How to Select Multiple Tabs and Group Them in Chrome (2026)

You’re right-clicking through a stack of related tabs: add to group, click, add to group, click. Twenty tabs you already opened, and the grouping alone costs dozens of clicks. Every re-open, you pay it again. Chrome can do it faster. Hold Ctrl, click several tabs to select them, then right-click the selection and group them in one action.

Key takeaways

• Ctrl-click selects multiple tabs in the strip; right-click the selection to group them.
• SuperchargeNavigation’s Alt+G clusters every matching tab by domain in a single keystroke.
• For a one-off handful, native selection covers it. For a recurring batch, the extension removes the per-tab clicks.

Select Multiple Tabs and Group Them

The documented native path works one tab at a time: right-click the tab, choose Add tab to group, then pick a new or existing group. Do that for twenty tabs and you have spent dozens of clicks on a task that is pure bookkeeping. Chrome gives you a selection modifier to skip most of that.

Step 1: Select the tabs you want grouped.

Hold Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and click each tab you want to include. The selected tabs stay visually distinct from the rest of the strip. Pick as many or as few as you need.

Step 2: Group the selection.

With the tabs still selected, right-click one of them. The context menu offers a grouping option for the selected set. Choose it, and the tabs move into a new group or an existing one if you pick one from the list.

That is the entire native multi-tab grouping flow. One right-click covers the whole selection. The group appears in the strip with the standard eight-color palette, and a single click on the group chip collapses or expands it.

If you only have a few tabs, the drag path is simpler: drag each tab into an existing group. A tab, a drag. Done.

Alt+G: Group a Batch by Domain in One Keystroke

The native path groups tabs you pick by hand. If your batch is defined by site rather than by memory, picking them one by one is the slow part.

SuperchargeNavigation (live CWS version 1.4.3) adds a shortcut that skips the selection step entirely:

Alt+G clusters every open tab matching a domain into groups in one keystroke. No selection, no right-click, no drag. Press it and the tabs that share a domain land together.

A few details that matter:

• It is a suggested key, not a fixed one. Chrome allows you to rebind it, and it will silently drop the binding if it collides with another extension.
• Alt+Shift+G degroups tabs (the reverse operation).
• The side panel adds a second batch path. Open the panel with Alt+B, hold Ctrl (Cmd) and click multiple tabs to build a selection, then right-click the selection for batch options: group, close, pin, mute, lock.

SuperchargeNavigation is free with no PRO tier, sends no usage analytics or telemetry, and requires no account.

Native vs Extension: Choosing the Method

The native paths handle the small-batch, one-time case with zero setup. The extension paths earn their install when the grouping follows a pattern or the batch is large enough that per-tab clicking stops being worth it.

When the Built-In Path Covers You

If your tab batches are small, irregular, and not tied to a domain pattern, the Ctrl-click selection plus right-click grouping is the right tool. You get multi-tab grouping without adding an extension, and when history and tabs sync with your Google Account, the group syncs across your devices.

A closed group does not delete its tabs. It parks in the bookmarks bar or the menu and can be reopened. For appearance control, Settings → Appearance carries toggles for showing tab groups in the bookmarks bar and automatically pinning new groups there.

The built-in path is sufficient for the reader who groups tabs a few times a week and calls it done. The extension earns its place when the grouping is repetitive or the batch size makes the per-tab clicks feel like busywork.

Your Next Tab Batch

The next time a cluster of related tabs lands in your strip, the choice is straightforward:

• A handful of tabs, one-off: Ctrl-click to select, right-click, group. Two steps, no setup. You are done before the tabs cool down.
• A recurring batch by site or domain: Alt+G groups every matching tab in one keystroke. The side panel handles the mixed operations (pin, close, mute) on a multi-select. Install SuperchargeNavigation, rebind the key if it collides, and the per-tab clicking stops.
• A single tab: Drag it in.