Vertical Tabs

Vertical tabs in Firefox stack your open tabs along the side of the browser window instead of across the top. This vertical layout gives you more space for the web page you’re viewing, keeps tab titles readable, and makes it easier to stay organized when you have multiple tabs and windows open.

What are vertical tabs?

With vertical tabs, your browser tabs move into a vertical list in the sidebar. Pinned tabs and regular tabs appear together in one clean column, so you can scan the tab header, favicon, and tab title text without squinting at a crowded horizontal tab bar. This gives you more horizontal space for page content, while the vertical tabs side panel keeps navigation in one place.

Vertical tabs help you:

• See more of your open tabs and full tab titles at a glance
• Keep track of the active tab, even with many tabs open
• Close tabs quickly without hunting across a long tab bar
• Use window management more naturally when you have several windows open
• Stay oriented when you’re switching between research, work, and everyday browsing

How vertical tabs work in Firefox

The vertical tab feature lives in the Firefox sidebar. Simply right-click on the toolbar to turn the sidebar on.

Alternatively, navigate to Firefox Settings > General > Browser layout > and switch to vertical tabs. From there, you can expand the panel to show full titles, or collapse it when you want to reclaim vertical space for the page.

In the vertical tabs side panel, you can:

• Click a tab header to jump to that tab in the browser window
• Drag tabs to reorder them or move multiple tabs to a new window
• Use the new tab button in the left corner to open a tab right in the list
• Right-click to close tabs, pin tabs, or move them
• Drag your sidebar to the desired size, or hide it altogether

Vertical tabs work alongside bookmarks, your reading list, and other sidebar tools. You can keep a reading list manager or bookmarks open while you scroll a web page, without opening a separate dialog window or covering your content.

Why use vertical tabs?

If you keep a lot of tabs open, vertical tabs give you a clearer overview than a single row of horizontal tabs. Instead of shrinking titles down to tiny icons or cutting off text, a vertical layout lets you read more of each title and keep related pages closer together. It’s especially helpful when you’re comparing sources, following documentation, or moving between tasks in the same browser window.

• Quickly scan open tabs in one vertical list
• Keep work, personal, and planning tabs organized in separate windows or workspaces
• Combine vertical tabs with containers or profiles for different projects
• Spend less time searching for the one tab you need

Organize tabs however you work

Firefox gives you flexible ways to group and organize tabs, and vertical tabs make those tools easier to see and use. You can use simple tab grouping in each window to keep related browser tabs together and collapse groups you’re not using.

If you want more control, Firefox supports extensions that act like a vertical tab manager. These can add features like automatic grouping or advanced auto tab grouping, tree view layouts for groupable side tabs, and tools to summarize sessions or automate tasks like saving sets of tabs for later. However you set things up, vertical tabs give you a consistent space to see what’s open and organize it in a way that fits you.