Description from extension meta
Limit the maximum number of tabs that can be open at the same time.
Image from store
Description from store
xTab is a Chrome extension that lets you limit the maximum number of tabs that can be open at one time.
You can set the tab limit to any number and choose what tab should be removed when you hit that limit:
- Least recently used (default)
- Least accessed
- Oldest
You can alternatively block new tabs from opening completely once the limit has been reached.
Pinned tabs, tabs playing audio, and tabs that you have never visited (opened in the background) will not be closed.
If you are looking to install in an enterprise environment and customize settings using a group policy please contact us here: https://xtab.app
Note that after the extension is installed, if you do not change the default settings, it will close any tabs you have open beyond a 20 tab limit. For example, if you have 50 tabs open when the extension is installed, the next tab you open will remove 30 tabs. You can avoid this behavior by changing the default settings as soon as it is installed.
NOTE that a new tab opens when the extension is updated to version 2.0. This is a one time thing that is required to transfer the settings over to the new version which uses a different storage mechanism. This is required for changes related to manifest v3.
Changes
v2.0.4
- Fixes issue where if the maximum number of tabs is set to 0, you may not be able to open a new browser window
v2.0.3
- Fixed “Block without warning” behavior on Microsoft Edge when using the `block` algorithm
v2.0.2
- Fixed issue introduced in version 2.0.0 where in some cases you may be allowed to open more tabs than your limit and then when you go to open the next one, it may close tabs that do not match your current setting. This has to do with the manifest v3 updates mandated by Google. Extensions have to use service workers and the workers get automatically killed every five minutes. This update preserves the state in session storage so when the service worker starts again, it works properly
- Fixed issue where the migration tab may not run if you are at your tab limit and using `block` algorithm
- Fixed issue where sometimes tabs may close at browser startup when using `block` algorithm and “block without warning”
- Fixed styles in the xTab popup
v2.0.1
- Make sure migration tab launches in the background
v2.0.0
- Updated extension to support manifest v3
- Updated storage to use chrome.storage API instead of localStorage directly
- Changed default behavior when using “block” algorithm to block without warning (This change in v1.0.0 was questionable and a little confusing so this restores the previous behavior)
v1.0.1
- Updated extension to remove advertisement in favor of a donation link
v1.0.0
- Rearchitected to support additional functionality and custom builds.
- Updated the pop up UI to make it simpler to understand what the different options do
- Added an option to prevent tabs that are playing audio from being closed by the extension (enabled by default)
- Added an option to recycle existing tabs. This means that instead of closing an old tab it will reuse the old tab and move it into the new position. This allows you to use the back button to get back to a tab that has been closed (disabled by default)
- Added a page that shows up in place of a new tab if you have the extension set to block new tabs from opening (enabled by default)
- Added an option to block tabs from opening without showing a page (disabled by default)
- Added new xTab logo to popup menu
- Updated extension icon
- Updated extension logo
- Improved handling of tabs you have never been to
- Decreased amount of time until a tab is considered active to prevent cases where sometimes a tab doesn’t get closed even though you have been to it
- Reduced number of options in tab limit dropdown
v0.2.1
- Updated copy in popup to be more clear
v0.2.0
- Added option to block new tabs from opening instead of auto closing an older tab
- Handled cases where the tab id could change for an existing tab
- Improved handling of tabs you have never been to so they are less likely to be closed in different modes
v0.1.6
- Fixed issue that would cause this extension to sometimes not work if a configuration value was missing in local storage
v0.1.5
- Added timer to only consider a tab active after it has been open for a few seconds
- Updated to handle tabs that were open before the extension was installed.
v0.1.4
- Updated background page to be persistent
v0.1.3
- Fixed issue where sometimes tabs you haven’t been to could still be closed.
v0.1.2
- Updated to prevent closing tabs you have never been to (for example if command clicking to open tabs in the background)
v0.1.1
- Fixed issue where sometimes the active tab would be closed
Latest reviews
- (2025-02-21) አ: 28/09/2024 It was my favourite self control app...unfortunately it stopped working on MS Edge. Looking for alternatives. 21/02/2024 EDIT: now it works smoothly :) i'm finally back on xTab. Thanks dev!
- (2024-10-17) The Phoenix: everything's perfect, helped me to cure my less focus time.
