The bookmark toolbar sits just below your address bar and holds your most-visited sites
Chrome's bookmark toolbar is a row of clickable site names that appears between your address bar and the web page itself. It saves you from digging through menus every time you want to reach a site you visit often. The toolbar is hidden by default, so you have to turn it on — but once you do, adding bookmarks to it takes three clicks.
The toolbar works best when you keep it lean. A toolbar crammed with 40 bookmarks becomes hard to scan and takes up screen space. Most people find 8 to 15 bookmarks per toolbar is the sweet spot — enough to cover daily sites without clutter.
Key Takeaways
- Show the bookmark toolbar by pressing Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows or Command+Shift+B on Mac, or by going to Settings > Appearance and toggling "Show bookmarks bar" on.
- Add a site to the toolbar by clicking the star icon in your address bar, choosing the folder as "Bookmarks bar", and saving.
- Rearrange bookmarks by dragging them left or right along the toolbar, or right-click any bookmark to delete or rename it.
- Create folders within the toolbar to group related sites — for example, a "Work" folder or "News" folder — and access them from a dropdown menu.
Show the bookmark toolbar with a keyboard shortcut
The fastest way to turn on the toolbar is to use your keyboard. Press Ctrl+Shift+B if you are on Windows, or Command+Shift+B if you are on Mac. The toolbar will appear when ready below your address bar. Press the same keys again to hide it.
If the keyboard shortcut does not work on your computer, you may have a conflicting program or setting. The menu route works on any setup: click the three-dot menu in the top right corner of Chrome, select Settings, then click Appearance on the left side. Look for the toggle next to "Show bookmarks bar" and turn it on.
Add a bookmark to the toolbar while you are browsing
When you find a site you want to bookmark, click the star icon in your address bar — it is on the right side, just before the three-dot menu. A small box will pop up asking where to save the bookmark.
In the dropdown that says "Folder", select Bookmarks bar. You can also change the name of the bookmark here if you want something shorter than the page title. For example, you might change "The New York Times" to just "NYT" to save toolbar space. Click Save and the bookmark appears on your toolbar when ready.
Organize bookmarks into folders on the toolbar
If you bookmark many sites, folders keep your toolbar readable. To create a folder, right-click anywhere on the empty space of the toolbar and select Add folder. Give it a name like "Work", "News", or "Shopping". The folder appears as a single button on the toolbar with a small arrow next to it.
Click the folder button and a dropdown menu shows all the bookmarks inside. You can drag bookmarks into folders to organize them — just click and hold a bookmark, then drag it over the folder name and release. You can also create folders by bookmarking a site, then right-clicking the bookmark and choosing Edit, and changing its folder in the dropdown.
Rearrange, rename, or remove bookmarks
To move a bookmark left or right on the toolbar, click and hold it, then drag it to the new spot. Release the mouse and it stays there. This lets you put your most-used sites at the left where they are easiest to find.
To rename a bookmark, right-click it and select Edit. Change the name in the box that appears and click Save. To delete a bookmark, right-click it and select Remove. The bookmark disappears from the toolbar but stays in your full bookmark list if you ever want to restore it.
Use folders to keep your toolbar from getting crowded
A toolbar with 30 bookmarks is harder to use than a toolbar with 5 folders, each holding 6 bookmarks. Folders collapse into a single button, so they take up almost no space but hold many sites. When you click a folder, a dropdown menu appears showing all the bookmarks inside — no need to open a separate page.
Name your folders by how you use them: "Daily", "Work", "Finance", "Reference", "Shopping". This way you know which folder to click without reading every bookmark name. You can also nest folders — create a folder inside a folder — though most people find one level of folders is enough.
Sync your bookmarks across devices
If you sign into Chrome with a Google account, your bookmarks and toolbar setup sync automatically to every device where you use Chrome. This means your toolbar looks the same on your laptop, tablet, and phone. If you add a bookmark on your phone, it appears on your desktop the next time Chrome syncs.
To check that syncing is on, click the three-dot menu, go to Settings, then click Sync and Google services on the left. Make sure the toggle next to "Sync everything" is on, or at minimum that "Bookmarks" is checked. Syncing happens in the background and usually takes a few seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have different bookmarks on different computers?
If you are signed into the same Google account on both computers, your bookmarks will be identical across them. If you want different bookmarks on different machines, you would need to sign out of your Google account on one of them, which also stops syncing other data like passwords and history.
What if I accidentally delete a bookmark?
Deleted bookmarks go to your Trash folder in Chrome's bookmark manager. Click the three-dot menu, select Bookmarks, then Bookmark manager. On the left side, click Trash and you will see recently deleted bookmarks. Right-click any bookmark and select Restore to put it back.
Can I move bookmarks between folders?
Yes. Drag a bookmark over a folder name and hold it there for a moment — the folder will open. Then drag the bookmark into the folder and release. You can also right-click a bookmark, select Edit, and change which folder it belongs to in the dropdown menu.
Does the toolbar work the same way on Chrome mobile?
Chrome on phones and tablets does not show a bookmark toolbar the same way as the desktop version. Instead, tap the three-dot menu and select Bookmarks to see your saved sites. Your bookmarks sync across devices, but the mobile interface is different because phone screens are smaller.