Safari Tab Groups: How to Group Tabs in Safari on Mac to Declutter Its Tab Bar

Tab Groups is a tab-management feature available on most web browsers these days. It helps you reduce tab clutter by letting you organize them however you like and, in turn, allows for distraction-free web browsing.

As part of the recent Safari overhaul, Apple has finally introduced Tab Groups in Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. So now, you can organize Safari tabs on your Mac into different groups to minimize distractions and improve your browsing experience.

Follow along as we discuss the steps to group tabs in Safari on Mac.

How to Group Tabs in Safari on Mac

Apple offers two ways to group tabs in Safari on Mac: you can either do this by creating a tab group out of all the open tabs in your current window or starting an empty tab group and adding browser tabs to it subsequently.

1. Create a Tab Group Out of Open Safari Tabs

If you’ve got a bunch of tabs open in Safari on your Mac and you wish to add all of them to the same tab group, Safari has an option to help you do just that.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Open all the tabs you want to group in a tab.
2. Tap on the Show sidebar button in the top-left corner of the toolbar.
3. Right-click on the button that shows the number of active open tabs and select New Tab Group with X Tabs, where X is the number of tabs open in your active Safari window.
   
4. All your tabs will now appear under the Untitled tab group under Tab Groups. Click on it to verify.
5. Again, right-click on the Untitled tab group and select Rename.
   
6. Enter a name for this tab group and hit Return to save it.

2. Create a New Tab Group and Add Tabs to It Later

If you’ve got a bunch of tabs open in Safari, which you’d like to add to different tab groups, you can do so by first creating empty tab groups and then adding tabs to them subsequently.

Follow these steps to perform both of these operations:

1. Click on the dropdown button next to the Show sidebar icon in the toolbar and select New Empty Tab Group.
   
2. Give a name to this tab group and hit Return.
3. Tap on the button that shows the number of open tabs to view all your active tabs.
4. Control-click or right-click on a tab you want to add to your tab group and select Move to Tab Group > name of the tab group you just created.
   

How to Switch Between Safari Tab Groups

Over time, as you create more tab groups, you’ll need to switch between them to access their respective tabs. Apple makes it really easy to switch between tab groups.

For this, all you have to do is click on the dropdown button next to the Show sidebar icon and select the tab group you want to access from the context menu.

If there are ungrouped tabs in Safari, you can access them by selecting X Tabs in the dropdown menu, where X is the number of tabs active in your browser.

How to Move a Tab to a Different Tab Group

If there’s ever a need to move a tab out of its existing tab group into another tab group, the steps below should help you:

1. Click on the Show sidebar button in the Safari toolbar.
2. Tap on the tab group that has the tab you want to move out to reveal all its tabs.
3. Right-click or Control-click on the tab you want to move and select Move to Tab Group > name of the tab where you want to move the tab.
   

How to Remove a Tab From a Tab Group

At any point, if you’d like to remove/delete a tab from a tab group, you can follow these steps:

1. Click on the dropdown button.
2. Right-click on the tab group that has the tab you want to remove and select Show Tab Overview.
3. Tap the close (X) button on the top-left of the tab you want to remove on the right window.
   

How to Delete a Tab Group

Much like removing/deleting a tab from a tab group, Safari also lets you delete a tab group. This might be useful if you created a tab group temporarily to store some tabs but no longer need it.

Follow these steps to delete a tab group:

1. Click on the Show sidebar button in the Safari toolbar.
2. Right-click or Control-click on the tab group you want to delete under Tab Groups and select Delete.
   

Sync Tab Groups Across Devices

Once you’ve created a Safari tab group on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, Apple gives you the option to sync it across all your other devices so you can experience the same browsing experience on your other devices as well.

Follow these instructions to enable tab syncing:

1. Make sure you’re signed in to all your devices with the same Apple ID as your Mac.
2. Turn on syncing for Safari.
   • On Mac: Open System Preferences and tap on Apple ID. Tick the checkbox next to Safari.
   • On iPhone/iPad: Go to Settings, tap on your name at the top of the page, and select iCloud. Toggle the Safari switch on.

Wait for a few seconds. Your tab groups should appear on all your devices, and you should be able to use, access, and modify them easily on any device.

Note: Update your Mac to the latest macOS version (macOS Monterey at the time of writing this guide) and your iPhone and iPad to the latest version of iOS (iOS 15) and iPadOS (iPadOS 15) to sync your tab groups.

Use Safari Tab Groups to Improve Your Browsing Experience

Tab Groups has to probably be the best feature addition to Safari in a while. It simplifies tab management on Safari tremendously and gives you more control over the active tabs in your window. That way, you can always switch between tab groups to only view the tabs you want at that moment and close all other tabs you don’t.