tabs

Interact with the browser's tab system.

Note: When using Manifest V3 or higher, the methods to execute scripts, insert CSS, and remove CSS are provided by the scripting API through the scripting.executeScript(), scripting.insertCSS() and scripting.removeCSS() methods.

You can use this API to get a list of opened tabs, filtered by various criteria, and to open, update, move, reload, and remove tabs. You can't directly access the content hosted by tabs using this API, but you can insert JavaScript and CSS into tabs using the tabs.executeScript() or tabs.insertCSS() APIs.

You can use most of this API without any special permission. However:

To access Tab.url, Tab.title, and Tab.favIconUrl (or to filter by these properties via tabs.query()), you need to have the "tabs" permission, or have host permissions that match Tab.url.
- Access to these properties by host permissions is supported since Firefox 86 and Chrome 50. In Firefox 85 and earlier, the "tabs" permission was required instead.
To use tabs.executeScript() or tabs.insertCSS(), you must have the host permission for the tab

Alternatively, you can get these permissions temporarily, only for the currently active tab and only in response to an explicit user action, by asking for the "activeTab" permission.

Many tab operations use a Tab id. Tab ids are guaranteed to be unique to a single tab only within a browser session. If the browser is restarted, then it can and will reuse tab ids. To associate information with a tab across browser restarts, use sessions.setTabValue().

Types

tabs.MutedInfoReason: Specifies the reason a tab was muted or unmuted.
tabs.MutedInfo: This object contains a boolean indicating whether the tab is muted, and the reason for the last state change.
tabs.PageSettings: Used to control how a tab is rendered as a PDF by the tabs.saveAsPDF() method.
tabs.Tab: This type contains information about a tab.
tabs.TabStatus: Indicates whether the tab has finished loading.
tabs.WindowType: The type of window that hosts this tab.
tabs.ZoomSettingsMode: Defines whether zoom changes are handled by the browser, by the extension, or are disabled.
tabs.ZoomSettingsScope: Defines whether zoom changes will persist for the page's origin, or only take effect in this tab.
tabs.ZoomSettings: Defines zoom settings mode, scope, and default zoom factor.

Properties

tabs.TAB_ID_NONE: A special ID value given to tabs that are not browser tabs (for example, tabs in devtools windows).

Functions

tabs.captureTab(): Creates a data URL encoding an image of the visible area of the given tab.
tabs.captureVisibleTab(): Creates a data URL encoding an image of the visible area of the currently active tab in the specified window.
tabs.connect(): Sets up a messaging connection between the extension's background scripts (or other privileged scripts, such as popup scripts or options page scripts) and any content scripts running in the specified tab.
tabs.create(): Creates a new tab.
tabs.detectLanguage(): Detects the primary language of the content in a tab.
tabs.discard(): Discards one or more tabs.
tabs.duplicate(): Duplicates a tab.
tabs.executeScript() (Manifest V2 only): Injects JavaScript code into a page.
tabs.get(): Retrieves details about the specified tab.
tabs.getAllInWindow() Deprecated: Gets details about all tabs in the specified window.
tabs.getCurrent(): Gets information about the tab that this script is running in, as a tabs.Tab object.
tabs.getSelected() Deprecated: Gets the tab that is selected in the specified window. Deprecated: use tabs.query({active: true}) instead.
tabs.getZoom(): Gets the current zoom factor of the specified tab.
tabs.getZoomSettings(): Gets the current zoom settings for the specified tab.
tabs.goForward(): Go forward to the next page, if one is available.
tabs.goBack(): Go back to the previous page, if one is available.
tabs.hide() Experimental: Hides one or more tabs.
tabs.highlight(): Highlights one or more tabs.
tabs.insertCSS() (Manifest V2 only): Injects CSS into a page.
tabs.move(): Moves one or more tabs to a new position in the same window or to a different window.
tabs.moveInSuccession(): Modifies the succession relationship for a group of tabs.
tabs.print(): Prints the contents of the active tab.
tabs.printPreview(): Opens print preview for the active tab.
tabs.query(): Gets all tabs that have the specified properties, or all tabs if no properties are specified.
tabs.reload(): Reload a tab, optionally bypassing the local web cache.
tabs.remove(): Closes one or more tabs.
tabs.removeCSS() (Manifest V2 only): Removes from a page CSS which was previously injected by calling tabs.insertCSS().
tabs.saveAsPDF(): Saves the current page as a PDF.
tabs.sendMessage(): Sends a single message to the content script(s) in the specified tab.
tabs.sendRequest() Deprecated: Sends a single request to the content script(s) in the specified tab. Deprecated: use tabs.sendMessage() instead.
tabs.setZoom(): Zooms the specified tab.
tabs.setZoomSettings(): Sets the zoom settings for the specified tab.
tabs.show() Experimental: Shows one or more tabs that have been hidden.
tabs.toggleReaderMode(): Toggles Reader mode for the specified tab.
tabs.update(): Navigate the tab to a new URL, or modify other properties of the tab.
tabs.warmup(): Prepare the tab to make a potential following switch faster.

