Safari Tab Groups guide

How to create and use Safari Tab Groups on Mac

Create a Safari Tab Group for an ongoing workspace, then understand how native groups differ from TabCaptain's domain grouping and saved sessions.

Short answer

How to create and use Safari Tab Groups on Mac

Use Safari's sidebar or tab-group controls to create a named group from the tabs you already have, or start with an empty group and add pages as the project develops. Safari Tab Groups are live workspaces. TabCaptain's domain grouping is an overview of open tabs by website, while its Premium sessions are restorable snapshots; they solve related but different problems.

Step by step

Step by step

1

Open Safari's tab overview

Show Safari's sidebar or tab-group controls so you can see existing groups and the tabs that belong to the current workspace.

2

Create or save a group

Choose the command to create a Tab Group from the current tabs, or create an empty group and add pages as you work.

3

Name and maintain the workspace

Give the group a specific name, remove pages that no longer belong and switch groups when the active project changes.

4

Use TabCaptain for the wider inventory

When tabs are scattered across windows or repeated by website, open TabCaptain to search, sort and review the open set before deciding what belongs in a group.

Safari Tab Groups are live collections

A Safari Tab Group is useful when a named project should remain available inside Safari. Its membership changes as you add, close or move tabs, so it represents the current workspace rather than an immutable archive.

Use clear names and keep the number of active groups small enough to recognize. A group is not a replacement for a bookmark folder or a saved snapshot of a workspace you are about to clear.

Domain grouping answers a different question

TabCaptain can group accessible open tabs by domain, which helps you see that several pages from one website are scattered across Safari windows. This view is an inventory and cleanup aid; it does not create Safari Tab Groups automatically.

Search, sorting and domain grouping are included free. Use the domain view to find duplicates, identify a site-heavy group or decide which pages should be moved into a native Safari Tab Group.

Use sessions when you need a restorable snapshot

When the workspace should be put aside and reopened later, save a named TabCaptain session before closing or reorganizing the live tabs. Sessions require Lifetime Premium and reopen page addresses; websites still control authentication, unsaved drafts and temporary state.

  • Ongoing project: Safari Tab Group.
  • Pages grouped by website for review: TabCaptain domain grouping.
  • Temporary workspace to restore later: TabCaptain session.
  • Permanent reference: bookmark.

Sources used on this page

Safari controls are documented by Apple. TabCaptain capabilities and system requirements are described on its official Mac App Store listing.

TabCaptain

A focused Safari tab manager for Mac.

Get TabCaptain on the Mac App StoreFree download