Chrome Shortcut Open Last Closed Tab (2026)

You closed a tab by accident. Or maybe intentionally — and now you need it back. Either way, you want it restored right now, not two minutes from now after digging through browser history.

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab is one of the most useful in the entire browser, and most people who use Chrome daily still do not know it exists. Once you have it in muscle memory, you will never worry about closing a tab you still needed.

This guide covers the shortcut, how it works, what it can and cannot do, and every related technique for recovering tabs in Chrome.

The Core Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+T

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab is:

• Windows and Linux: Ctrl+Shift+T
• Mac: Cmd+Shift+T

Press it once and Chrome immediately reopens the most recently closed tab, exactly where you left off — same URL, same scroll position, same browsing history within that tab. Press it again and Chrome reopens the tab closed before that one. Keep pressing to walk backward through your entire close history for the current session.

This is not a workaround. It is a built-in Chrome feature that has existed for years and works consistently across all platforms. There is nothing to install, no setting to enable. It just works.

What Gets Restored When You Reopen a Tab

When you use the chrome shortcut to open last closed tab, Chrome does not just reload the URL. It restores the full tab state:

• The page you were on when you closed the tab
• The complete browsing history within that tab (so Back and Forward still work)
• Scroll position, in most cases
• Form data, in some cases depending on the site

The restored tab opens in the same position in the tab strip it occupied before — or at the far right if that position is now occupied by other tabs. Either way, you are back where you left off within seconds.

One important note: if the page was loaded over HTTPS and relies on POST data (like a form submission result), Chrome may reload the page rather than restore the exact state. For standard browsing, though, restoration is clean and complete.

Reopening Tabs Across Browser Restarts

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab works across browser restarts — but only if you have Chrome set up correctly. Go to chrome://settings/onStartup and select Continue where you left off. With this setting active, Chrome preserves your previous session's close history.

When you relaunch Chrome and press Ctrl+Shift+T (Cmd+Shift+T on Mac), Chrome restores your previous session tabs one by one in reverse close order. If Chrome crashed or was force-quit, pressing the shortcut right after relaunch restores the tabs that were open when the crash occurred — all at once in a single keypress.

This makes the shortcut a practical safety net for crash recovery, not just for individual tab accidents. For more context on Chrome's session-handling shortcuts, the complete Chrome shortcuts cheat sheet covers the full tab management shortcut set.

Reopening a Closed Window

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab also recovers entire windows. If you close a Chrome window with multiple tabs and then press Ctrl+Shift+T, Chrome treats that closed window as a single history entry and restores all of its tabs at once. The full window comes back, not just one tab from it.

If you have pressed the shortcut a few times since closing the window, keep pressing. Chrome works through each individual tab you closed after the window, then hits the window entry and restores everything. The order is strict last-in, first-out.

This behavior makes Ctrl+Shift+T a reliable recovery tool for accidental window closures, not just accidental tab closures.

Alternative Methods for Finding Recently Closed Tabs

The keyboard shortcut is the fastest approach, but there are a few other ways to recover closed tabs when you need more control over what you reopen.

Tab Search (Ctrl+Shift+A): Press Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows or Cmd+Shift+A on Mac to open Chrome's built-in tab search. At the bottom of the search panel, Chrome displays a list of recently closed tabs. You can type a partial title or URL to find a specific closed tab rather than walking back through the history one by one. This is faster when you closed something a while ago and do not want to Ctrl+Shift+T through ten other tabs to reach it.

Recent Tabs Menu: Click the three-dot menu in the upper right corner of Chrome, hover over History, and look for Recently closed. Chrome shows a short list of recently closed tabs and windows. You can click directly on any entry to reopen it. This works the same as the keyboard shortcut but via mouse.

Full History (Ctrl+H): Press Ctrl+H (Cmd+Y on Mac) to open the full Chrome history page. Every page you have visited is listed here in reverse chronological order, searchable by title or URL. This is the right tool when you are looking for something you closed hours or days ago, not just in the current session.

For a full breakdown of how tab search fits into Chrome's keyboard shortcut ecosystem, see the Chrome tab shortcuts guide.

When the Shortcut Does Not Work

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab fails in a few specific situations:

An extension has claimed the shortcut. Extensions can override Ctrl+Shift+T for their own purposes. To check, go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts and look for any extension assigned to Ctrl+Shift+T or Cmd+Shift+T. Reassign or remove the conflicting binding and the tab recovery shortcut will work again.

