--- title: "The 18 Chrome keyboard shortcuts you should use every day" description: "These are the Chrome keyboard shortcuts you should be using every day, to help you navigate between tabs, open and close new ones, and even scroll up and down the page." image: "https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/4ZRJti28I3DV19yBKYzuCA/e0527e004e258b053b78be6fbc7b773c/chrome.jpg" --- # The 18 Chrome keyboard shortcuts you should use every day These are the Chrome keyboard shortcuts you should be using every day, to help you navigate between tabs, open and close new ones, and even scroll up and down the page. Chrome tabs are an excellent way to multitask, but they aren't technically _apps—_and that means you can't fly between them with [that classic Windows Alt+Tab shortcut](https://theintelligence.com/29272/windows-pc-keyboard-shortcuts/) or [any other operating system's equivalent](https://zapier.com/blog/alt-tab-on-mac/). Instead, you have to click those little tabs at the top of Chrome with your mouse to move from one tab to another—or so it might seem. As usual, keyboard shortcuts make things faster. These are the Chrome keyboard shortcuts you should be using every day, to navigate between tabs and so much more. Note: The shortcuts I'm about to go over work in all [the big web browsers](https://zapier.com/blog/best-web-browser/) and many of the smaller ones, too. Whether you're using [Google Chrome](https://zapier.com/blog/productivity-extensions-for-chrome/), Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, [Brave](https://zapier.com/blog/brave-browser-review/), Opera, or anything else, they'll get the job done.  ## Chrome keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet **Browser action** **Windows** **Mac ** Switch to the next tab Ctrl + Tab control + tab / command + option + → Switch to the previous tab Ctrl + Shift + Tab control + shift + tab / command + option + ←  Switch to a specific tab Ctrl + [number key] command + [number key] Open a new tab Ctrl + T command + T Open a new window Ctrl + N command + N Close the current tab Ctrl + W command + W Reopen a tab Ctrl + Shift + Tab command + shift + T Close the current window Ctrl + Shift + W command + shift + W Open an incognito window Ctrl + Shift + N command + shift + N Move the current tab to the left Ctrl + Shift + Page Up control + shift + fn + up arrow Move the current tab to the right Ctrl + Shift + Page Down control + shift + fn + down arrow Go back to the previous web page Alt + ← command + [ Go forward to the next web page Alt + → command + ] Scroll down Page Down space Scroll up Page Up shift + space Open a link in a new tab Ctrl + click command + click Open a link in a new tab and switch to the new tab Ctrl + Shift + click command + shift + click Open a link in a new window Shift + click shift + click ## How to switch tabs on Chrome with a keyboard shortcut ### Switch to the next tab To quickly move to the next browser tab on the right within any window, press `Ctrl + Tab`. You can then hold down the `Ctrl` key and _keep _tapping the `Tab` key to keep moving to the next tab in the list, too. It's the same shortcut on Windows and Mac—just that the key says `control` on a Mac, not `Ctrl`. ### Switch to the previous tab Want to move to the tab on the _left_ of your current focus? You don't have to `Ctrl + Tab` through every last tab in your current browser window until it comes around again. Instead, press `Ctrl + Shift + Tab` once to toggle over one spot to the left. (By the way, this little Shift key trick works with Alt + Tab on Windows and equivalents on other browsers: if you press `Alt + Shift + Tab`, you'll be able to toggle between your open apps in the opposite order from the usual direction.) ### Switch to a specific tab When you want to jump to a _specific _tab with a browser window, press the** **`Ctrl`** **key** **and** **`a number key`. For example, if you press `Ctrl + 1`, your browser will activate the left-most tab in your browser window. If you press `Ctrl + 2`, your browser will activate the second_ _tab from the left. And so on. On a Mac—it's `command + the number`. (A similar trick works with the Windows taskbar, too: you can [press `Windows + 1`](https://theintelligence.com/32080/this-keyboard-shortcut-activates-any-windows-taskbar-icon/) to activate the left-most application icon, `Windows + 2` to activate the second application icon from the left, and so on from there.) ### Move the current tab to the left You probably know you can drag and drop Chrome tabs to reorder them. But you can also_ _do that with a keyboard shortcut. To move the current tab to the left, press `Ctrl + Shift + Page Up`. Hold `Ctrl + Shift` and keep tapping `Page Up` to keep moving it to the left. On some more compact keyboards—especially laptop keyboards—the Page Up and Page Down keys may be combined with another key. In that case, you may have to press `Ctrl + Shift + Fn + Page Up` instead. On a Mac, since there aren't any Page Up / Page Down keys, it'll be `control + shift + fn + up arrow / down arrow`. This is especially helpful if you open a new tab with `Ctrl + N` and immediately want that tab somewhere else without reaching for your mouse. ## How to open and close tabs on Chrome with a keyboard shortcut ### Open a new tab Time to open a new browser tab? Press `Ctrl + T` on Windows or `command + T` on Mac while Chrome is active. The browser will open the tab with the location bar already in focus, so you can immediately start typing a web address or search term and then just press `Enter` or `return` to get started. If you'd like a whole new browser _window _instead of just a tab, press `Ctrl + N` or** **`command + N`**  **instead. ### Close the current tab When you're ready to close your current tab, there's no need to click that tiny little "x" on the tab bar. Instead, press `Ctrl + W`** **on Windows or `command + W` on Mac. To close multiple tabs, hold the `Ctrl`** **or** **`command` key, and keep tapping `W`. ### Reopen a tab To get the last tab you closed back on Windows, press `Ctrl + Shift + Tab`. You can also use this shortcut multiple times to keep reopening closed tabs—just hold `Ctrl + Shift`** **and keep tapping `Tab`. On Mac, it's different: `command + shift + T`. ### Open a link in a new tab If you find a link you want to open but aren't ready to look at it, you can open a link in a new tab by clicking `Ctrl + click` on Windows or `command + click` on Mac. If you want to open the link and switch to that new tab, add `Shift` to it: `Ctrl + Shift + click` or `command + shift + click`.  And you can open the link in a completely new window with `Shift + click`. ## How to navigate through web pages on Chrome with a keyboard shortcut ### Go to the previous or next web page To mimic clicking the back button on Chrome, type `Alt + ←` or `command + [` on Mac. And same goes in the other direction: to go forward to the next web page, hit `Alt + →` or `command + ]`. ### Scroll down or up This one's my favorite—it's so often overlooked when reading through web pages. All you have to do to scroll on Chrome is press `Page Down` or `Page Up` on Windows or `space` or `shift + space` on a Mac (even the up and down arrows work). So simple. ## Tab your way through Chrome Of course, you can do all of this with your mouse. But Chrome keyboard shortcuts can help you do things much faster and without losing your flow. And this is just the tip of the shortcut iceberg. I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with some [fascinating text editing shortcuts](https://theintelligence.com/27949/essential-text-editing-shortcuts-for-windows/) that'll help you fly through documents and emails too. **Related reading:** - [10 hidden Office shortcuts for Windows](https://zapier.com/blog/microsoft-office-shortcuts/) - [How to type an em dash symbol on a Mac or Windows](https://zapier.com/blog/em-dash-on-keyboard/) - [The Gmail shortcuts you should actually be using](https://zapier.com/blog/gmail-shortcuts/) - [How to turn any website into an app](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-make-a-website-an-app) - [How to split screen in Chrome](https://zapier.com/blog/chrome-split-screen/)