Set a new homepage in Chrome in three steps

Your Chrome homepage is the page that loads when you open a new tab or click the home button. You can change it to any website you want — Google, a news site, your email, a blank page, or anything else. The setting lives in Chrome's preferences and takes less than a minute to change.

Chrome gives you three choices: show your most visited sites (the default), show a blank page, or show a specific website you choose. Most people pick one website they use every day, like Gmail or a news site.

Key Takeaways

  • Open Chrome settings, go to Appearance, and toggle "Show home button" on if it is not already on.
  • In the same Appearance section, choose whether the home button opens your most visited sites, a blank page, or a specific URL you enter.
  • If you want a specific website as your homepage, paste its full web address (starting with https://) into the URL field.
  • The change takes effect immediately — your next new tab or home button click will load your new homepage.

Turn on the home button if you do not see it

Chrome does not show a home button by default. If you want one, you need to turn it on first. Look at the top left of your browser, just to the right of the address bar. If you do not see a house icon there, follow these steps.

Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner of Chrome. Select Settings from the menu. On the left side, click Appearance. Look for the option that says "Show home button" and toggle it on. A house icon will appear next to your address bar immediately.

Choose what your homepage displays

Once the home button is on, you need to tell Chrome what to show when you click it. You are still in the Appearance section of Settings. Look for the section labeled "Home button" — it appears right below the toggle you just turned on.

You will see three radio button options. The first says "New Tab page" — this shows your most visited sites and a Google search box. The second says "Open a specific page or set of pages" — this is what you want if you have one website in mind. The third option, if present, may say "Blank page." Choose whichever matches what you want to see.

Enter the website address for your homepage

If you chose "Open a specific page or set of pages," a text field will appear below it. Click in that field and paste or type the full web address of the site you want. For example, type https://www.gmail.com for Gmail, https://www.bbc.com for BBC News, or https://www.wikipedia.org for Wikipedia.

Always include the https:// at the start. If you leave it off, Chrome may not recognize the address. After you paste or type the address, press Enter or click outside the field. Chrome saves your choice automatically — you do not need to click a Save button.

Test your new homepage

Click the home button (the house icon next to your address bar) and confirm that your chosen website loads. If it does, you are done. If Chrome shows an error or loads the wrong page, go back to Settings, check that you typed the address correctly, and try again.

You can also test by opening a new tab. If you chose "New Tab page" as your homepage, a new tab will show your most visited sites. If you chose a specific website, new tabs will not be affected — only clicking the home button will load your homepage. This is normal Chrome behavior.

Change your homepage back to the default anytime

If you want to switch back to Chrome's default homepage (the New Tab page with your most visited sites), go back to Settings, click Appearance, and select "New Tab page" under the Home button section. You can also turn off the home button entirely by toggling it off — the house icon will disappear from your toolbar.

There is no limit to how many times you can change this. You can switch between different websites, blank pages, and the default view as often as you want.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set multiple websites as my homepage?

Yes. In the "Open a specific page or set of pages" field, you can enter multiple URLs separated by line breaks. Click the field, paste your first URL, press Enter, then paste your second URL. When you click the home button, Chrome will open all of them in separate tabs.

Why does my homepage not load when I click the home button?

The most common reason is a typo in the web address. Go back to Settings, Appearance, and check that you typed the URL exactly right, including https:// at the start. If the address is correct but the page still will not load, the website itself may be down or your internet connection may be offline.

Does changing my homepage affect my search engine?

No. Your homepage and your default search engine are separate settings. Changing your homepage does not change which search engine Chrome uses when you type in the address bar. You can change your search engine separately in Settings under Search Engine.

What happens if I set a website as my homepage but then delete my browser history?

Your homepage setting is not affected by deleting history. The website address stays saved in your Chrome settings. Clearing history only removes the record of pages you have visited, not your preferences.

Can I set a local file as my homepage instead of a website?

You can, but it requires typing a file path instead of a web address. Type file:/// followed by the full path to your file, for example file:///C:/Users/YourName/Documents/homepage.html on Windows. This works best with HTML files you have created yourself.