How to restore tabs in Chrome

Updated 11 November 2026 · by Roman Denisov, maker of Tabfort

You closed a tab, a window or all of Chrome, and now you want your tabs back. Chrome has several built-in ways to restore tabs. Start with the first one: it solves most cases in a second. If nothing works, the tabs are no longer in Chrome's own memory — the end of this guide explains when that happens and how to make sure it never costs you your tabs again.

Want this to never happen again? Tabfort saves and restores tabs automatically — free.

1. Reopen a closed tab

Press Ctrl+Shift+T. Chrome reopens the tab you closed last, in the same place. Press it again to bring back the tab before that, and so on. If you prefer the mouse, right-click a tab and choose Reopen closed tab.

If the last thing you closed was a whole window, the same shortcut reopens the whole window with all its tabs.

2. Reopen a closed window: History → Recently closed

Open the Chrome menu ⋮ → History. Under Recently closed windows appear as lines like “12 tabs”. Click such a line and the window comes back with every tab in it. This is handy when you closed several things and don't want to press the shortcut ten times.

3. Restore all tabs after you closed Chrome

Open Chrome and press Ctrl+Shift+T right away, before opening anything else. Chrome reopens the windows that were open when you closed it. You can also find them in History → Recently closed.

To get your tabs back automatically every time, open Settings → On startup and choose Continue where you left off. Chrome will then reopen your previous windows on every start.

4. Restore tabs after Chrome crashed

After a crash Chrome usually shows a Restore button on the next start. Click it before doing anything else. If you missed it, try steps 1–3. If the tabs are still gone, follow the full recovery guide: Chrome lost all your tabs? Here is how to recover them.

5. Restore tabs from another device

If you are signed in to Chrome with sync turned on, ⋮ → History also shows Tabs from other devices. Tabs that are still open on your phone or another computer can be opened from there.

On a Mac, a Chromebook and Android

• Mac: ⌘+Shift+T, and the same History → Recently closed list in the menu bar.
• Chromebook: Ctrl+Shift+T works the same way. For restarts and updates there is a separate ChromeOS setting — see how to restore tabs on a Chromebook.
• Android: open the Chrome menu ⋮ → Recent tabs to see recently closed tabs.

When Chrome can't restore your tabs

All the methods above use the same thing: the last session that Chrome keeps for itself. They stop working when that session is gone:

• Chrome was restarted again before you restored the tabs. Every new start can overwrite the previous session.
• It happened yesterday or last week. Chrome keeps no history of earlier sessions. The full history (Ctrl+H) has every page you visited, but not your windows and tab groups — you would have to reopen tabs one by one.
• Cleaning tools, clearing browsing data or a broken profile deleted the session files.

How to restore tabs from any moment of the last week

To go back further than Chrome's last session, you need a copy of your tabs that Chrome itself does not overwrite. That is what Tabfort does:

• Every change to your windows, tabs and tab groups is saved within seconds, plus a full snapshot every 5 minutes.
• You can restore tabs from any snapshot of the last 7 days: every window, with tab group names, colours and pinned tabs.
• After a crash, Tabfort notices on the next start and offers to bring every window back.
• Hundreds of tabs come back as sleeping tabs, so the computer doesn't freeze.
• Free forever, no account. Your tabs stay on your computer.

Questions

More guides

• How to restore tabs on a Chromebook
• Chrome lost all your tabs? Here is how to recover them
• How to save tabs in Chrome — and keep them when you close it
• Chrome lost your tab groups? How to restore and save them
• A OneTab alternative that saves your tabs automatically