Change Tabs settings in Safari on Mac

Tab layout

Keep tabs in a separate tab bar, or move them into the toolbar.

Choose one of the following:

• Separate: Tabs remain in the tab bar, below the toolbar.

• Compact: Tabs move up to the toolbar. The active tab is the Smart Search field.

Always show website titles in tabs

Show website titles, even when a window is narrow or has many tabs.

Deselect this option to hide website titles and show only an icon.

Open pages in tabs instead of windows

Choose one of the following:

• Never: Open webpages in windows.

• Automatically: Open webpages in tabs unless a webpage is designed for a specially formatted window.

• Always: Open webpages in tabs.

Automatically close tabs

Choose how long to keep tabs open before they’re closed automatically—one day, one week, or one month.

Choose Manually if you want tabs to stay open until you close them.

Show color in tab bar

Use the background from the active webpage as the background color of the tab bar.

Always show website titles in tabs

Show website icons and titles instead of only icons, even when many tabs are in the tab bar.

⌘-click opens a link in a new tab

Change what the listed shortcuts for opening links do.

When a new tab or window opens, make it active

Make new tabs or windows open in front of the one you’re currently viewing.

Use ⌘-1 through ⌘-9 to switch tabs

Use keyboard shortcuts to select one of the first nine tabs in the tab bar.