You do not need to memorise a hundred shortcuts to be faster in the browser. A couple of dozen cover almost everything you do all day: opening and closing tabs, jumping to the address bar, finding text and reopening the tab you closed by accident. Below are the ones worth learning, grouped by task. On a Mac, use Cmd where Windows and Linux use Ctrl, unless noted otherwise.
Tabs
- Ctrl + T: open a new tab.
- Ctrl + W: close the current tab.
- Ctrl + Shift + T: reopen the last closed tab. Press it repeatedly to bring back more tabs, or even a whole closed window. This is the most useful shortcut on the list.
- Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Shift + Tab: move to the next or previous tab.
- Ctrl + 1 to Ctrl + 8: jump to that tab by position. Ctrl + 9 always jumps to the last tab.
- Ctrl + Shift + A: search your open tabs by title, which is ideal when you have dozens open.
- Ctrl + click on a link: open it in a background tab. Add Shift to open it and switch to it.
Windows
- Ctrl + N: open a new window.
- Ctrl + Shift + N: open a new Incognito window.
- Ctrl + Shift + W: close the current window (on Mac, Cmd + Shift + W).
Address bar
- Ctrl + L (or Alt + D, or F6 on Windows): jump to the address bar with the current URL selected, ready to type a new one or copy it.
- Alt + Enter after typing: open the result in a new tab (on Mac, Cmd + Enter).
- Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E: jump to the address bar to search with your default search engine (on Mac, Cmd + Option + F).
Navigating a page
- Alt + Left / Alt + Right: back and forward (on Mac, Cmd + [ and Cmd + ]).
- Space / Shift + Space: scroll down or up by one screen.
- Home / End: go to the top or bottom of the page (on Mac, Cmd + Up and Cmd + Down).
- Ctrl + F: find text on the page. Enter and Shift + Enter step through matches.
- F5 or Ctrl + R: reload. Ctrl + Shift + R reloads while ignoring cached content, which is useful when a site looks out of date.
Reading comfortably
- Ctrl + Plus / Ctrl + Minus: zoom in and out. Chrome remembers the zoom level per site.
- Ctrl + 0: reset zoom.
- F11: full screen on Windows (on Mac, Cmd + Ctrl + F).
Bookmarks, history and downloads
- Ctrl + D: bookmark the current page. Ctrl + Shift + D bookmarks all open tabs in a folder.
- Ctrl + Shift + B: show or hide the bookmarks bar.
- Ctrl + H: open history (on Mac, Cmd + Y).
- Ctrl + J: open downloads (on Mac, Cmd + Shift + J).
- Ctrl + Shift + Delete: open the Delete browsing data dialog (on Mac, Cmd + Shift + Backspace).
Tools
- Shift + Esc: Chrome's Task Manager on Windows, showing what each tab and extension is using.
- Ctrl + P: print, or save the page as a PDF.
- F12 or Ctrl + Shift + I: developer tools (on Mac, Cmd + Option + I).
How to actually learn them
Reading a list does not create a habit. Pick three shortcuts this week, for example Ctrl + L, Ctrl + Shift + T and Ctrl + W, and force yourself to use them instead of the mouse. Once they are automatic, add three more. Most people find that about ten shortcuts cover nearly everything they do.
Another good trick: whenever you reach for the mouse to do something repetitive, hover over the button or open the menu. Chrome shows the shortcut next to many menu items.
Custom shortcuts for extensions
Many extensions support keyboard shortcuts that you can assign yourself. Open chrome://extensions/shortcuts to see which of your extensions offer them and set the keys you prefer. Avoid combinations that Chrome or your operating system already use.
The bottom line
A handful of shortcuts (new tab, close tab, reopen closed tab, jump to the address bar, find on page and switch tabs) will save you a surprising amount of time every day. Learn a few at a time and let them become habits.