Top 5 Chrome extensions power users rely on for tab management and memory savings Session Buddy OneTab Workona and more

For anyone who spends a significant portion of their day on a browser—content creators, developers, researchers, and other digital professionals—Google Chrome can quickly become a chaotic environment due to excessive open tabs and bloated memory usage. Fortunately, several Chrome extensions have risen in popularity among power users to tackle these exact problems. They offer ways to organize your workspace, reduce RAM consumption, and preserve your productivity. Below, we present a detailed look at the top five extensions power users rely on for tab management and memory savings.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

If you’re drowning in open Chrome tabs or noticing performance issues, a few trusted extensions can solve the problem. Session Buddy saves and restores browsing sessions easily, while OneTab collapses tabs to save memory. Workona is best for managing tab groups across projects. Other honorable mentions like The Great Suspender (NO LONGER MAINTAINED) and Tab Manager Plus are also used widely by professionals aiming for a leaner, more organized browsing experience.

1. Session Buddy – The Ultimate Session Manager

Session Buddy is regularly praised by power users for its reliable ability to save and restore entire sets of tabs and windows. When Chrome crashes or updates unexpectedly, losing a work session can be disastrous. Session Buddy addresses exactly that.

• Quick Session Restoration: Open entire browsing sessions with a single click.
• Search and Filter: Find tabs across different sessions through a powerful UI.
• Export Options: Export sessions as JSON, HTML, or plain URLs for external use or backup.

Why do professionals love it? It’s especially useful for researchers or anyone working on multi-day projects who need to revisit a specific browser state without relying on Chrome’s often unreliable history function.

2. OneTab – Lightning Fast Tab Consolidation

OneTab takes a refreshingly simple approach to solving tab overload. With one click, it gathers all of your open tabs into a single list, storing them for later access and freeing up system resources in the process.

• Memory Reduction: Claims to reduce memory usage by up to 95% by suspending inactive tabs.
• Tab Hygiene: Organizes otherwise cluttered tabs into a streamlined list.
• No Cloud Required: Local processing ensures your data remains with you.

OneTab is a go-to for users who don’t want complex features and just need a quick way to consolidate dozens of open tabs without losing them. It’s particularly useful for laptops and older machines where Chrome’s resource consumption can severely affect performance.

3. Workona – Best for Tab Grouping and Projects

Workona is much more than just a tab manager. Designed for business users and power multitaskers, Workona enables users to organize tabs into workspaces associated with specific projects or tasks. Think of it as Trello or Notion, but for your browser tabs.

• Workspace Management: Group tabs by project or context and switch between them effortlessly.
• Cloud Sync: Keeps your tabs, notes, and documents in sync across devices.
• Collaboration Features: Share entire workspaces with team members for seamless project collaboration.

If your work involves jumping between multiple projects, each requiring its own context and resources, Workona provides a structured and intuitive solution. It’s a favorite among digital marketers, product managers, and UX designers.

4. Tab Manager Plus – Power Sorting for Tab Hoarders

Tab Manager Plus is designed for those who often find themselves with 50+ tabs open and no way of distinguishing them. This extension offers a visual overview and advanced filtering tools to track and manage browser tabs more effectively.

• Visual Tab Tree: Shows all open tabs in a clear layout—and even across multiple windows.
• Search & Batch Actions: Instantly close, pin, mute, or drag groups of tabs.
• Color Codes & User Tags: Add visual hints to tabs for faster recognition.

Tab Manager Plus isn’t for the faint of heart—it’s engineered for users who routinely operate at the edge of browser sanity. If you’re the type who can’t help but open links in new tabs, and then forget to close them, this is for you.

5. The Great Suspender (Alternatives Recommended)

While The Great Suspender was once the de facto tool for suspending inactive tabs to save memory, concerns around security (more on that below) have led many users to explore alternatives like Auto Tab Discard or Tab Suspender.

• Automatic Tab Suspension: Frees system memory by putting unused tabs to sleep.
• Whitelist: Keeps essential tabs from being suspended.
• Custom Triggers: Suspend tabs based on time, inactivity, or CPU usage.

Originally, The Great Suspender was highly respected, but in 2021 it was removed from the Chrome Web Store due to malware concerns after a change in ownership. Current users should switch to vetted forks like The Great Suspender Original or Auto Tab Discard.

How to Choose the Right Tab Management Extension?

Choosing which of these Chrome extensions is right for you depends on your specific workflow and system limitations. Here’s a quick guide:

• For simple memory reduction: OneTab or Auto Tab Discard
• For session recovery: Session Buddy
• For project-based work: Workona
• For managing excessive tabs visually: Tab Manager Plus
• For automatic tab suspension: Auto Tab Discard (instead of The Great Suspender)

Tips for Better Chrome Tab Hygiene

Even with the best tools, cultivating good habits maximizes productivity:

1. Group related tabs: Use Chrome’s native grouping feature or tools like Workona.
2. Close as you go: Be mindful of whether a tab still serves a purpose.
3. Bookmark properly: If something is useful later, bookmark it instead of keeping it open indefinitely.

Adopting a hybrid approach often yields the best results: use OneTab for occasional cleanups, Session Buddy for peace of mind, and Workona when structured workflows are needed.

Final Thoughts

Power users don’t just use Chrome—they master it. Managing the digital workspace inside your browser can make a real difference in performance, mental clarity, and efficiency. Whether you’re organizing research, collaborating on team projects, or just trying to stop Chrome from draining your battery, adopting the right extensions can reclaim control over your browsing experience.

Invest a little time into installing and configuring one or more of the above tools, and your future self will thank you—every day that you don’t lose a tab, forget a link, or restart Chrome out of frustration is a small victory in the digital workplace.