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How to save Chrome tabs in one click

Close Chrome with 200 tabs open across six windows and one crash, one update, or one accidental Cmd+Q can wipe the lot — Chrome's own reopen only goes back a single session and forgets which tab belonged to which group. To save Chrome tabs in a way that survives a restart you need a record of the whole session: every open window, each tab's title and URL, and the Chrome tab group each tab sits in. Tabwell captures that in one click. It reads your open windows through the chrome.tabs MV3 API and writes a snapshot — a JSON record of every window, every tab, and each tab's group assignment, including the group name, color, and collapsed state — into local IndexedDB on your device. There is no account and nothing leaves the machine. This guide covers the three ways to trigger a save, how to save all Chrome tabs at once versus a single window, what a snapshot actually stores, and how many snapshots the Free tier keeps.

The three ways to save your tabs

Saving is a single action with three entry points — pick whichever fits your hands at the moment. They all produce the same snapshot, so there is no "better" one to learn first.

  • Keyboard shortcut — assign a configurable shortcut in chrome://extensions/shortcuts and save the current session without leaving the keyboard.
  • Side-panel button — open the Tabwell side panel (Chrome's chrome.sidePanel API) and click Save snapshot.
  • Right-click menu — right-click any page and choose Save snapshot from the context menu.

Save one window or all Chrome tabs at once

By default a snapshot records every open window, so you save all Chrome tabs at once in one click — useful before a Chrome update or a restart. If you only want the window in front of you, scope the save to the current window from the side panel instead. Either way the tab order and window layout are recorded, not just a flat URL dump.

What a snapshot actually stores

A Tabwell snapshot is a JSON record of your session: each window, each tab's title and URL, and each tab's group assignment read through chrome.tabs and chrome.tabGroups. Because the group name, color, and collapsed state travel with the tab, a restore rebuilds the session the way you left it rather than handing you a wall of ungrouped tabs. For the group-specific details — colors, collapsed state, restoring a single group — see the dedicated tab-groups guide linked below.

Step by step: your first save

  1. Install Tabwell from the Chrome Web Store and pin it to the toolbar.
  2. Arrange the windows and tabs you want to keep — Tabwell captures whatever is open.
  3. Open the side panel and click Save snapshot, or use the keyboard shortcut or right-click menu.
  4. The snapshot is written to IndexedDB on your device; restore it later from the same panel with groups intact.

How many saves the Free tier keeps

Every install starts with a 14-day Pro trial. After the trial, the Free tier keeps your latest 5 snapshots with manual save and restore and runs an auto-snapshot every 60 minutes. Pro lifts the 5-snapshot cap to unlimited, indexes every saved tab for full-text search, and auto-snapshots every 5 minutes — $3.99/month, $29/year, or $19 one-time for the first 1,000 Founders buyers.

FAQ

How do I save all my Chrome tabs at once?

Open the Tabwell side panel and click Save snapshot — by default it captures every open window in a single snapshot, so all your Chrome tabs are saved at once. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut in chrome://extensions/shortcuts to do it without touching the mouse. To save only the window in front of you, scope the save to the current window.

Where are my saved Chrome tabs stored?

Snapshots are written to IndexedDB on your own device via the dexie library. Tab titles and URLs never leave the machine, and no account or signup is required. The only network call Tabwell makes is to Polar for license verification, which carries no tab data.

Does saving tabs work on Chrome 114?

Yes. Chrome 114 is the minimum version Tabwell supports, because it relies on the chrome.sidePanel API introduced in that release. It also uses chrome.tabs and chrome.tabGroups, which are available well before 114. Edge and other Chromium browsers may work but are not officially supported, and Firefox and Safari are not supported.

How many snapshots can I save for free?

Every install gets a 14-day Pro trial with no credit card. After that, the Free tier keeps your latest 5 snapshots with manual save and restore and a 60-minute auto-snapshot. Pro removes the 5-snapshot cap and adds full-text search and 5-minute auto-snapshots for $3.99/month or $19 one-time during Founders pricing.

Can I set a keyboard shortcut to save my tabs?

Yes. Open chrome://extensions/shortcuts, find Tabwell, and assign a key combination to the save command. Chrome leaves extension shortcuts unset by default, so you pick one that does not clash with your existing bindings. The side-panel button and right-click menu save the same snapshot if you prefer not to use a shortcut.

What happens to my saved tabs if I uninstall Tabwell?

Because snapshots live in local IndexedDB, uninstalling the extension removes them along with its storage. Export your snapshots to JSON from the side panel first if you want a backup you can re-import later. Reinstalling and importing that file brings every saved session back.