How to Enable Vertical Tabs in Chrome

Charlotte Bayley

Updated: March 11, 2026

Google Chrome is finally catching up with Microsoft Edge and other modern browsers by bringing vertical tabs to its interface. Perfect for widescreen monitors and users with a serious tab-hoarding habit, vertical tabs allow you to easily navigate through dozens of open tabs without losing track of their titles.

Although the feature is currently in testing (predictively available natively in Chrome version 145+), you can access it right away through Chrome’s experimental flags. Here are the step-by-step instructions.

Steps to Enable Vertical Tabs in Chrome

Follow these simple steps to toggle the vertical tabs setting on.

Step 1: Open Chrome Flags

Launch Google Chrome and type chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs directly into the address bar, then press Enter.

chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs

Step 2: Enable the Feature

This URL will take you directly to the relevant setting, highlighted in yellow. Click the dropdown menu next to Vertical tabs and change the setting from "Default" to "Enabled".

Step 3: Relaunch Chrome

After changing the setting, a prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click the Relaunch button to restart your browser and apply the new feature.

Step 4: Activate the Vertical View

Once the browser has relaunched, you can move your tabs to the side. Right-click anywhere in the blank space of the top tab bar and select "Move tabs to the side" from the context menu. Your tabs will instantly align vertically in a side panel.

Alternative Extensions for Vertical Tabs

If you’re running a stable version of Chrome that doesn’t yet support this flag, or if you prefer a different layout, there are some great Chrome extensions that provide similar functionality:

• Vertically Listed Tabs: This extension creates a drop-down list of your open tabs, making it easy to search through and manage them quickly.
• Vertical Tabs in Side Panel: As the name suggests, this extension neatly organizes your tabs into a collapsible side panel, very similar to Chrome's native implementation.