How to search open tabs in Chrome (Ctrl+Shift+A and more)

Press Ctrl+Shift+A (⌘+Shift+A on Mac) to open Chrome’s tab search and type a word from the page title or site name. You can also type @tabs in the address bar, press Space, and search from there. These only find tabs that are open (or recently closed); to search tabs you have saved for later, you need bookmarks or a tab manager.

Past thirty tabs, Chrome shrinks them until only the icons are left. Five Google Docs look exactly the same. Before you click through them one by one, try these.

1. Tab search: Ctrl+Shift+A

Chrome has a tab search built in. Press Ctrl+Shift+A (⌘+Shift+A on Mac), or click the tab search button in the tab strip (a small down-arrow or list icon; where it sits depends on your Chrome version).

• Type a word, and the list narrows to tabs whose title or site matches.
• It searches open tabs in all your Chrome windows, not just the current one.
• Press Enter or click a result to jump to that tab.
• Hover over a result and click the × to close that tab without leaving the list.
• Recently closed tabs are listed below, so you can bring one back from the same place.

2. The address bar: @tabs

Click the address bar (or press Ctrl+L / ⌘+L), type @tabs, and press Space or Tab. The address bar switches to searching only your open tabs. Type a word and pick the result.

Even without @tabs, when you type the name of a site that is already open, Chrome often offers a Switch to this tab suggestion, which takes you to the open tab instead of loading a new one.

3. Jump by number: Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9

Pin the tabs you use all day (right-click → Pin) so they stay at the left, and Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 will always land on them.

Where Chrome’s tab search stops

All three methods look at tabs that are open right now, plus a short list of recently closed ones. They can’t help with:

• the article you closed last week “to read later”,
• the set of tabs for a project you paused a month ago,
• a page where you remember the reason you kept it, but not its title.

For those, people usually fall back on history (Ctrl+H) or the bookmark manager’s search box. Both work if you remember the right words. But if you never saved the page, or your history was cleared, it is gone.

That is also why so many tabs stay open in the first place: an open tab is the only kind you can find. Once the tabs you might need are saved somewhere searchable, you can close them — and the tab bar gets short enough that searching it is rarely needed.

Search open and saved tabs together with LB TAB Layers

LB TAB Layers keeps your tabs in groups in Chrome’s side panel, each saved as a Chrome bookmark. Its Search tabs... box at the top of the panel looks through:

• Your saved tabs in every group — by title, URL and any note you wrote on the tab. Matching groups appear under Folders, matching pages under Sites.
• Solo Tabs — the open tabs in the current window that aren’t saved in a group yet (and aren’t in one of Chrome’s own tab groups), by title and URL.
• Today’s History — pages you visited today, by title and URL (PRO, included in the free trial).

Clicking a saved result takes you to that tab if it is already open, and opens it if it isn’t. Middle-click opens it in the background.

How it matches

Results are ranked: an exact match comes first, then matches at the start of a title, then at the start of a word, then anywhere. More detail in search that forgives typos.

Notes make old tabs findable

The title of a page rarely says why you kept it. Add a short note to a saved tab — “pricing for the March proposal” — and searching “march” or “pricing” will find it later, even though neither word is in the title. See notes on saved tabs.

Tips that make any tab search faster

• Search for the site, not the page. Titles change and get cut off, but the site name is in the URL. “figma”, “notion” or “github” narrows the list fast.
• Use two words. One word often matches ten tabs. Adding a second — “github issues”, “docs budget” — usually leaves one.
• Close duplicates as you go. If the same page is open three times, every search shows three results. Close the extras when you notice them.
• Name your groups by project. In LB TAB Layers, typing a client or project name shows the group under Folders; click it to jump to that group in the panel.
• Write the reason, not the title. A note such as “competitor pricing” is easier to remember than a page title.

Which method to use

• A tab is open somewhere, and you know a word from its title: Ctrl+Shift+A.
• You live in the address bar: @tabs, then Space.
• It’s one of your everyday tabs: pin it and use Ctrl+1 to 8.
• You closed it days ago, but saved it in a group: the LB TAB Layers search box.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What is the shortcut to search tabs in Chrome?

Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows and ⌘+Shift+A on Mac open Chrome’s tab search. Type a word from the page title or site name to narrow the list.

Q. Can I search open tabs from the address bar?

Yes. Type @tabs in the address bar, press Space or Tab, then type your search. Only open tabs are shown.

Q. Does Chrome tab search find tabs I closed?

Only recently closed ones, which are listed below the open tabs. For older pages, search your history (Ctrl+H) or your bookmarks — or save tabs to groups in a tab manager before you close them.

Q. What does the LB TAB Layers search box look through?

The titles, URLs and notes of tabs saved in your groups, group names, Solo Tabs (open tabs in the current window that aren’t saved yet) and, in PRO or the free trial, Today’s History.

▶ See it in action

Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)