Add New Tabs and Open an Incognito Window in Chrome on the Computer

Each new tab and Incognito window in Chrome sits one click or one shortcut away. Use tabs to keep one window focused, open a second window for an independent session, and switch to Incognito when you don't want activity saved to your signed-in history.

This covers every entry point in Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chromebook, from the menu to the plus button on the tab strip to the keyboard shortcut for each.

In this guide, I have covered:

Open a new tab in Chrome on your computer

You’re reading something in Chrome and you need a second page open without losing the first. A new tab keeps both in the same window. Chrome gives you three ways to add one: the menu, the plus button on the tab strip, or a keyboard shortcut.

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click the More menu in the top-right corner.
3. Select New tab from the list.

If you’d rather skip the menu, click the plus button at the far end of the tab strip. The new tab opens with the cursor already in the address bar, so you can type a site or a search term straight away. Click any tab on the strip to switch between them.

Keyboard shortcuts for opening a new tab:

• Ctrl + T (Windows, Linux, or Chromebook)
• Cmd + T (macOS)

TIP: If you’ve turned on Chrome’s vertical tabs, the plus button sits on the side panel instead of at the top. Right-click the tab strip and pick Show Tabs Horizontally to switch back, or open Settings → Appearance → Tab position and set it to Top.

Open a new Chrome window

A window with twenty tabs in it gets hard to read. That’s when a second window helps. Each window keeps its own tab strip and session, so you can put two side by side on screen and click between them.

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click the More menu and choose New window.

A fresh, empty window opens on top of the first. To pull a single tab out, click it and drag it off the tab strip with your mouse. Drag it back over the strip to merge it into the original window again.

Keyboard shortcuts for opening a new window:

• Ctrl + N (Windows, Linux, or Chromebook)
• Cmd + N (macOS)

TIP: Give each window a name so you can pick the right one from the taskbar or dock. Right-click empty space on the tab strip and choose Name window. You can also reach it from the More menu under More tools.

Open an Incognito window in Chrome

Sometimes you’re on a shared computer, or you want to check a second Google account without signing out of the first. Incognito handles both. It opens a private session that stays out of your browsing history and doesn’t inherit your Google sign-in.

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click the More menu in the top-right corner.
3. Select New Incognito window from the list.

A dark window opens with the Incognito icon in the top-right corner, so the mode is obvious at a glance. Inside it, the plus button and the tab shortcut work exactly as they do in a normal window. Chrome keeps all the private tabs alive until you close that window.

What Incognito clears when you close the last window: browsing history, cookies, site data, and form entries. What it keeps: bookmarks you add, reading-list items you save, and files you download (those stay on your computer until you delete them). Incognito also blocks third-party cookies by default for the session.

Want Chrome to start in Incognito every time it launches? Our guide to opening Chrome in Safe or Incognito mode walks through the setup.

RELATED: Open New Tabs and Incognito Mode in Chrome on iPhone & iPad

Bottom line

Three shortcuts cover most of it. Ctrl + T adds a tab, Ctrl + N opens a new window, and Ctrl + Shift + N starts a private session. On a Mac, swap Ctrl for Cmd and nothing else changes.

Tabs keep one window tidy, windows split your work into independent sessions, and Incognito gives you a clean slate that never touches your saved history. The same three moves exist on phones, with taps instead of keys. Our guide for Chrome on Android walks through them.