A text field is intercepting keyboard input. If your cursor is inside a text field on the current page, some sites capture keyboard shortcuts before Chrome sees them. Click somewhere outside the text field and try the shortcut again.

There is nothing left to reopen. If you have already walked all the way back through your close history, Chrome has nothing left to restore. The shortcut simply does nothing. Open the full history page with Ctrl+H to find older pages manually.

The "Continue where you left off" setting is off. After a browser restart, if Chrome is set to open the New Tab page instead of the previous session, the prior session's close history is gone. Switching to "Continue where you left off" in chrome://settings/onStartup prevents this.

Using Tab Search Alongside the Shortcut

Tab search and the chrome shortcut to open last closed tab are complementary tools. The shortcut is for when you know exactly what you just closed and want it back instantly — no thinking required. Tab search is for when you need to find a specific tab from several closures ago without pressing the shortcut repeatedly.

Use Ctrl+Shift+T for the last one or two tabs you closed. Switch to Ctrl+Shift+A tab search when you closed a specific tab several steps back and you remember its title or URL. Together, these two shortcuts cover every tab recovery scenario you will actually encounter in daily use.

For Mac users who want a broader view of these shortcuts in context, the Chrome shortcuts for Mac guide covers how Cmd+Shift+T and the other Cmd-based tab shortcuts fit into a Mac-native workflow.

Quick Reference: Chrome Closed Tab Recovery Shortcuts

| Action | Windows / Linux | Mac | |---|---|---| | Reopen last closed tab | Ctrl+Shift+T | Cmd+Shift+T | | Reopen last closed window | Ctrl+Shift+T | Cmd+Shift+T | | Open tab search (shows recent) | Ctrl+Shift+A | Cmd+Shift+A | | Open full history | Ctrl+H | Cmd+Y | | Open new tab | Ctrl+T | Cmd+T | | Close tab | Ctrl+W | Cmd+W |

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab is Ctrl+Shift+T on every platform. Everything else in this table is context for working around it when you need more control.

The One Tab Shortcut Chrome Still Does Not Have

Chrome's built-in tab shortcuts cover almost everything. Open, close, switch, search, reopen — it is all there. The one gap Chrome has never filled is copying the current tab's URL. The native method requires Ctrl+L to focus the address bar, then Ctrl+C to copy. Two keystrokes, focus change, back to the page.

The Ctrl+Shift+C extension fills that gap. One keypress copies the full URL of the active tab to your clipboard — no address bar, no menus, no interruption. It uses only the activeTab permission, collects zero data, makes no network requests, and is free. It completes the set of tab shortcuts Chrome should have shipped with.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Chrome shortcut to open the last closed tab? Press Ctrl+Shift+T on Windows and Linux, or Cmd+Shift+T on Mac. Chrome immediately reopens the most recently closed tab with its full browsing history intact. Press the shortcut again to reopen the tab closed before that one, and so on through your entire session history.

Does the reopen closed tab shortcut work after Chrome restarts? Yes, if Chrome is set to continue where you left off. Enable this under chrome://settings/onStartup. With this setting active, the chrome shortcut to open last closed tab works right after a browser restart or crash recovery.

Why is Ctrl+Shift+T not working in Chrome? The most common cause is an extension that has claimed that key combination. Check chrome://extensions/shortcuts and remove any conflicting assignment. Also make sure you are not focused inside a text field on the page when you press the shortcut.

Can I see all recently closed tabs at once? Yes. Press Ctrl+Shift+A to open tab search, which lists recently closed tabs below your open ones. Or click the three-dot menu, hover over History, and select from the Recently closed list. For older history, press Ctrl+H to open the full history page.

Start Recovering Tabs Faster Today

The chrome shortcut to open last closed tab — Ctrl+Shift+T on Windows, Cmd+Shift+T on Mac — is one of those shortcuts that pays off immediately. You will use it within the next hour of browsing. Add Ctrl+Shift+A tab search and Ctrl+H for deeper history, and you have a complete toolkit for tab recovery that requires zero mouse interaction.

The only thing left is the shortcut Chrome itself never built: instant URL copying. Install Ctrl+Shift+C and get one-keypress URL copying to go with your one-keypress tab recovery. Zero data collected, free forever, takes thirty seconds to install.