How to Duplicate a Tab in Chrome

You want a second copy of the tab you're on — same page, own tab, so you can leave the original exactly where it is. Chrome does this in one right-click, plus a keyboard-only workaround if your hand's already on the keys.

Duplicate a tab: right-click → Duplicate

Right-click the tab and choose Duplicate. Chrome opens a new tab immediately to the right, loaded to the same URL as the original. That's the whole feature — no dialog, no options.

The keyboard-only workaround

Chrome doesn't ship a dedicated keystroke for "duplicate this tab." If your hands are on the keyboard and you don't want to reach for the mouse, there's a two-step workaround that gets the same result:

1. Press Ctrl+L (Cmd+L on Mac) to jump to the address bar — it selects the current URL.
2. Press Alt+Enter instead of Enter.

Alt+Enter tells Chrome to open the address bar's URL in a new tab rather than navigating the current one — which, since the address bar already held the current page's URL, produces an effective duplicate.

What actually carries over — and what doesn't

It's easy to assume "duplicate" means an exact clone of the tab's live state. It isn't:

• Carries over: the URL, and the tab's navigation history — the back button in the new tab steps through the same pages the original had visited, not just a single fresh load.
• Doesn't carry over: scroll position, anything typed into a form but not yet submitted, or any other in-page state that only exists in the live DOM. The duplicate is a fresh page load at that URL, not a snapshot of the page as it currently looks.
• Shares, doesn't fork: cookies and login session. A duplicated tab is signed into the exact same account as the original, because it's the same browser profile. It's not a way to view a site as two different users side by side — for that you need a second Chrome profile or an Incognito window instead.

When duplicating actually helps

• Keeping a reference copy. You're deep in a multi-step form, search, or filtered view and want to try a different path without losing your current one — duplicate first, then diverge.
• Comparing two states of the same page. Side by side in a split window, useful for anything where you want to eyeball a before/after without switching back and forth.
• Isolating whether a bug is page-wide or tab-specific. If a page is behaving oddly, a clean duplicate tells you in one click whether a fresh load of the same URL has the same problem.

Where duplicate tabs pile up fast

The catch with duplicating is that it's an easy habit to lean on — "just in case," "for later," "let me keep this open too" — and it's exactly the kind of tab that never gets closed, because closing it feels like it might lose something. A few weeks of that and half your tab strip is duplicates and near-duplicates of pages you already have open somewhere else.

Amazing Tabs gives you a lower-risk place to put the "just in case" copy instead of a live duplicate tab:

• Save a tab in one click instead of duplicating it — it's stored, searchable, and out of your tab strip, without the two-tabs-doing-the-same-job clutter.
• Press / to search everything you've saved, so you don't need to keep a tab open just to find it again later.
• Reopen a saved tab exactly when you need it, restoring the entry point without carrying every duplicate you made along the way.
• Free for up to 100 saved links, so trying it costs nothing.

Stop duplicating tabs "just in case." Add Amazing Tabs to Chrome — free, no signup. Save the copy instead of opening one.

Quick recap

• Right-click a tab → Duplicate opens an exact-URL copy in a new tab next to it.
• No dedicated keyboard shortcut exists — the workaround is Ctrl+L (select address bar) then Alt+Enter.
• The URL and navigation history carry over; live page state (scroll position, unsaved form input) doesn't.
• Duplicates share your login session with the original — it's the same profile, not a second account.
• Duplicating is an easy way to quietly pile up tabs — saving instead of duplicating keeps the copy without the tab-strip cost.

Further reading: How to Search Open Tabs in Chrome if your tab strip is already crowded with near-duplicates, or Chrome Tab Keyboard Shortcuts, in Full for the rest of the shortcuts that don't have obvious menu equivalents.