrl + W Cmd + W Close the current tab
Ctrl + Shift + T Cmd + Shift + T Reopen the last closed tab (keep pressing to go further back)
Ctrl + Tab Ctrl + Tab Next tab
Ctrl + Shift + Tab Ctrl + Shift + Tab Previous tab
Ctrl + 1 to 8 Cmd + 1 to 8 Jump to that tab
Ctrl + 9 Cmd + 9 Jump to the last tab
Ctrl + Shift + A Cmd + Shift + A Search through all your open tabs
Ctrl + N Cmd + N New window
Ctrl + Shift + N Cmd + Shift + N New Incognito window
Ctrl + Shift + W Cmd + Shift + W Close the whole window
Ctrl + click a link Cmd + click Open the link in a background tab

Ctrl + Shift + T is the shortcut people are most glad to learn. It also brings back a whole window if that was the last thing you closed, with all its tabs.

Windows Mac What it does
Ctrl + L or Alt + D Cmd + L Select the address bar
Ctrl + K Cmd + Option + F Search with your default search engine from the address bar
Alt + Enter after typing Cmd + Return Open what you typed in a new tab
Ctrl + F Cmd + F Find on the page
Ctrl + G Cmd + G Next match on the page

Typing in the address bar also accepts a few shortcuts of its own. Start with @tabs, @bookmarks or @history followed by a space, and Chrome searches only that list. "@history invoice" finds that invoice page from last week without scrolling through your history.

Pages, history and downloads

Windows Mac What it does
Ctrl + D Cmd + D Bookmark the page
Ctrl + Shift + B Cmd + Shift + B Show or hide the bookmarks bar
Ctrl + Shift + O Cmd + Option + B Bookmark manager
Ctrl + H Cmd + Y History
Ctrl + J Cmd + Shift + J Downloads
Ctrl + P Cmd + P Print, or save the page as a PDF
Ctrl + S Cmd + S Save the page
Ctrl + + / - / 0 Cmd + + / - / 0 Zoom in, zoom out, reset
F5 or Ctrl + R Cmd + R Reload
Ctrl + Shift + R Cmd + Shift + R Reload without the cache
Ctrl + Shift + Delete Cmd + Shift + Delete Clear browsing data
Shift + Esc Window menu, Task Manager Chrome's task manager: which tab is using memory

The hard reload (Ctrl + Shift + R) is what to try when a website looks broken or out of date for you but fine for everyone else.

Text and forms

Windows Mac What it does
Ctrl + Shift + V Cmd + Shift + Option + V Paste as plain text, without fonts and colours
Ctrl + Backspace Option + Delete Delete the previous word
Tab / Shift + Tab Tab / Shift + Tab Next or previous form field
Space / Shift + Space Space / Shift + Space Scroll a screen down or up

Plain-text paste solves the classic problem of copying something from a web page into an email and getting a different font, size and background colour along with it.

Built-in features worth knowing

These need no extension. Most live in the three-dot menu or appear when you right-click.

Tab groups. Right-click a tab and choose "Add tab to new group". Name the group and pick a colour, then click the group label to collapse it. A group per client or project keeps the tab bar readable, and you can save a group to reopen it later.

Reading mode. For long articles full of ads and pop-ups, right-click the page and choose "Open in reading mode". The text appears in the side panel with adjustable font size and spacing.

Search with Google Lens. Right-click any image and choose "Search with Google Lens" to find where it comes from, translate text inside it, or identify a product.

Translate the page. When a page is in another language, the translate icon appears in the address bar. You can also right-click and choose "Translate to English" (or your language).

Send a page to your phone. Click the address bar, then the share or devices icon, and send the tab to another device where you are signed in to Chrome.

QR code for any page. Right-click the page and choose "Create QR code for this page". Useful for putting a link on a flyer or a counter sign.

Memory Saver. Under Settings, Performance, turn on Memory Saver. Chrome then frees memory from tabs you have not used for a while and reloads them when you come back. On a laptop with 8 GB of memory this makes a visible difference.

Live Caption. Under Settings, Accessibility, turn on Live Caption to get subtitles for almost any video or audio playing in Chrome, including video calls.

Common questions

How do I restore all my tabs after Chrome crashed?

Open Chrome and press Ctrl + Shift + T. If that does not work, open History (Ctrl + H), where a "Recently closed" section often lists the whole window with a count of its tabs.

Can I change Chrome's keyboard shortcuts?

Chrome's own shortcuts are fixed, but extension shortcuts can be set at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

More shortcut cheat sheets: Windows 11, Mac and Excel.

Written by

The Applio team

We build booking software for appointment-based businesses: the Applio platform and the BarberSamir app on the App Store. We write about the tools and habits that save us time. More about us

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