Chrome's new tab opens plain, and you would like a photo of your own, or a nicer one, behind it. The Chrome new tab background is changed in a side panel called Customise Chrome. Every route through it is below, with what to check when the option is missing.
What you need
- Chrome on a computer.
- Google's help page says that to customise the new tab page you must be signed in to your Google Account and have Google as your default search engine.
Menu names are Google's, in British English, read on 21 September 2026. Customise Chrome is Customize Chrome in the US.
Choose a Chrome new tab background from the collections
Open Customise Chrome
Open a new tab and click Customise Chrome at the bottom right. A panel opens at the side. You can also select Side panel at the top right of the window, then Customise Chrome.
Select Change theme
Under Appearance, select Change theme. Chrome shows a gallery of theme categories and special collections.
Pick a picture
Click a collection, then select a picture from it. Chrome also suggests a browser colour based on the picture.
Use your own photo
Select Upload an image
In Customise Chrome, select Change theme, then Upload an image, and choose the file from your computer.
Check the colour
Chrome suggests a browser colour from your photo. If you do not like it, pick a different colour under Appearance.
Get a new background every day
Open a collection
In Customise Chrome, select Change theme and click the collection you like.
Turn on Refresh daily
Turn on Refresh daily. Chrome then changes the background each day. Google describes this for collections only, not for photos you uploaded.
Colour and dark mode
Pick a colour
Under Appearance in Customise Chrome, select one of the colours. When a theme is set, Chrome suggests colours that pair with it.
Choose Light, Dark or Device
Light and Dark set Chrome's theme, and Device follows your computer's setting. Google's dark mode page says that in dark mode your homepage, toolbar, settings and some other pages are dark.
Go back to the default
Reset in the panel
Open Customise Chrome and select Reset to default Chrome at the bottom of the panel. Google gives this as the way to reset the theme.
Remove a Chrome Web Store theme
If the background came with a theme from the Chrome Web Store, select More, Settings, and under Appearance click Reset to default. Google's themes page says the classic Google Chrome theme then returns.
What can go wrong
An extension controls the new tab page. Chrome then shows the extension's page in place of its own, and what sits behind it is up to the extension. Google's help says the footer of the new tab page names the extension in control. To get Chrome's page back, select More, Extensions, Manage extensions, and turn it off or remove it.
Your default search engine is not Google. Google's help says customising the new tab page needs Google as the default search engine. Chromium's text for the panel includes the line 'Current search engine managing your new tab page'. To switch, select More, Settings, Search engine, then Change.
The computer is managed by an organisation. Look for 'Managed by your organisation' at the bottom of the More menu, or open chrome://management. Chromium's policy list has one that stops people customising the new tab background and removes any custom background already set. Only the administrator can change that.
Your photo looks cropped or blurry. Google's help gives no size or shape for uploads, so this is general advice: use a landscape image at least as many pixels wide and tall as your screen. A smaller picture is enlarged to fill the window, which softens it, and a tall picture cannot fill a wide window whole.
A background that does more
Chrome's own page stops at a picture and a colour. An extension can replace the new tab page with its own, which Chrome's developer documentation calls an override. We make Backs, one such extension, so weigh this part accordingly.
In Backs, click Menu and choose Backs Bakery. Fresh Backs shows a landscape photo from Unsplash, whose licence makes its photos free to use. A button finds another, picked at random (there is no search), and Save to Your Backs keeps one you like. Your Backs holds those saved photos and any image from your computer, added with Add Back.
Whenever the background changes, Backs takes a main colour, a contrasting one and an accent from the photo and recolours the Backons (its widgets), the text and the menu. The photo stays until you change it. The Refresh Backon, under Home Studio in the menu, changes it in a click: a new Unsplash photo in Fresh Backs mode, a shuffle of your saved photos in Your Backs mode.
All of this is on the free plan and needs no account. Carrying your background library between computers is part of Premium (€3.99 a month or €39.99 a year, 14-day trial). Backs runs in Chrome on a computer only, and it is new: version 1.0 launched in September 2026.
Questions and answers
- Can I use my own photo as the Chrome new tab background?
- Yes. In Customise Chrome, select Change theme, then Upload an image, and choose a file from your computer.
- Can I use a GIF or a video?
- Google's help page names no file types. Chromium's source, the open code Chrome is built from, gives the upload format as JPG and PNG, and its file picker also lets a GIF through. Nothing we read says a GIF will move, and video is not on the list.
- Why can I not change my new tab background?
- Three causes are documented: an extension controls the new tab page, an organisation manages the browser, or the default search engine is not Google. Check the footer of the new tab page, the bottom of the More menu, and Settings, Search engine.
- How do I get a new background every day?
- Open Customise Chrome, select Change theme, click a collection and turn on Refresh daily. Google documents this for its collections only.
Photo via Unsplash