Rule your new tab
Your new tab page, built by you. Drag a countdown, a to-do list, a clock or a habit tracker onto any wallpaper and put them exactly where you want them.
40,000 users · 4.9 out of 5 on the Chrome Web Store
What you can put on a new tab
The default new tab shows you a search box and a grid of places you’ve already been. Same page for everyone, tells you nothing about your day, and you look at it dozens of times before lunch. Seems a waste. So: a blank page, 35 widgets, any wallpaper you like, and a layout you can hand to someone else.
Version 4.0 redrew nearly all of them. Most widgets now come in several ready-made designs, more than 130 between them, there are 22 fonts to pick from, and the interface speaks ten languages. It also brought new widgets: a daily focus for the one thing that matters today, news, a fact of the day and a chess puzzle to solve between tabs.
New to this? How to change the new tab page in Chrome — including the parts you can do without any extension.
Three things people build with it
A deadline you can’t ignore
A countdown to the exam, the hand-in, the release, big enough that you see it before anything else. This is what most people install the extension for, and why the word is in its name on the Chrome store.
A working dashboard
Task lists per project, a calendar, notes for the things you keep retyping, and links placed where you actually reach for them. Opens instantly, because there’s nothing to load.
A vision board
Photos and GIFs of what you’re working towards, a habit tracker for the work itself, a quote to keep you honest. The most reliably seen wall you own is the one inside your browser.
How it works
Install it and your next new tab offers you a starting template, or skip that and begin on an empty page. The button in the bottom-left corner opens the widget panel, a click adds a widget, and you drag it wherever you like. Double-click to edit what’s inside, drag a corner to resize, Ctrl+Z when it all goes wrong. No account, no setup, no tutorial to sit through.
Your page is stored in your browser, on your machine. The layout, your task lists, your notes and your countdown dates stay there. They aren’t uploaded to us, and there’s no sync service holding a copy. The trade-off is worth knowing before you start: clearing your browser data clears your page, and nothing moves between computers on its own. To move a page, publish it as a theme and install that theme on the other machine.
Free and PRO
Free gets you three widgets added by hand, every widget type, and no trial clock ticking. The bit people miss: widgets that arrive with an installed theme don’t count at all, so a ready-made page carrying a dozen of them is free. Building from scratch is what costs. Three workspaces are included as well.
PRO removes the widget limit, allows unlimited habit trackers, changes how many workspaces you can have, and unlocks daily and weekly countdown repeats, the workday countdown and timezones on the analog clock.
What people say about it
“really good app!! i love the amount of widgets and customization options available, and everything has been running smoothly so far :)”
akaru ·“Awesome extension. Does what is says on the tin, and makes it simple.”
Anthony Lenton ·“Good for my exam countdown.”
Yashoda Bandara ·“best for its mutiple countdowns,like days,weeks,minutes,even sec all at once and seperated...”
archit yadav ·“so many different features. love the ability to have different workspaces for different needs easily.”
Nipuni JM ·“Good features like week targets and habit tracker with counter is helpful.”
jarvis ·“Amazing application has really helped me to be more organized and plan out my upcoming events and remain more focused”
Lerm da kiwi ·“Good but I can't edit my sticky notes for some reason right now”
Vivian Le ·
Left on the Chrome Web Store, quoted as written. The extension holds 4.9 out of 5 across 1,400 ratings there, including the critical ones, which are worth a read too.
Questions people ask
What is the best new tab extension for Chrome with widgets?
It depends on what the page is for. Momentum and Bonjourr give you a calm photo with the time, Infinity New Tab and Speed Dial 2 are grids of site icons, and Tabliss mixes a few simple blocks. New Tab Studio is the one for a page built from widgets you place yourself: countdowns, to-do lists, habit trackers, notes, a calendar, 35 widgets in all.
Is New Tab Studio free?
Yes, installing it costs nothing and every widget type is on the free plan. You can add three widgets by hand, and widgets that arrive with an installed theme don’t count, so a ready-made page full of them stays free. PRO lifts the three-widget limit and unlocks a few extras such as daily countdown repeats.
Is New Tab Studio safe, and what permissions does it ask for?
New Tab Studio keeps your page, tasks and notes in your browser and works without an account. It asks for your bookmarks or most visited sites only when you add a widget that shows them. It never touches your search engine, and the usage statistics it sends don’t include anything you type.
Does it work in Edge, Brave and Firefox?
Yes. Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi install it from the Chrome Web Store like any Chrome extension (Opera needs its Install Chrome Extensions add-on first), and Firefox gets its own version on Firefox Add-ons. Whatever you build stays in the browser where you built it.
Can I move my page to another computer?
Not automatically: there’s no sync, because the page lives in one browser’s storage. Export it as a file under Settings → Import / export and open that file on the other machine, or publish the page as a theme and install it there in one click.
Themes made by other people
Any page you build can go into the theme gallery, and anything in it installs in one click, wallpaper, widgets, positions, styling. Easily the fastest start: find something close to what you want, then swap in your own dates and lists.