Chrome Guest Mode lets someone use your browser without seeing your bookmarks, history, saved passwords, extensions, or signed-in accounts. It opens a temporary Chrome session, and the guest data disappears when the guest window is closed.
Does this affect you?
Use this for Chrome on Windows and Mac when you want to hand your computer to someone briefly. On a Chromebook, Guest Mode is chosen from the sign-in screen instead of from inside Chrome.
Open Guest Mode
No setup is required before opening a guest session.
- Click your Chrome profile picture in the top-right corner.
- Choose Guest from the profile list.
- A new Chrome window opens with a guest icon instead of your normal avatar.
- Let the other person browse in that guest window.
- When they are finished, close all guest windows or click the guest icon and choose Close Guest.
Closing the guest window removes that session’s history, cookies, and temporary site data from Chrome. It also keeps the guest out of your saved passwords and logged-in sites.
Turn Guest Mode back on if it is missing
Guest Mode may be hidden by a setting or disabled by an administrator.
- Click your profile picture, then open profile settings or go directly to chrome://settings/manageProfile.
- Open Settings > You and Google and look under Other people.
- Make sure controls for adding or managing other users, including any guest-related option, are enabled.
- If this is a work or school computer and Guest Mode is still missing, the organization likely disabled it with policy.
More control
Use profiles for regular users
Guest Mode is best for one-time use because everything disappears. If a family member or coworker uses the computer regularly, create a separate Chrome profile instead. A separate profile keeps their own bookmarks, history, passwords, and sign-in state between sessions.
Guests cannot change everything
A guest can browse normally, but cannot access your saved passwords, bookmarks, payment information, most profile settings, or installed extension data. Those remain attached to your regular Chrome profile.
Use it on public computers too
If you are using a shared computer at a library, hotel, or office lobby, opening a guest session before signing into anything can reduce what gets saved locally when you close the window.
Sources
- Google Chrome Help – Use Guest mode (2025)
- Google Chrome Help – Add, remove or manage profiles in Chrome (2025)
- Google Chrome Help – Manage settings for guests (2025)