Group Chrome windows into tabs on a Mac
Chrome invented the modern tab, so it is odd that on a Mac its windows cannot be tabbed. Open the Window menu and Merge All Windows is not there. Here is why, what Chrome gives you instead, and how to get one tabbed window out of several Chrome windows — or out of Chrome and whatever you use alongside it.
Short version. Chrome does not use the macOS tabbing API, so the system cannot tab its windows. Inside Chrome, drag tabs between windows and use tab groups. To make Chrome windows themselves into tabs — or to tab Chrome next to a terminal or an editor — use a window grouping utility such as Tack.
Why Merge All Windows is missing
macOS can merge an app's windows into tabs (Window › Merge All Windows), but only when the app draws standard system windows and adopts the tabbing API. Chrome does neither. It paints its own frame with the tab strip across the title bar, which is why the traffic-light buttons sit inside its toolbar rather than above it. Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera share that frame and share the omission. Safari is the only major browser where the menu item appears. More on which apps have it and why →
What Chrome offers instead
Move tabs between windows
Drag a tab out of one window's strip and into another's. ⇧-click selects a run of tabs and ⌘-click adds individual ones, so a whole set moves at once. When the last tab leaves, that window closes. This is the Chrome answer to "merge my windows", and if the goal is fewer Chrome windows it is the right one.
Tab groups
Right-click a tab, Add Tab to New Group, and it gets a colour and a name; click the name to collapse the group. Groups can be saved and synced across devices. This tidies the strip but everything stays in one window.
Chrome's own window menu
Chrome's Window menu lists open windows and the Tab Search button (⇧⌘A) finds a tab across all of them. Useful, but a list is not a tab strip.
What none of that does
Two Chrome windows exist on purpose: one is the thing you are reading and the other is the thing you are doing, and merging their tabs into one strip loses the distinction. More often the second thing is not Chrome at all. A browser beside a terminal, a doc beside a design tool, a web app beside the editor you are building it in — Chrome's tools stop at Chrome's edge, and so do the Mac's.
Grouping Chrome windows with a utility
Tack works at the window level, so it does not care that Chrome draws its own frame. Grab a Chrome window, drag it onto another window — Chrome or anything else — hold for half a second until a blue outline appears, and release. The two now share one frame with a tab strip above it. Each keeps its own Chrome tabs inside; the group is one level up. Move or resize the group and every member follows.
- Install Tack and grant Accessibility permission when asked. Moving another app's windows is only possible through that API.
- Drag one Chrome window onto another, hold half a second, release. Or press ⌃⌥⌘G and pick windows from a list.
- Add anything else — a terminal, a notes window, an editor — by dragging it onto the group the same way.
- Switch by clicking a tab. Hover one for a live preview, or drag it off the strip to detach it. Cycling and jump-to-tab shortcuts are available in Settings, off by default.
Chrome's own tabs keep working as before; the strip Tack adds sits above Chrome's, and right-clicks on Chrome's tab strip still go to Chrome. New Chrome windows can join a group automatically if you set a rule for them — and a rule can go further: give Chrome and, say, your editor rules with a shared group label and their windows stay together in one group, created for you the moment both are on screen.
Try Tack free for 14 days → The full app, no account, no card. Then $39.99 once for up to 3 Macs.Setups this is for
- Web development — the site you are building in Chrome, tabbed with VS Code and the terminal running it. One frame, ⌘1 ⌘2 ⌘3 between them.
- Research and writing — sources in one Chrome window, the draft in another app, notes in a third, without three overlapping windows on a laptop screen.
- Web apps as apps — a Chrome window pinned to Gmail or Figma tabbed with the desktop apps you use it with, instead of being one more tab in a strip of forty.
- Two profiles — work and personal Chrome windows as two tabs in one frame, one keystroke apart.
Common questions
Why is Merge All Windows missing in Chrome?
Chrome draws its own tab strip and frame rather than using the macOS tabbing API, so the system feature does not apply. Edge, Brave, Arc and other Chromium browsers are the same.
Can I merge two Chrome windows into one?
Yes, by dragging tabs from one window's strip into the other's — ⇧-click to move several at once. That merges the browser tabs; the emptied window closes.
Can Chrome share a tabbed window with other apps?
Not with anything in Chrome or macOS. A window grouping utility puts a Chrome window in one tabbed group with windows from any other app.
Does this work with Edge, Brave and Arc?
Yes. Grouping happens at the window level through Accessibility, so every Chromium browser is treated the same.