Events

tabs.onActivated: Fires when the active tab in a window changes. Note that the tab's URL may not be set at the time this event fired.
tabs.onActiveChanged Deprecated: Fires when the selected tab in a window changes. Deprecated: use tabs.onActivated instead.
tabs.onAttached: Fired when a tab is attached to a window, for example because it was moved between windows.
tabs.onCreated: Fired when a tab is created. Note that the tab's URL may not be set at the time this event fired.
tabs.onDetached: Fired when a tab is detached from a window, for example because it is being moved between windows.
tabs.onHighlightChanged Deprecated: Fired when the highlighted or selected tabs in a window change. Deprecated: use tabs.onHighlighted instead.
tabs.onHighlighted: Fired when the highlighted or selected tabs in a window change.
tabs.onMoved: Fired when a tab is moved within a window.
tabs.onRemoved: Fired when a tab is closed.
tabs.onReplaced: Fired when a tab is replaced with another tab due to prerendering.
tabs.onSelectionChanged Deprecated: Fires when the selected tab in a window changes. Deprecated: use tabs.onActivated instead.
tabs.onUpdated: Fired when a tab is updated.
tabs.onZoomChange: Fired when a tab is zoomed.

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Firefox for Android
Safari on iOS
tabs
MutedInfo
MutedInfoReason
PageSettings
PageSettings.edgeBottom
PageSettings.edgeLeft
PageSettings.edgeRight
PageSettings.edgeTop
PageSettings.fileName
PageSettings.footerCenter
PageSettings.footerLeft
PageSettings.footerRight
PageSettings.headerCenter
PageSettings.headerLeft
PageSettings.headerRight
PageSettings.marginBottom
PageSettings.marginLeft
PageSettings.marginRight
PageSettings.marginTop
PageSettings.orientation
PageSettings.paperHeight
PageSettings.paperSizeUnit
PageSettings.paperWidth
PageSettings.scaling
PageSettings.showBackgroundColors
PageSettings.showBackgroundImages
PageSettings.shrinkToFit
TAB_ID_NONE
TabStatus
WindowType
ZoomSettings
ZoomSettings.defaultZoomFactor
ZoomSettings.mode
ZoomSettings.scope
ZoomSettingsMode
ZoomSettingsScope
captureTab
captureVisibleTab
connect
create
create.active
create.cookieStoreId
create.discarded
create.index
create.muted
create.openInReaderMode
create.openerTabId
create.pinned
create.selected
create.title
create.url
create.windowId
detectLanguage
discard
duplicate
duplicate.duplicateProperties
duplicate.tabId
executeScript
executeScript.frameId
executeScript.matchAboutBlank
executeScript.runAt
get
getAllInWindow
getCurrent
getSelected
getZoom
getZoomSettings
goBack
goForward
hide
highlight
highlight.populate
insertCSS
insertCSS.cssOrigin
insertCSS.frameId
insertCSS.matchAboutBlank
insertCSS.runAt
move
moveInSuccession
onActivated
onActiveChanged
onAttached
onCreated
onDetached
onHighlightChanged
onHighlighted
onMoved
onRemoved
onReplaced
onSelectionChanged
onUpdated
onUpdated.filter
onZoomChange
print
printPreview
query
query.queryInfo
queryInfo.active
queryInfo.attention
queryInfo.audible
queryInfo.autoDiscardable
queryInfo.cookieStoreId
queryInfo.currentWindow
queryInfo.discarded
queryInfo.highlighted
queryInfo.index
queryInfo.lastFocusedWindow
queryInfo.muted
queryInfo.openerTabId
queryInfo.pinned
queryInfo.status
queryInfo.title
queryInfo.url
queryInfo.windowId
queryInfo.windowType
reload
remove
removeCSS
saveAsPDF
sendMessage
sendRequest
setZoom
setZoomSettings
show
toggleReaderMode
update
updateProperties.active parameter
updateProperties.autoDiscardable parameter
updateProperties.highlighted parameter
updateProperties.loadReplace parameter
updateProperties.muted parameter
updateProperties.openerTabId parameter
updateProperties.pinned parameter
updateProperties.selected parameter
updateProperties.url parameter
warmup

