The 30 Most Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Chrome

What if you could navigate Google Chrome at lightning speed?

Well, it turns out you can. By learning a few simple keyboard shortcuts, you can speed up your prospecting research, gain valuable insights about your leads faster, and really build out that pipeline. The key is to not waste time learning all of them, because the majority aren’t helpful.

The best part? They only take two minutes to learn. Try them out as you read this article:

30 Google Chrome Shortcuts

1. Open a new tab

2. Close current tab

3. Reopen last tab closed

4. View next tab

Instead of dragging my mouse to the top of the browser to click another tab, I rapidly move to the next tab by holding Command and Option, then pressing the right arrow key. For PC, hold Ctrl and press tab.

5. View previous tab

Likewise, I can switch to the previous tab by holding Command and Option, then press the left arrow key. For PC, hold Ctrl and press 9.

6. Switch to a specific tab (first eight tabs)

If I need to jump to a specific tab, I hold Command and select the appropriate number. For example, if I need to jump to the seventh tab open, I hold Command and press 7. If I need to jump back to the second tab open, I hold Command and press 2. For PC, it’s the same action, just hold Ctrl instead of Command.

7. Open hyperlinked text in a new tab

If I’m reading an article that has an intriguing hyperlink in it, I open it in a new tab by holding Command and clicking the link. Try it out here.

8. Open hyperlinked text in a new window

Similarly, if I want to open a link in a new window, I hold Shift and click the link. Try it out here.

9. Put cursor in search bar

I hate dragging my mouse to the search bar to type in a URL or Google something. Rather, I hold Command and press L to jump my cursor to the search bar.

10. Erase current search

If I totally screw up a URL or Google search, I’ll quickly start it over by holding Command pressing delete. For PC, hold Ctrl and press Backspace.

11. Highlight next word in search

To highlight the next word in a search, I hold Shift and Option, then press the right arrow key. For PC, hold Ctrl and press the right arrow key. I use this to quickly highlight a word if I need to delete it.

12. Highlight previous word in search

To highlight the previous word, hold Shift and option, then press the left arrow key. For PC, hold Ctrl and press the left arrow key.

13. Go back to previous page

Wanna jump back to the previous page? Just press delete. On PC, press Backspace.

14. Go forward to next page

Wanna go forward? Hold Shift and press delete. On PC, hold shift and press Backspace.

15. Reloads current page

Is the page frozen? Hold Command and press R to quickly reload it. On PC, hold Ctrl and press R.

16. Opens the find bar

Need to find a key word or phrase on the page? Hold Command and press F. Then simply type what you’re looking for. On PC, hold Ctrl and press F.

17. Scrolls to next keywords in find bar

The first keyword isn’t correct that appears in the find bar? Press Enter to move to the next search term. On PC, hold Ctrl and press G.

18. Scrolls to previous keywords in find bar

To scroll backwards to the previous keyword, hold Shift and press Enter. On PC, hold Ctrl and press G.

19. Save current page as bookmark

Read an awesome article? Or need to bookmark a useful tool? Hold Command and press D. On PC, hold Ctrl and press D.

20. Open settings page

Need to activate an extension (such as HubSpot Sales, an email productivity tool)? Hold command and press the comma key. There is no keyboard shortcut for this for PC.

21. Open downloads page

Downloaded something you quickly need to reference? Hold Command and Shift, then press J. For PC, hold Ctrl and press J.

22. Open new window

When I have too many tabs open, but I don’t want to close them yet, I’ll open a new window. To do this, hold Command and press N. On PC, hold Ctrl and press N.

23. Drag tab out of strip to open in new window

No this isn’t a keyboard shortcut, but it’s just as useful. If I want to focus on only one tab, I’ll click the tab and drag it downwards until a new window opens. This helps me focus on only one tab, by removing it from a cluster of too many other tabs.

24. Close current window

25. Minimize current window

To minimize the current window, hold Command and press M. On PC, there isn’t a keyboard shortcut for this.

26. Maximize current window

27. Scroll down the web page

To scroll to the bottom of the page, tap the Space Bar once.

28. Quit Google Chrome

To quit Google Chrome, hold Command and press Q. On PC, hold Ctrl and Shift and press Q.

29. Jump to the last tab

To open the last tab in your browser, hold Command and then press the number nine. On PC, hold Ctrl and the press the number nine.

30. Hide Google Chrome

If you need to hide Chrome to jump to a different task, hold Command and press H. There is no similar shortcut for this for PC.

It only takes a few minutes to learn these shortcuts. My logic is if we spend 80% of our time online, isn’t it worth investing a few minutes into mastering these?

If you ever need a quick reference, consider saving this keyboard shortcut cheat sheet to reference for later. It has the 25 most common keyboard shortcuts for Google Chrome you’ll need on a daily basis:

To get the most out of your email apps, check out our guides to Gmail shortcuts and Gmail keyboard shortcuts as well.