Applies to: Google Chrome on desktop — Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not available on Android or iOS.
Short answer: right-click any tab and choose Show tabs vertically. Your tab strip moves to a collapsible sidebar on the left. To undo it, right-click inside that sidebar and choose Show tabs horizontally. If you don’t see either option, your Chrome is too old — update it, or check the troubleshooting section below.
Vertical tabs are native to Chrome on desktop — no flags, no extensions needed. They shipped as a stable, on-by-default feature on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Chrome on Android and iOS is not included.
How do I turn on vertical tabs in Chrome?
- Open Google Chrome on your desktop.
- Right-click anywhere on the tab strip at the top of the window.
- Select Show tabs vertically from the menu.
- Your tabs move instantly to a collapsible sidebar on the left.
There is a second route if you prefer menus: open the three-dot menu, click Settings, then Appearance, and set the tab position to Side. Both do exactly the same thing — the right-click method is just faster.
How do I switch back to horizontal tabs?
This trips people up, because the sidebar hides the menu you used to get there. The option has not disappeared — it just moved with the tabs.
- Right-click anywhere inside the vertical tab sidebar (not the page area, and not the top of the window).
- Choose Show tabs horizontally.
- Your tab strip returns to the top of the window immediately.
You can also reverse it from Settings > Appearance by setting the tab position back to the top. Nothing is lost either way — your open tabs and tab groups stay exactly as they were.
Why don’t I see “Show tabs vertically” in my menu?
If the option is missing entirely, work through these in order — they are listed from most to least likely.
- Your Chrome is out of date. This is the cause the overwhelming majority of the time. Vertical tabs need a reasonably current version of Chrome. Go to the three-dot menu, then Help, then About Google Chrome — Chrome checks for an update and shows your version number. Restart the browser when it finishes.
- You are right-clicking the wrong spot. The menu only appears on the tab strip itself, not on the page, the address bar, or empty window chrome. Right-click directly on a tab or the empty strip beside your tabs.
- You are on Chrome for Android or iOS. Vertical tabs are desktop-only. There is no mobile equivalent, and no flag will enable one.
- Your browser is managed by an organization. On a work or school device, an administrator policy can hide interface options. Check chrome://management — if it says your browser is managed, the setting may be controlled centrally and you will need to ask your IT administrator.
Getting more out of vertical tabs
- Collapse the sidebar to icons. Click the arrow at the top of the sidebar to shrink it to icon-only width. This is worth doing on smaller screens, where the sidebar otherwise eats into page space — the main real trade-off of the vertical layout.
- Tab groups get noticeably better. Groups work exactly as before, but they are far easier to scan vertically, because each group reads as a labelled block rather than a squeeze of coloured slivers.
- Full titles come back. The practical reason to switch: past roughly 15 open tabs, horizontal tabs shrink to favicon-only and you lose the titles. The sidebar keeps them readable no matter how many are open.
Is it worth switching?
If you routinely run more than about a dozen tabs, yes — that is the point where horizontal tabs stop being readable. If you keep a handful of tabs on a small laptop screen, probably not: you would be trading horizontal page width for a benefit you do not need. It takes two clicks to try and two clicks to undo, so there is no cost to finding out which camp you are in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do vertical tabs work on Chrome for Android or iPhone?
No. Vertical tabs are a desktop-only feature on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There is no mobile version and no flag that enables one.
Will switching to vertical tabs affect my tab groups?
No, tab groups carry over exactly as they were — they just display as labelled blocks in the sidebar instead of a strip of coloured tabs.
