If you regularly find yourself drowning in dozens of open browser tabs, Apple’s Safari on macOS provides an elegant solution: Tab Groups. Introduced in recent versions of macOS, this feature allows you to save and organize related tabs into dedicated workspaces. You can have one group for “Travel Planning,” another for “Work Research,” and easily switch between them without cluttering your main browser window.
How to Create a New Tab Group
Creating a tab group is simple, and you can build it from scratch or from tabs you already have open.
- Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
- In the top-left corner of the Safari window (next to the traffic light buttons), click the Show Sidebar icon.
- At the top of the sidebar, click the Create Tab Group button (an icon showing two overlapping squares with a plus sign).
- Choose either:
- New Empty Tab Group: Creates a fresh, empty workspace.
- New Tab Group with [X] Tabs: Gathers every tab currently open in your window and drops them into a new group.
- Type a descriptive name for your group (e.g., “Holiday”) and press Enter.
How to Manage and Use Tab Groups
Once your groups are created, they will live permanently in the Safari sidebar until you delete them.
- Switching Groups: Simply click on the name of a Tab Group in the sidebar. Safari will instantly hide your current tabs and load the tabs belonging to that group. Click on [X] Tabs at the top of the list to return to your standard, ungrouped browsing session.
- Adding Tabs to a Group: While browsing normally, you can right-click (or Control-click) any open tab, select Move to Tab Group, and choose your desired group from the list. The tab will instantly disappear and be filed away.
- Deleting a Group: Right-click the Tab Group name in the sidebar and select Delete. Be aware that this will immediately close all tabs contained within that group.
Seamless iCloud Syncing
The greatest advantage of Safari Tab Groups is that they automatically sync via iCloud. If you create a “Shopping” tab group on your Mac, that exact group—and all the tabs inside it—will instantly appear in the Safari app on your iPhone and iPad. Any tab you close on your phone will simultaneously close on your Mac, keeping your workspaces perfectly unified.