- (2024-09-08) Alessandro Pagliano: Great Extension if used in chrome. Working with Edge, not working with Opera (setting box does not show)
- (2024-08-25) Eliza Jones: This has helped so much with tab management! I have changed my settings to close the least used tabs when I try to open a new one. It isn't the default for the extension, but I highly recommend selecting that setting, its my favorite and has been the most effective one for me so far. Definitely worth it, been using it for years :)
- (2024-08-24) Jeff -family of- Stapleton: Until the last couple of days, I would say this is a 4-star extension. I've used this for years and used it with Brave for a couple of years, but all of a sudden in the last couple of days, it stopped working. What happens now, is when you try to open a tab that puts you over your limit, the tab is open in a new browser window instead of being blocked. So, it seems like the v2.0.1 release introduced a bug. ------------ 08-24-2024 UPDATE: The behavior has continued over all of these months. Today, I came back and saw your message, Craig. I disabled xTab, restarted Brave, then re-enabled xTab and restarted Brave again. For years, I have set the limit to 100 tabs, but I know for a fact that Brave and my PC can handle up to around 200-230 or so tabs without a problem. As of today, due to xTab's behavior, I was up to 5 windows and 234 tabs because xTab at some point just launches a new window. Or Brave is doing it. I don't know. I saved all of my open tabs and then I changed the xTab limit to 30 tabs, restarted Brave, then changed the limit to 120 tabs and restarted Brave. I then proceeded to re-open tabs to see what would happen when I got around 120 tabs. Actually, I found it fluctuates, but when trying to open a new tab, the 101st, 102nd, or maybe the 103rd tab causes a new window to open. Maybe the approximate 100 or so tab limit for a window has always existed or is a Brave specific limit. For a few years, I used Chrome (not sure if I used xTab back then), but then used Edge for a few years and I definitely used xTab during that time, but I usually kept the xTab limit to 100 tabs. And now I have used Brave for more than 2 years. However, xTab still lets me blow by the 120 tab limit. Ever since I started using xTab many years ago, I've always enabled the "Block new tabs from opening" option. I'm not sure when the "Block without warning" option was added, but I have never used that. I like to see the pop-up that lets me know I just tried opening a tab that put me over the limit. Of course, that hasn't worked for me now since late April/early May 2024. For now, I've decided to just disable xTab since even completely removing it and re-adding it also did not fix the issue. Something related to the changes with manifest v3 has it simply not working correctly, both with forcing new windows to open and not actually limiting new tabs from being open at the limit cut-off.
- (2024-08-16) tarun potnuru: hey there, unfortunately i kept my minimum tabs as 0 and closed the browser now i am unable to open the browser is there any way to solve this please
- (2024-07-17) Chhavi: it worked wonders when i downloaded it yesterday however today it wont show the interface when i click on it and instead it just shows a little square, i reinstalled it but there seems to be no improvement, it still shows a little square instead of the interface alot :(. update: 17 jul 2024 its still showing a little box instead of the settings page, not working
- (2024-06-12) Robert S.: I'd say 4 stars when the extension works. My only complaint is that on Opera GX, whenever you'd try to actually use it and change the settings to make it work, it would just show up as a tiny little white box the size of my finger tips and wouldn't extend in any way to show settings.
- (2024-06-11) Pete Norris: Oh you life saver!
- (2024-05-29) aki toshi: 数日前から全く機能しなくなりました。xTabの設定を変えてみたり、xTabの再インストール等試しましたが依然使えないままです。 便利な拡張機能なので、この問題が少しでも早く解決することを願っています。 chromeのバージョン:125.0.6422.113(Official Build) (64 ビット) xTabのバージョン:2.0.2
- (2024-05-24) Malcolm Kennedy: Very useful! Recently it's started to lag behind though, and close two or more tabs at once after missing a couple, which makes it less predictable.
- (2024-05-05) Dawid Bieniek: Closed all my tabs before I could set that it should only prevent new ones from opening. If I could give zero starts I would.
- (2024-05-02) Pratik: Not working on my Opera Browser, It was working Before.
- (2023-09-13) Daniel Oliveira: Your extension has a bug. If you close your browser in unconventional ways, such as using the task manager, and you have more than one window open, when you reopen your browser later, probably all other windows are going to be closed except one. If your computer turns off for any reason and you restart it, Chrome will show you a message saying that you didn't close the browser correctly. When you click on the 'restore' button, the same thing that happens when you close your browser with the task manager occurs. So, I think it would be useful if the extension had a history or something similar. Alternatively, if it's easy for the developer, they could just fix that bug. If you need help understanding how this bug has affected me, just let me know.
