How to change the new tab page in Brave

Updated 18 October 2026

Brave has a setting for exactly this: Settings, Get started, New tab page shows, where you pick the dashboard, your home page or a blank page. Choosing your home page is also how you make new tabs open a website of your choice.

Checked in Brave 1.97 on Windows, October 2026. Menu names are the same on Mac and Linux.

Pick what a new tab shows

1. Open the menu (three lines at the top right) and choose Settings, or type brave://settings/getStarted in the address bar.
2. Scroll to New Tab Page.
3. Under New tab page shows, choose one:
   • Dashboard: Brave’s usual page with a background image, top sites, privacy stats and optional widgets.
   • Homepage: whatever page your home button opens (set it up below).
   • Blank page: an empty page. Fast and quiet.

Make new tabs open a specific website

Brave doesn’t have a separate “new tab URL” box. It reuses your home page:

1. Go to brave://settings/appearance and turn on Show home button.
2. Below the switch, choose the custom web address option and type the site you want, such as https://calendar.google.com.
3. Go back to brave://settings/getStarted and set New tab page shows to Homepage.

Every new tab now opens that site, and the home button in the toolbar opens it too.

Customize the dashboard instead

If you like the dashboard but not everything on it, open a new tab and click the Customize gear at the top right. From there you can:

• change or turn off the background image, or upload your own;
• hide sponsored images and sponsored sites (see removing ads from the new tab);
• show Favorites (sites you pick) or Frequently Visited in the top sites row, or hide it;
• turn the search box, Brave News, the clock and the cards on or off.

Show your bookmarks on the new tab

Under brave://settings/appearance, set Show bookmarks bar to Only on the new tab page and your bookmarks bar appears on new tabs and nowhere else. More in how to show the bookmarks bar in Brave.

Or replace the dashboard with your bookmarks

Brave installs extensions from the Chrome Web Store, including ones that take over the new tab page. Stackboard is one: it turns every new tab into a board of your own bookmarks, in spaces and stacks, with themes and no ads, and it saves everything as ordinary bookmarks in Brave. To go back to Brave’s dashboard later, turn the extension off at brave://extensions.