Workspaces you switch in one click
Save a window, with its tab groups and pinned tabs, under a name. Switch replaces the window you are in; Open adds a new one. One window per project, client or incident.
Made forOn-call engineersSupport teamsAgencies & freelancersResearchersDevelopersStudents
Features
A tab manager that doesn’t lose your tabs
The things people complain about most in other tab managers are lost sessions and lost tabs. Tab Workspaces is built around never letting that happen.
Saves itself as you work
While a workspace is open, every tab you open, close, move or group is saved to it. Earlier versions are kept, so an accidental change is one click from undone.
Never lose a tab again
Closing a window or quitting Chrome never empties a workspace. Every few minutes all open windows are backed up, so a crash or a lost session comes back in one click.
Templates with variables
Links with {{requestId}}, {{customer}} or a time range open as one named tab group with the values filled in: your incident dashboards, a client’s tools, a date’s reports.
Big workspaces open instantly
Restored tabs appear in the tab strip but load only when you click them, so a 200-tab research workspace opens in seconds and uses almost no memory.
Private by design
No account, no server, no tracking. Workspaces, templates and backups stay in your browser on your computer, and you can export them any time.
How it works
Save once, switch forever
Tab Workspaces lives in Chrome’s side panel, next to the page you’re on.
- 1
Save a window as a workspace
Name it, and you are done: tabs, tab groups with their colours, pinned tabs and the active tab are saved. From then on, changes in that window save automatically.
- 2
Open the right tools with a template
Type the request ID and the time once. Every link opens with the values filled in, as one tab group named “Incident 7f3c9a2e”, next to what you were doing.
- 3
Find and restore anything
One search box covers every page in your workspaces, templates and backups. Click a result to open it, or restore a whole window from History.
Templates
Your incident runbook, one click away
When the pager goes off, you open the same six dashboards, log searches and runbooks every time, each with a different request ID and time range. A template does it for you.
- Variables in any link or group title: {{requestId}}, {{customer}}
- Defaults for values that rarely change: {{region|us-west-2}}
- Time ranges around now or around a time you type, as ISO, epoch seconds or milliseconds
- Opens next to your work as one named, coloured tab group, or in a new window
- Remembers the values you used last time
Template · Incident: request lookup
https://logs.acme.dev/search?q={{requestId}}&from={{@time-15m:ms}}
https://traces.acme.dev/search?request={{requestId}}
https://grafana.acme.dev/d/api?region={{region|us-west-2}}
https://wiki.acme.dev/runbooks/api-errors
opens as one tab group
Incident 7f3c9a2eLogsTraceAPI dashboardRunbook
History
Crashed, closed or overwritten? It’s still here.
Tab Workspaces keeps three layers of safety, so the one window you needed is never gone.
- Workspaces survive closing. A window closing, or Chrome quitting, never empties the workspace it shows.
- Versions of every workspace. Earlier states are kept, always before a change that drops many tabs at once.
- Automatic backups. All open windows every few minutes, the last 50 kept. Restore everything or just one window.
Switching is easy
Bring your tabs. Take them with you.
Import what you saved in other tab managers, and export everything in formats any browser understands.
Import
- OneTab “Export URLs” text
- Session Buddy export (.json)
- Toby export (.json)
- Any file or text with links
Export
- A full backup to import on another computer
- Bookmarks HTML for any browser’s “Import bookmarks”
- A folder per workspace and per tab group
- Never locked in
Privacy
No account. No server. No tracking.
Your tabs say a lot about you and your work. Tab Workspaces keeps them in your browser, on your computer, and asks only for what a tab manager needs.
| Permission | Why it’s needed |
|---|---|
| Tabs | See the address and title of the tabs it saves. Chrome words this as “read your browsing history”; Tab Workspaces never reads Chrome’s history list and sends nothing anywhere. |
| Tab groups | Save and recreate your tab groups with their names and colours. |
| Storage | Keep your workspaces, templates and backups on your computer. |
| Side panel | Show Tab Workspaces next to the page you are on. |
| Alarms | Take a backup every few minutes. |
Not requested: your browsing history list, bookmarks, or access to the pages you visit. Read the privacy policy.
Pricing
Free, and it stays free on your computer
No credit card, no account. Sync and team features are on the way.
Free
$0
everything on your computer
- Unlimited workspaces, autosave and versions
- Automatic backups of every open window
- Templates with variables and time ranges
- Search across everything you saved
- Import from OneTab, Session Buddy and Toby
- Backup and bookmarks export
Pro & Team
Coming soon
everything in Free, plus
Pro
- End-to-end encrypted sync between your computers
- 90-day version history
Team
- A shared library of workspaces and templates
- Hand an incident’s tabs to the next person on call
FAQ
Questions, answered
Is Tab Workspaces free?
Yes. Everything it does today is free, with no account and no limits. Paid plans for encrypted sync between computers and shared team libraries are planned; the local features stay free.
Why does Chrome say it can “read your browsing history”?
That is how Chrome describes the “tabs” permission, which any tab manager needs to see the address and title of the tabs it saves. Tab Workspaces does not read Chrome’s history list, has no access to page contents, and sends nothing anywhere.
Where are my workspaces stored?
In Chrome’s storage for the extension, on your computer. There is no Tab Workspaces server or account. Uninstalling removes the data, so download a backup first if you want to keep it.
What happens if Chrome crashes or I close a window by mistake?
Closing a window or quitting Chrome never empties a workspace: its tabs stay saved. On top of that, every few minutes all open windows are backed up to History, where you can restore everything, one window, or save a window as a workspace.
Will hundreds of tabs slow Chrome down?
No. Restored tabs are “unloaded”: they show in the tab strip but load only when you click them, so even very large workspaces open in seconds and use little memory. You can turn this off in Settings.
How are templates different from bookmarks?
A template is a set of links with variables. When you open it, Tab Workspaces asks for the values (a request ID, a customer, a date or time), fills them into every link and opens them all as one named, coloured tab group. Times can be relative, like 15 minutes before an incident.
Can I move from OneTab, Session Buddy or Toby?
Yes. In Settings → Import, choose the file you exported from Session Buddy or Toby, or paste OneTab’s “Export URLs” text. Each list or window becomes a workspace. Any file or text with links works too.
Does it sync between my computers?
Not yet. Today you can download a backup on one computer and import it on another. End-to-end encrypted sync is the next feature on the way.
Does it work with Chrome’s tab groups?
Yes. Group names, colours and collapsed groups are saved and restored exactly, and templates open as tab groups.
Are there keyboard shortcuts?
Alt+Shift+W opens the panel and Alt+Shift+S saves the current window. You can change them at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
Close the tabs. Keep the work.
One window per project, saved as you go, and back in one click.