BetterTabs Features Privacy FAQ GitHub Get BetterTabs

Every tab, in order.

BetterTabs lists every open tab from every window in Chrome's side panel, grouped by website, so the one you want is never more than a search away.

Get BetterTabs View on GitHub

Free and open source. Chrome 121 or later. No account, no tracking.

That is the real panel, running on made-up tabs. Search, collapse a site, close a tab, or right-click one.

One click, and the whole picture.

No new tab page to open, no menu to dig through. The panel stays beside the page you are reading.

  1. Click the icon

    The panel opens on the right of Chrome and stays open while you browse. It updates as you open, close and switch tabs.

  2. Find the tab

    See every tab grouped by site, or search by name or address. Click one to switch to it, even in another window.

  3. Tidy up

    Close one tab, every tab on a site, or all the duplicates in a click. Nothing asks you to confirm.

Made for people with forty tabs open.

Each part does one small job, and they all work with the keyboard.

  • Sites

    Tabs are grouped by website, busiest first, each site in its own colour. Chrome's own pages and local files get folders of their own at the end.

  • Four views

    Switch to Windows, Recent or Groups to see the same tabs by window, by when you last used them, or by Chrome tab group.

  • Find

    Search by name, title or address as you type. Press / to jump to the box, and the target button scrolls the list to the tab you are on.

  • Rename

    Right-click a tab and choose Edit name. Give "Inbox (12)" a name you will recognise; Reset name brings the original back.

  • Favourites

    Right-click a tab and choose Add to favourites. Its site icon sits above the search box, one click from that tab. Close the tab and it goes.

  • Clean up

    Tabs with the same address are marked Duplicate, and one click closes the extra copies. Chrome's Reopen closed tab undoes a close.

  • Add to longbook

    On a billing or price page (pricing, billing, plans, checkout), a Mac shows an Add to longbook button on that tab. It opens the Add Commitment screen of the longbook app with the site's name filled in, ready for the amount and date. BetterTabs decides from the address alone and never reads the page. If you would rather not see the button, turn it off in the settings.

    Don't have the app yet? Get longbook.

It also follows light and dark mode and Chrome's font size, and works with screen readers and high-contrast mode.

It never looks at your pages.

BetterTabs reads the title and address of each tab to draw the list, and nothing else. There is no account, no server and no analytics, and it asks for five permissions.

Read the whole privacy policy, or the longer explanation of each permission.

  • tabsRead each tab's title and address, switch to a tab, and close the tabs you ask it to close.
  • tabGroupsRead the names and colours of your tab groups for the Groups view.
  • sidePanelShow the list in Chrome's side panel and open it from the toolbar icon.
  • storageRemember your view, collapsed folders and settings. Names and favourites stay in memory until Chrome closes.
  • faviconShow each site's icon from Chrome's own cache.

Free, and yours to change.

BetterTabs is open source under the MIT license, with no build step. It is not on the Chrome Web Store yet, so for now you load it yourself in about a minute.

Download the ZIP View on GitHub

Install in Chrome

  1. Download the ZIP and unzip it.
  2. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode (top right).
  3. Click Load unpacked and choose the extension folder inside the unzipped download.
  4. Pin BetterTabs from the puzzle-piece menu, then click its icon.

Questions, answered.

Why do I have to turn on Developer mode?

Chrome only loads extensions that are not in its store this way. Once BetterTabs is published to the Chrome Web Store, it will install in one click.

Can it see the pages I visit?

No. It has no host permissions and no content scripts, so it cannot read or change a page. It sees only the title and address Chrome shows for each tab, and it never sends them anywhere.

What does it save?

Your chosen view, which folders you collapsed and your settings, kept on your computer with Chrome's extension storage. Tab names and favourites are kept in memory only, so they are gone when Chrome closes.

What is the Add to longbook button?

On a billing or price page, a Mac shows it on that tab's row and in the right-click menu. It opens the longbook app's Add Commitment screen with the site's name filled in. Nothing is sent anywhere: the link opens an app on your own computer, and the page is never read.

Can I get a closed tab back?

Closing is immediate, with no "are you sure?". Chrome's own Reopen closed tab (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T) brings it back.

Which browsers does it work in?

Chrome 121 or later. It uses Chrome's side panel API; other Chromium browsers may work, but it has not been tested in them.

How do I update it?

Replace the folder with the newer download, then click the reload arrow on the extension's card in chrome://extensions. The changelog lists what changed in each version.

Can I change it or build my own?

Yes. The repository is written so you can hand it to a coding agent: AGENTS.md says how to change and verify it, and docs/SPEC.md describes the behaviour precisely enough to rebuild it from scratch.