Example extensions

Note: This API is based on Chromium's chrome.tabs API. This documentation is derived from tabs.json in the Chromium code.

	desktop					mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Firefox for Android	Safari on iOS
`tabs`
`MutedInfo`
`MutedInfoReason`
`PageSettings`
`PageSettings.edgeBottom`
`PageSettings.edgeLeft`
`PageSettings.edgeRight`
`PageSettings.edgeTop`
`PageSettings.fileName`
`PageSettings.footerCenter`
`PageSettings.footerLeft`
`PageSettings.footerRight`
`PageSettings.headerCenter`
`PageSettings.headerLeft`
`PageSettings.headerRight`
`PageSettings.marginBottom`
`PageSettings.marginLeft`
`PageSettings.marginRight`
`PageSettings.marginTop`
`PageSettings.orientation`
`PageSettings.paperHeight`
`PageSettings.paperSizeUnit`
`PageSettings.paperWidth`
`PageSettings.scaling`
`PageSettings.showBackgroundColors`
`PageSettings.showBackgroundImages`
`PageSettings.shrinkToFit`
`TAB_ID_NONE`
`TabStatus`
`WindowType`
`ZoomSettings`
`ZoomSettings.defaultZoomFactor`
`ZoomSettings.mode`
`ZoomSettings.scope`
`ZoomSettingsMode`
`ZoomSettingsScope`
`captureTab`
`captureVisibleTab`
`connect`
`create`
`create.active`
`create.cookieStoreId`
`create.discarded`
`create.index`
`create.muted`
`create.openInReaderMode`
`create.openerTabId`
`create.pinned`
`create.selected`
`create.title`
`create.url`
`create.windowId`
`detectLanguage`
`discard`
`duplicate`
`duplicate.duplicateProperties`
`duplicate.tabId`
`executeScript`
`executeScript.frameId`
`executeScript.matchAboutBlank`
`executeScript.runAt`
`get`
`getAllInWindow`
`getCurrent`
`getSelected`
`getZoom`
`getZoomSettings`
`goBack`
`goForward`
`hide`
`highlight`
`highlight.populate`
`insertCSS`
`insertCSS.cssOrigin`
`insertCSS.frameId`
`insertCSS.matchAboutBlank`
`insertCSS.runAt`
`move`
`moveInSuccession`
`onActivated`
`onActiveChanged`
`onAttached`
`onCreated`
`onDetached`
`onHighlightChanged`
`onHighlighted`
`onMoved`
`onRemoved`
`onReplaced`
`onSelectionChanged`
`onUpdated`
`onUpdated.filter`
`onZoomChange`
`print`
`printPreview`
`query`
`query.queryInfo`
`queryInfo.active`
`queryInfo.attention`
`queryInfo.audible`
`queryInfo.autoDiscardable`
`queryInfo.cookieStoreId`
`queryInfo.currentWindow`
`queryInfo.discarded`
`queryInfo.highlighted`
`queryInfo.index`
`queryInfo.lastFocusedWindow`
`queryInfo.muted`
`queryInfo.openerTabId`
`queryInfo.pinned`
`queryInfo.status`
`queryInfo.title`
`queryInfo.url`
`queryInfo.windowId`
`queryInfo.windowType`
`reload`
`remove`
`removeCSS`
`saveAsPDF`
`sendMessage`
`sendRequest`
`setZoom`
`setZoomSettings`
`show`
`toggleReaderMode`
`update`
`updateProperties.active` parameter
`updateProperties.autoDiscardable` parameter
`updateProperties.highlighted` parameter
`updateProperties.loadReplace` parameter
`updateProperties.muted` parameter
`updateProperties.openerTabId` parameter
`updateProperties.pinned` parameter
`updateProperties.selected` parameter
`updateProperties.url` parameter
`warmup`