How to Switch Between Tabs Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Too many tabs in your browser? For sure, managing them can get a little tricky as you keep accumulating them. But did you know that most browsers have built-in methods to switch between tabs quickly without even having to use your mouse? In this note we’re going to teach you how to do it so that you can organize your tabs easily.

Did you know that you can switch between tabs without clicking?

The trick up the sleeve are the keyboard shortcuts. In fact there are many native direct access native shortcuts built into browsers and operating systems so that they can be accessed without a mouse.

In many cases, these keyboard shortcuts are also faster or more effective than using a mouse. An excellent example is switching between tabs on your browser. Let’s go over some of the best keyboard shortcuts for tabs.

What is the easiest way to switch tabs with a keyboard?

Control + Tab

This is one of the most important commands to move forward to the next open tap on the right. Furthermore, this shortcut is so basic that nearly every browser should support it, and it doesn’t really matter what style of keyboard you are using.

Shift + Control + Tab

The feature to go back a tab, switching to the tab on the left. Keep in mind that with these two commands, you can cycle back and forth through every tab in the browser window very quickly. On keyboards that have PgUp/PgDn keys, you can use Control + PgUp/PgDn to switch tabs as well if you feel more comfortable doing it this way.

Open the last tab you closed

Control + Shift + T

With the help of this command will switch to the last tab you closed, automatically opening it again. An excellent command to have memorized if you accidentally closed a tab early and want to retrieve it.

Move to a specific tab

Control + Number Key

This is a feature that is available for most browsers. It is a tool designed to redirect you immediately to the tab number you select. For example, if you are currently working with five tabs open and want to quickly go to the fourth one, you can press Control + 4 to get there automatically.

This is a good way to bounce back and forth between tabs as you are studying or researching, but it only works up to eight tabs. Using Control + 9 will typically switch to the final tab in the window, no matter how many tabs you have open.

Open a duplicate tab

Alt + Shift + D

Do you need to duplicate a tab? You can do it by trying this useful shortcut. This will open a duplicate of the tab that you are currently on, allowing you to add it to another window or stay on that particular web site while you navigate further on your current tab. We have to highlight that on a Mac keyboard, this command is Alt + Shift + D instead.

Additional tips

If you’re one of those users who often work with many tabs, we recommend you to try an extension to help you manage them, such as Tab Manager Plus for Chrome. Besides, some browsers, like Safari, also have built-in tools to manage, label, and save tab groups, which can be very helpful for more complex browsing.