- (2023-09-13) Daniel Oliveira: Your extension has a bug. If you close your browser in unconventional ways, such as using the task manager, and you have more than one window open, when you reopen your browser later, probably all other windows are going to be closed except one. If your computer turns off for any reason and you restart it, Chrome will show you a message saying that you didn't close the browser correctly. When you click on the 'restore' button, the same thing that happens when you close your browser with the task manager occurs. So, I think it would be useful if the extension had a history or something similar. Alternatively, if it's easy for the developer, they could just fix that bug. If you need help understanding how this bug has affected me, just let me know.
- (2023-05-16) Brian: works ok until you lose all your tabs
- (2023-05-16) Brian: works ok until you lose all your tabs
- (2022-12-19) Vishw: A great extension! has really helped boosting my productivity, but a feature that needs to be added, one can just open a new window and have more tabs open that there should be as of extension - it does block all of those opened in the same window but all it takes is opening a new window to bypass it, overall really helpful though, thanks!
- (2022-12-19) Vishw: A great extension! has really helped boosting my productivity, but a feature that needs to be added, one can just open a new window and have more tabs open that there should be as of extension - it does block all of those opened in the same window but all it takes is opening a new window to bypass it, overall really helpful though, thanks!
- (2022-07-19) Dat Nguyen Ba: hey really nice i love it
- (2022-07-19) Dat Nguyen Ba: hey really nice i love it
- (2022-01-18) Cress Caribou: okay so like it didn't actually work, I have a little problem with having too many tabs open and I have a counter for it (currently at 434 tabs in this browser, but I also have a school browser and I'm still clearing stuff out of my old browser). At one point I got down to around 300 and set my limit to 350, but then realized that xtab did nothing.
- (2022-01-18) Cress Caribou: okay so like it didn't actually work, I have a little problem with having too many tabs open and I have a counter for it (currently at 434 tabs in this browser, but I also have a school browser and I'm still clearing stuff out of my old browser). At one point I got down to around 300 and set my limit to 350, but then realized that xtab did nothing.
- (2022-01-10) Tsunazoz: So simple, yet so effective.
- (2022-01-10) Tsunazoz: So simple, yet so effective.
- (2021-12-02) Alexander: When I tried to move and merge several tabs from another window - this extension first moved them, but then closed them all ! I've lost my data !!! Very crooked app! Flaw!
- (2021-12-02) Alexander: When I tried to move and merge several tabs from another window - this extension first moved them, but then closed them all ! I've lost my data !!! Very crooked app! Flaw!
- (2021-11-18) Hasan Baran: ilk türk yorumu helal olsun güzel uygulama
- (2021-10-07) bob king: Ive used this extension for the last several years, it wasn't perfect and there were never any other alternatives, I used this to block any new tabs opening from sites that would launch new tabs to try to redirect me to a spam or scam site, 98 percent of the time it would work well, now its not the case. The other issue ive always had with it is its badge icon disappearing in my browser no matter what computer im on time to time, the only way to get it to show again was to reinstall it which was always aggravating, now suddenly on this site anime frenzy, it isn't limiting popup tabs anymore, luckily ive finally found what seems to be a better solution called tab limiter, its free just like x tab, but seems to be far faster reacting and it uses less memory, xtab was great, but it isn't updated nearly enough, it served me well all these years, but tablimiter will be my new tab management extension...
- (2021-10-07) bob king: Ive used this extension for the last several years, it wasn't perfect and there were never any other alternatives, I used this to block any new tabs opening from sites that would launch new tabs to try to redirect me to a spam or scam site, 98 percent of the time it would work well, now its not the case. The other issue ive always had with it is its badge icon disappearing in my browser no matter what computer im on time to time, the only way to get it to show again was to reinstall it which was always aggravating, now suddenly on this site anime frenzy, it isn't limiting popup tabs anymore, luckily ive finally found what seems to be a better solution called tab limiter, its free just like x tab, but seems to be far faster reacting and it uses less memory, xtab was great, but it isn't updated nearly enough, it served me well all these years, but tablimiter will be my new tab management extension...
- (2021-08-07) I use this to keep my browser distractions under control. It can be frustrating to try to manage but it's definitely working as intended.
