Why You Should Be Using Vertical Tabs in Your Browser

Every major browser puts a thin strip of tabs at the top of the window. It's great, until you open dozens of tabs, and all you can really see are little website favicons. A better way exists—placing tabs vertically in a sidebar—but browsers have been resisting it for years. Arc was the first mainstream browser that pioneered a sidebar-based navigation system, and since then it has propagated to Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Arc's spiritual successor, Zen browser. If you're using one of these browsers, I highly recommend making the switch.

Why vertical tabs make more sense

So much wasted space on the left and right. Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Most websites are customized for a vertical reading experience, while laptops and desktops have widescreen displays. When you read articles on a website like Lifehacker, there's quite a lot of white space on the left and the right, while that vertical space is actually at a premium. Depending on your display size, your tabs might end up crunched along the top of the display, space that would otherwise be available for viewing the site in question. Moving the tab bar to a sidebar means you've freed up some useful space up top, with the added advantage of being able to see the names of all your tabs—even if you have 30 tabs open at once.

How to enable vertical tabs in Google Chrome

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Chrome was the last major browser to add support for vertical tabs, introducing the feature in April 2026. To enable vertical tabs in Chrome, update to the latest version, then go to Settings > Appearance > Tab strip position and switch to Side. All of your tabs will be shifted to a new vertical bar on the left. The URL bar with extensions will move to the top, and a lot of Chrome's interface will disappear.

Chrome also offers a compact mode. You can click the Collapse Tabs icon at the top of the vertical sidebar to only show the website favicons as tabs to save even more space (hovering over a tab will show the tab title). You can still create tab groups from the top of the sidebar, and there's also a handy button to search between the tabs. Pinned tabs show up at the top in their own separate section, too.

How to enable vertical tabs in Firefox

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Firefox has a sidebar that lets you add features like an AI chatbot, browser history, and quick access to tabs from other devices. Firefox also lets you move the sidebar to the right-hand side if you wish. To enable vertical tabs here, go to Settings > General > Browser Layout > Vertical Tabs (and make sure that Show sidebar is enabled). When the sidebar is open, click the Customize Sidebar button to customize the shortcuts—including the ability to remove all the Firefox features and AI chatbot shortcuts. There's also a compact mode here that only shows the favicons, but reveals the entire sidebar when you hover on it. Use the Expand sidebar on hover feature to switch to this mode.

How to enable vertical tabs in Edge

To enable vertical tabs in Microsoft Edge, go to Settings > Appearance > Tab Actions > Show vertical tabs. Once set, you'll be able to toggle the sidebar from the toolbar up top. Because Edge is based on Chromium, the vertical sidebar works much like the one in Chrome. Pinned tabs show up top, and you can collapse the sidebar for a compact mode.

Zen Browser has vertical tabs by default

Credit: Justin Pot

If you are in favor of vertical tabs, you really should consider using the Zen browser. Currently in beta, it's a spiritual successor to Arc (RIP) that is based on Firefox instead of Chromium, with a focus on privacy and speed. But what's particularly relevant for this piece is that Zen Browser uses a sidebar interface by default. Zen uses workspaces to divide up your work, personal life, or projects. Each space can have its own pinned tabs and its own workspace. You can add tabs to the "Essentials" space that stay the same no matter what. There's also a compact mode that hides the entire sidebar unless you hover on the edge of the window. To know more, take a look at our detailed guide on the Zen browser.

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