To silence a noisy tab in Chrome on a computer, right-click the tab and select Mute site (Mute Site on a Mac). To hear it again, right-click the tab and select Unmute site. Chrome mutes by site, not by tab: every tab open on that same site goes quiet, and the site stays muted when you come back to it. Chrome marks a tab that is playing sound with a small speaker icon, so you can spot the one to mute.
Chrome has no keyboard shortcut for muting. Ctrl + M isn’t one, and on a Mac ⌘ + M minimizes the window, according to Google’s list of Chrome keyboard shortcuts.
Mute several tabs at once
- Hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) and click each tab, or click one tab, hold Shift and click another to select the tabs in between.
- Right-click any of the highlighted tabs.
- Select Mute sites.
Muting and unmuting are among the actions Google’s tab help lists for highlighted tabs.
Pause the sound instead of muting it
When something is playing, Chrome shows a Media control button at the top right. Select it to pause, skip to the next song or video, or jump to the tab that is playing. Google describes it in Control your music, videos, and more.
Stop a site from ever playing sound
- Go to the site.
- To the left of the web address, select View site information.
- Select Site settings.
- Next to Sound, choose Mute.
To change the default for every site, go to More > Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Additional content settings > Sound. You can also type chrome://settings/content/sound into the address bar to get there. Our guide to Chrome site settings explains the other permissions on that page.
On Android
On Android, sound is controlled per site in Chrome’s settings. Tap More > Settings, then under Advanced tap Site settings > Sound. Google’s Android site settings help notes that sites are allowed to play sound by default.