If you have certain websites that you keep open all day—such as your email inbox, a music player, or an internal work dashboard—they can take up a lot of valuable space on your tab bar. Google Chrome has a handy feature called “Pinning” that shrinks these important tabs down to just their icon and locks them to the left side of your screen, keeping them safe from accidental closure.
How to Pin a Tab in Chrome
Pinning a tab takes just two clicks.
- Open Google Chrome and navigate to the website you want to pin (e.g., Gmail).
- Right-click on the tab itself at the top of the browser window.
- From the dropdown menu that appears, select Pin (or “Pin tab” on older versions).
The tab will immediately shrink down to display only the website’s favicon (the small logo) and move to the far left of your tab bar. It will no longer have an “X” button, meaning you cannot accidentally close it while clicking around.
How to Unpin a Tab
If you no longer need the tab permanently open, unpinning it is just as easy.
- Right-click the small pinned tab icon on the left side of your browser.
- Select Unpin from the dropdown menu.
The tab will expand back to its normal size, displaying the full page title and the standard “X” button to close it.
Why You Should Pin Tabs
Pinned tabs are incredibly useful for productivity. Not only do they save space on your screen, but Chrome also remembers them. If you close your browser entirely and reopen it later, your pinned tabs will automatically load back up exactly where you left them.