Tab Drowse
EN
TAB SLEEP FOR CHROME

Tab Drowse

Free up memory by putting inactive tabs to sleep. After 15 minutes by default; you can change the time.

Coming soon to the Chrome Web Store

For the desktop Chrome browser

Extension popup with the sleeping tab count, idle time, one-hour pause, current-site switch and exception list.
Idle time, exceptions and pause in one place.
01HOW IT WORKS

The tab stays. The memory is freed.

  1. Choose the idle time

    By default, a tab becomes eligible after 15 minutes without being opened or reloaded. Choose from 1 minute to 2 hours in the popup. Checks run about once a minute.

  2. Chrome unloads it

    Using native discard, without a replacement page. The tab stays in the tab bar with a dashed circle around its icon and a sleep marker in its title.

  3. Return and it loads

    Loading starts straight away. How long it takes depends on the website and your connection.

02BEFORE SLEEP

What stays awake

First, it checks whether a tab is busy. All checks run on your device.

  • Active tabs
  • Pinned tabs
  • Tabs playing sound
  • Tabs with unfinished text
  • Tabs with a call, microphone or camera in use
  • Tabs sharing your screen
  • Tabs with video paused partway through
  • Sites with notifications allowed
  • Sites on your exception list

These checks cannot guarantee that every website’s unsaved state will be detected. Save important work.

03CONTROLS

Make it work for your tabs

“Keep this site awake”

Enable the switch in the extension popup. Exceptions match the exact hostname; add subdomains separately.

From the right-click menu

Add a site to your exceptions by right-clicking the page. Remove it from the exception list when needed.

“Pause for an hour”

Stop putting tabs to sleep across all windows. Choose “Resume” to end the pause early. Tabs already asleep are not reloaded.

04PRIVACY

On your device.
No data sent.

The extension checks text and tab state locally. Page contents, field values, addresses and settings are not sent to the developer or third parties.

No server, account or analytics. Exceptions are stored on your device, without sync.

Privacy policy

Measured memory savings

freed with ⁨21⁩ sleeping tabs
1.6 GB
per sleeping tab
76 MB
of browser memory
68%

Clean profiles, ⁦23-24⁩ public pages, median of ⁨3⁩ runs. ⁨November 1, 2026⁩, ⁨Chromium 156.0.8078.4⁩, ⁨Linux⁩, headless. Process-tree PSS: ⁦⁨2.4 GB⁩ → ⁨751 MB⁩⁩. Background tabs still awake: ⁨2⁩ (cause not established), plus one active tab; pages excluded: ⁨0⁩.

Documentation, Maps, News, Office, Reference, Shopping, Social, and Video

Your sites may give different results. This is a lab test, not data collected from users.

05QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Before you install

Why does a tab reload when I open it?

Its contents have been unloaded from memory. The address and position in the tab bar stay the same; Chrome loads the page again when you return.

Could I lose unfinished text?

The extension checks fields and editors and skips tabs where it detects a draft. This is no backup: the check cannot cover every website state. Save important work.

How do I add an exception?

Open the popup on the website and enable “Keep this site awake”, or use the page’s right-click menu. Add subdomains separately.

How is it different from Chrome’s Memory Saver?

The extension uses native discard and adds its own checks, adjustable idle time (15 minutes by default), exceptions and pause. Chrome’s Memory Saver works separately: the extension’s exceptions and pause do not affect it.

How much memory will it save?

That depends on the websites and how many tabs can be unloaded. The extension does not promise a fixed number of megabytes. The popup counts tabs, not memory.

06SUPPORT

If the extension helps you

You can support development through a Monobank jar.

Support on Monobank