A thought turns up while you are in the browser, and the choices are another app, a scrap of paper or losing it. Chrome new tab notes are a fourth choice: a few lines on the page that opens with every new tab.
Google's help for Chrome's new tab page lists no notes option, so this guide uses Backs, the new tab extension we make. Backs calls its widgets Backons, and the one for notes is the Notepad.
What you need
- Chrome on a computer. Backs has no phone or tablet version.
- Backs from the Chrome Web Store. It is free to start and asks for no account.
Set up Chrome new tab notes in six steps
Install Backs and open a new tab
Add Backs from its Chrome Web Store page and open a new tab. It asks for your language and offers a short tour, which you can skip. Two small squares matter here: Move, with four arrows, and Menu.
Open the menu at Productivity Hills
Click Menu and choose Productivity Hills from the sections on the left. The Notepad is in it, beside the Task List.
Drag the Notepad onto the page
Drag the Notepad out. The menu closes and the Notepad follows your pointer until you drop it on the grid. Dragging switches on edit mode: the grid's dots show and every Backon can be moved. It comes in one size, four grid squares wide and three tall. Click Move to finish.
Write your first note
Hover over the Notepad and a plus button appears in its bottom left corner. Press it and an editor headed New note opens, with a title field and a larger one for the rest. Type, then press Create. Only the title shows on the new tab, so put the useful part there; left empty, it is taken from the first line of the text. Click away first and the draft waits behind the plus button.
Open, change and delete notes
Click a note to open it. Changes save as you type: close the editor with its cross, the Esc key or a click elsewhere. Hover over a note and a bin button appears at its right end, which deletes the note at once. Drag a note up or down to reorder the list.
Rename it, or add a second Notepad
Click Move, hover over the name at the top of the Notepad and press the pencil that appears. Type a name such as Today, press Rename, then click Move again. For a second Notepad, drag another out of the menu: the free plan sets no limit. A note can be dragged from one Notepad to another.
What to keep in it
- The one thing to remember today. Ring the plumber by five.
- A line to paste later. An order number, or the sentence you keep retyping in emails.
- Stray thoughts during focused work. Write the thought down and go back to what you were doing.
- A standing checklist. One note with a checklist inside it, for steps you repeat, such as the Friday backup.
- A quote you like. One line worth seeing each time a tab opens.
Where the words are stored
Keeping it useful
- Keep it short. Each note shows as one line, and the list scrolls once it outgrows the Notepad.
- Empty it weekly: delete what is done and move what became a task.
- Use the Task List for anything with a tick box. A note dragged into it becomes a task.
- To move it, click Move and drag it; it cannot be resized. While Move is on, dragging it off any edge of the screen removes it, and its notes go with it, so rescue anything worth keeping first.
Questions and answers
- Does Chrome have notes on its own new tab page?
- Not that Google documents. Its help page for the new tab page, read on 21 September 2026, covers shortcuts, themes, colours, cards and a footer, and no notes. An extension has to add them.
- Is the Notepad free?
- Yes. Any number of Notepads, and the text, dates, checklists and page links inside notes, are on the free plan. Image attachments need Premium: €3.99 a month or €39.99 a year, with a 14-day trial.
- Are my notes private?
- Without Premium they stay in your browser profile on your computer. Premium sync also keeps a copy in Backs' cloud. A shared Space link shows a screenshot, with any notes that were on the page.
- Do notes sync between computers?
- Only with Premium. Without it, each computer keeps its own notes.
- Do the notes show in Incognito windows?
- No. Chrome does not let extensions replace the new tab page in Incognito windows, so the Notepad is not there.
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