How to create and use profiles in Google Chrome on Mac

6 hours ago

3 minutes read

Find out how to add a second, third, or more profile to Google Chrome on your Mac to keep your online accounts, browsing history, bookmarks, and everything else separate.

Why I use Chrome profiles

Chrome is my default web browser on the Mac, and I’ve created these profiles:

DB: I am signed in to my work email, and I use this profile for all office work.
Personal Work: This is where I work on my personal project.
Shopping: I am logged into Amazon and other such sites here. I’ve also included a few price tracking extensions here.
Serious work: I often access PayPal and my online banking in Safari. But some features, like my credit card points redemption site, don’t work well for me in Safari. When that happens, I use this Chrome profile. I don’t use any extensions here, and I clear all browser data after every use.
Other profiles: And I have a few different profiles for the remaining projects.

Having multiple different profiles gives me the ability to:

Log in to my various Google, YouTube, WordPress, social media, and other online accounts.
Have unique quick website shortcuts on the home page of the browser.
See relevant bookmarks instead of everything. For example, bookmarks for photo compression sites are only visible on my work profile, not on my shopping profile.
Use different themes/looks in my browser.
Use different extensions or none at all.
Customize each profile separately to suit my unique work and projects.
Do not hesitate before clearing browser data. If loading problems affect one or more websites, one way to fix them is to clear the history and other browser data. One of the biggest downsides to this is that it logs out of every account, and logging in is a pain. Having different profiles and deleting the history of just one does not affect the others.
Save passwords separately.

I’ve been using multiple profiles in Chrome for a few years now. And when Apple added this feature to Safari in macOS Sonoma, I immediately created several profiles (I have my parents, siblings, and wife’s email accounts logged into different Safari profiles).

Add a new profile to Google Chrome on Mac

1) Open Chrome on your Mac.

2) Click Profiles > Add a profile from the top menu bar. Or, click the button three dots menu button in the upper right corner, select the name of your current profile, and click Add New Profile.

3) You can now set up your new Chrome profile by signing in to your Google account. Or, if you don’t want to use a Google account for this profile, just click the “Stay signed out” button.

4) Now, give this profile a name, choose a theme color, and click Done.

Repeat the above steps to add more profiles as needed.

Switch between your profiles

If you have at least two browser profiles, click Profiles in the top menu bar and select another.

Show or hide the profile selector when you open Chrome

Chrome allows you to select a specific Chrome profile for every launch.

Or, if it adds conflict, you can also hide the selector screen. Here are the steps for both:

Open Google Chrome, and if the selector is displayed, uncheck “Show at first” option.

Uncheck Show on startup in Google Chrome

If the browser is already open, click on three dots menu button at the top right, and choose yours the name of the current profilefollowed by Manage Chrome profiles. Then, check or uncheck “Show at first” option.

Manage Chrome profiles on Mac

Use different profiles at the same time

You can open multiple Google Chrome profiles in a different browser and use them simultaneously. Just remember that some features like Chrome’s Split Screen only work if you have two websites open in the same profile.

Customize your profile

Open Chrome and make sure you’re in the profile you want to customize. Then, click Profiles > Organize from the top menu bar to change the name, theme color, and avatar.

Delete the profile

If you don’t need to save a profile, open the profile selector screen (three-dot menu > profile > Manage Chrome profile). Click on three dots icon of the profile you want to delete, and select Delete.

Use a guest profile in Google Chrome

The guest profile in Chrome is basically the same as the guest account mode in macOS.

What you visit in the Chrome guest profile is not saved in your browser history. And when you turn off guest mode, it removes cookies and other tracking data from your computer’s browsing history. However, unlike macOS guest mode, files you download in Chrome guest mode are not automatically deleted and remain stored in your Mac’s Finder (or Windows’ File Explorer).

Activate the guest profile in Chrome by clicking on the three-dot menu iconmove the cursor over the name of the current profile, and select Open Guest Profile.