- (2021-07-06) William Davies: I've only just installed the extension but the idea is brilliant and mostly what I was looking for! Thank you! I was just wondering. When I installed the extension I got a pop-up saying that the extension can read my browsing history. I was just wondering why the extension needs to do that? Especially as the extension is no longer open source, this makes me a bit concerned about what's going on. I know it says on your website that "No tracking or data collection" is a feature, but I still got this pop-up from my browser. Thank you!
- (2021-07-06) William Davies: I've only just installed the extension but the idea is brilliant and mostly what I was looking for! Thank you! I was just wondering. When I installed the extension I got a pop-up saying that the extension can read my browsing history. I was just wondering why the extension needs to do that? Especially as the extension is no longer open source, this makes me a bit concerned about what's going on. I know it says on your website that "No tracking or data collection" is a feature, but I still got this pop-up from my browser. Thank you!
- (2021-05-14) Morgan Beenen: its pretty good :) ive only used it for a couple days though so i might change this review
- (2021-05-14) Morgan Beenen: its pretty good :) ive only used it for a couple days though so i might change this review
- (2021-04-08) Daka Baka: Its very neat and clean, works as intended. Its exactly what I need.
- (2021-04-08) Daka Baka: Its very neat and clean, works as intended. Its exactly what I need.
- (2021-03-04) Vikram Maran: Doesn't seem to work.
- (2021-03-04) Vikram Maran: Doesn't seem to work.
- (2021-02-15) Pako Boss: very good extension that helped my productivity BUT every now and then it just closes all of my tabs with no explanation, despite my limit being 30 tabs it allows 0. scenarios where i can remember this happened: -opening incognito navigation then closing main browser, then opening main browser again later -chrome wasn't shut down correctly and when restired, every tab is counted as excessive so the browser closes completely there are others, but this is all i remember. this is very troublesome as i have to go and look for the tabs in the browser history and i end up wasting a lot of time like that. i've been using your extension for maybe 6 months and this has happened over TEN times so far. so please fix it. thanks.
- (2021-02-15) Pako Boss: very good extension that helped my productivity BUT every now and then it just closes all of my tabs with no explanation, despite my limit being 30 tabs it allows 0. scenarios where i can remember this happened: -opening incognito navigation then closing main browser, then opening main browser again later -chrome wasn't shut down correctly and when restired, every tab is counted as excessive so the browser closes completely there are others, but this is all i remember. this is very troublesome as i have to go and look for the tabs in the browser history and i end up wasting a lot of time like that. i've been using your extension for maybe 6 months and this has happened over TEN times so far. so please fix it. thanks.
- (2021-02-03) Kallie Lancaster: I like this because I can help keep myself on task while doing schoolwork, but my only complaint is it doesn't seem to recognize tabs I have pinned. So, I can wasily bypass this by simply pinning a tab. I do really like this though.
- (2021-02-03) Kallie Lancaster: I like this because I can help keep myself on task while doing schoolwork, but my only complaint is it doesn't seem to recognize tabs I have pinned. So, I can wasily bypass this by simply pinning a tab. I do really like this though.
- (2021-01-07) donny rolanda: Hi. this Extensions great!! Thanks. Oh iya please add more options if we get on last tab limit, and try open new link it will open new window. if possible :)
- (2021-01-07) donny rolanda: Hi. this Extensions great!! Thanks. Oh iya please add more options if we get on last tab limit, and try open new link it will open new window. if possible :)
- (2020-11-14) Ela B.: This is amazing. I am in a discord server so I have many tabs open to send images. I also forget to close many unused tabs and forget to search over them. Exactly what I needed. Thank you very much.
- (2020-11-14) Ela B.: This is amazing. I am in a discord server so I have many tabs open to send images. I also forget to close many unused tabs and forget to search over them. Exactly what I needed. Thank you very much.
- (2020-08-23) Go T: 開けるタブの数を制限できて便利!仕事中につい関係ないサイトを開いてしまうことを防ぎやすくなる。集中するために、私はタブを1つしか開けないようにして使っています。
- (2020-08-17) Tobias Dänzer: Works as described, but is only moderately useful because the tab limit only applies to the current window, and can be trivially circumvented by opening more windows. Would deserve 5 stars if the tab limit were global.
- (2020-08-17) Tobias Dänzer: Works as described, but is only moderately useful because the tab limit only applies to the current window, and can be trivially circumvented by opening more windows. Would deserve 5 stars if the tab limit were global.