Google Chrome is the most used browser in the world and while it’s powered by thousands of extensions that can improve your workflow and general experience, the browser also comes with a bunch of built-in shortcuts that will increase your efficiency while browsing or working.
There are A LOT of shortcuts available in Chrome but we’ll try to compile the ones we think will improve your workflow or the quality of life when it comes to navigating the webs or working with different online services.
Note for Mac users: Most shortcuts work on both Windows and Mac OS systems, the only difference being that instead of CTRL you should press Cmd (on Mac).
Chrome Tabs and Windows
- Open a new tab – CTRL + T (CMD +T on Mac)
- Open a new window – CTRL + N
- Close the current tab – CTRL + W
- Close the current window – CTRL + SHIFT + W
- Open a new window in incognito mode – CTRL + SHIFT + N
- If you closed any tabs by accident, reopen them using CTR + SHIFT + T
- Browser’s Back and Forward buttons – ALT + Left/Right Arrow
- Switch between tabs with CTRL + 1 to 9 (9 being the last tab, no matter the number of opened tabs)
Chrome Features and Menus
- Show or hide the bookmarks bar – CTRL + SHIFT + B
- Open the bookmark manager – CTRL + SHIFT + O
- If you want to see all the memory/cpu/bandwidth eaten by all opened tabs, open Chrome Task Manager using SHIFT + ESC (Windows only)
- Open the History page with CTRL + H
- Change the currently logged in user/profile with CTRL + SHIFT + M
Browsing
- Jump directly to the address bar wherever you are on the page – CTRL + L
- Add www. and .com to a website written in the address bar – CTRL + ENTER
- Refresh the current page – CTRL + R
- Refresh the current page without using cache – CTRL + SHIFT + R
- Print or save as pdf the current page – CTRL + P
- Zoom the current page – hold CTRL + mousewheel up/down or CTRL and -/+
- Reset zoom on the current page – CTRL + 0
- Bookmark the current page – CTRL + D
- Search for a word/phrase on the current page – CTRL + F
- Switch Chrome to fullscreen on/off – F11
- View the Chrome download manager with CTRL + J (check all downloaded files)
- Scroll down the page, one screen at a time – press SPACE
As you can see, there are a lot of Google Chrome shortcuts that can make your browsing experience way more better and evidently, faster. There are tons more, however, but we feel like these are the ones that are the most useful for the common Chrome user. We might update this article with other commands since Chrome is developed constantly and more may be added or removed.
