How to Enable Chrome’s Experimental Vertical Tab Bar and Make the Most of It

Google Chrome has entered the final testing phase for an experimental vertical tab bar, which relocates the traditional top‑of‑window tab strip to the left side. The feature is available to all users who update to Chrome version 146.0.7680.72 or newer and enable it via the flags page.

The vertical tab bar retains all core functionalities of the standard tab bar, including expanding and collapsing tabs, pinning pages, grouping tabs, and a quick‑search box. It also follows the browser’s theme color, so the sidebar’s background changes with the user’s selected Chrome theme.

How to Enable the Vertical Tab Bar

Update Chrome to Google Chrome v146.0.7680.72+ .

Open chrome://flags/ and search for #vertical-tabs (or navigate directly to chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs).

Set the flag to Enabled and restart the browser.

After restarting, go to Settings → Appearance → Tab Bar Position and choose Side (currently the only way to adjust the position).

Once enabled, you can drag the divider between the sidebar and the main content area to adjust the width, allowing full tab titles to be visible. If many tabs are open, the sidebar becomes scrollable.

Visual Examples

Below are screenshots showing the vertical tab bar in various states:

Default enabled view with all standard features.

Pinned tabs displayed on the left.

Collapsed tabs after clicking the collapse button.

Tab groups displayed vertically.