What a default page does and why you might want to change it

Your default page — also called your home page — is the page Chrome opens when you click the home button or start a new window. By default, Chrome opens to a blank page with a search box. You can change this to any website you visit regularly: your email, a news site, your work dashboard, or anything else.

The main reason to change it is speed. If you open Chrome and when ready go to the same three sites every day, setting one as your home page saves you a click. It also means you see that page when ready instead of waiting for a blank page to load first.

This is different from your search engine choice (which controls what happens when you type in the address bar) and different from your startup pages (which control what opens when you launch Chrome itself). A home page only opens when you click the home button, which appears next to your address bar if you turn it on.

Key Takeaways

  • The home button does not appear in Chrome by default — you must turn it on in Settings before you can use a custom home page.
  • You can set your home page to a specific URL, your most-visited sites, or your open tabs, depending on what you use most.
  • Setting a home page does not change your search engine or what pages open when you start Chrome — those are separate settings.
  • You can change your home page at any time by going back to Settings, so you can experiment without getting stuck.

Turn on the home button first

Chrome does not show a home button by default, so you need to enable it before you can use a custom home page. Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top right corner. Select Settings from the menu.

On the left side, click Appearance. Look for the option labeled Show home button and toggle it on. A home icon will now appear in your toolbar, to the left of your address bar.

Set a specific website as your home page

Once the home button is visible, go back to Settings and click Appearance again. Below the home button toggle, you will see a section called Home with two radio button options. Click the second option: Enter custom URL.

A text field will appear. Type or paste the full web address of the page you want to open — for example, https://www.gmail.com or https://www.bbc.com. Make sure you include https:// at the beginning. Click outside the field or press Enter to save it.

Now when you click the home button, Chrome will load that page. If you change your mind later, you can return to this same setting and type a different URL.

Use your most-visited sites instead

If you do not have a single page you want to see every time, you can set your home page to show your most-visited sites. Go to Settings and click Appearance. Under Home, click the first radio button option: Chrome Home or New Tab page (the exact name depends on your Chrome version).

This will make your home button open a page that shows shortcuts to the sites you visit most often, plus a search box. It is useful if you bounce between different sites throughout the day and want quick access to all of them without typing.

Open your current tabs as your home page

Another option is to set your home page to open all the tabs you currently have open. This is helpful if you work with the same set of pages every day — you can open them once, then use the home button to restore that exact set whenever you want.

Go to Settings and click Appearance. Under Home, click the radio button for Open the page that you set as home, then choose the option that says Open a specific page or set of pages. Click Add a new page and select Use current pages. Chrome will save all your open tabs as your home page.

The difference between home page, startup page, and search engine

These three settings control different things and can be confusing because they all involve pages opening in Chrome. Your home page opens only when you click the home button. Your startup pages open automatically when you launch Chrome itself — you set these in Settings under On startup. Your search engine determines what happens when you type a search term in the address bar, and you change it in Settings under Search engine.

You can have a Gmail home page, a news site as your startup page, and Google as your search engine, and all three will work independently. Changing one does not affect the others.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set multiple pages as my home page?

Yes. In Settings under Appearance, click Open a specific page or set of pages and then Add a new page as many times as you need. Each page will open in its own tab when you click the home button.

What if I want different home pages on different devices?

Chrome syncs your settings across devices if you are signed into the same Google account. If you want different home pages on your laptop and phone, you can either sign out of sync on one device or change the home page setting on each device separately after syncing is turned off.

Does setting a home page slow down Chrome?

No. The home page only loads when you click the home button, so it does not affect Chrome's startup speed or performance. If the page itself is slow to load, that is a problem with the website, not with Chrome.

Can I set a local file as my home page?

Yes, but it requires typing the file path instead of a web address. In the custom URL field, type file:/// followed by the full path to the file on your computer — for example, file:///C:/Users/YourName/Documents/mypage.html on Windows or file:///Users/YourName/Documents/mypage.html on Mac.