Chrome Multiple Profiles: Tips for Using Several at Once

Once you have more than one Chrome profile, a few built-in tricks make juggling them much quicker: opening a link straight into another profile, a keyboard shortcut for the profile menu, a profile picker at startup, and launch commands that open a specific profile. Everything here works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

New to profiles? Start with adding and switching Chrome profiles, or follow the work and personal setup first.

Open a link in a different profile

Got a work link in your personal email? You do not need to copy and paste it.

1. Right-click the link.
2. Point to Open link as (on a Mac the words are capitalized, Open Link As) and pick the profile. With only one other profile, the item names it directly, for example Open link as Work.
3. The page opens in that profile, with that profile’s sign-ins and cookies.

The item shows up when another profile is open or has been used recently. It is not offered in Incognito or guest windows.

Jump between profiles from the keyboard

Ctrl + Shift + M on Windows and Linux, or ⌘ + Shift + M on a Mac. Google’s shortcut list describes it as the shortcut to log in as a different user or browse as a guest.

Be signed in to two accounts on the same site

Each profile has its own cookies and site data, kept in its own folder (the Chromium project’s user data directory notes list cookies among the profile data). Being signed in to a site in one profile does not sign you in to it in another. Sign in to one account in one profile and a second account in another, then keep both windows open side by side. This is handy for two accounts on the same shop, social network or admin console, or for a test account next to your real one.

Pick a profile every time Chrome starts

1. Click the Profile picture at the top right, then Manage Chrome profiles.
2. Tick Show on startup at the bottom of the window.

Chrome now opens on the profile picker instead of whichever profile you used last.

Launch a specific profile from a shortcut, script or launcher

Chrome accepts a --profile-directory option with the profile’s folder name. Chrome’s own Windows profile shortcuts use the same option.

1. In the profile you want, open chrome://version and note the last part of Profile Path, such as Default or Profile 3.
2. Start Chrome with that name:

   Windows:  "path\to\chrome.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 3"
   Mac:      open -na "Google Chrome" --args --profile-directory="Profile 3"
   Linux:    google-chrome --profile-directory="Profile 3"

A misspelled folder name does not fail. Chrome quietly creates a new, empty profile with that name. Full steps for desktop icons, including the one-switch Windows option, are in desktop shortcuts for Chrome profiles.

Tell your windows apart at a glance

Give every profile its own name and color theme: Profile picture, Manage Chrome profiles, then More (three dots) and Edit on each card. For the profile you are in, Customize profile in the same menu does the same thing. A different color per profile is the quickest way to notice you are about to send a personal email from the work window.

Keep each profile’s things with the right account

If each profile is signed in to its own Google Account, Chrome saves that profile’s bookmarks, passwords, extensions and settings to that account (Google’s help). A new computer then only needs you to sign in to each profile to get everything back where it belongs. A profile with no account keeps its data on the one computer only.

Know the limits

• Profiles are not locked. Google notes that anyone using your computer can switch to any Chrome profile on it.
• Guest and Incognito windows cannot add extensions, according to Google’s extensions help.
• Phones work differently. Google says Chrome on Android can only have one profile. On iPhone and iPad you add and switch Google Accounts instead.
• Clean up. Profiles you no longer use still hold saved passwords and history. Delete them from Manage Chrome profiles with More (three dots), then Delete.