qutebrowser 3.6.3

qutebrowser is a free web browser you drive almost entirely from the keyboard, in the style of the Vim text editor, with nothing on screen but the page, a tab bar and a status line.

Instead of reaching for the mouse, you press a key to open a page, switch tabs or follow a link, and the browser stays out of your way the rest of the time.

It is built for people who live on the keyboard, so if that sounds like hard work rather than a relief, a regular browser such as Mozilla Firefox will suit you better.

What qutebrowser Actually Does

Under the hood it uses QtWebEngine, which is built on Google's Chromium, so modern websites load and behave the way they do in Chrome. What changes is everything around the page.

There is no address bar, no toolbar and no row of buttons. You type commands, much like in a terminal, and the screen space goes to the website instead of the browser.

The project was started in 2014 by a developer known as The Compiler and is released under the GPL licence. It is written in Python, which is why its settings live in a plain Python config file if you want to go deep.

The Keys You Need on Day One

You only need a handful of keys to browse comfortably. The rest can wait until you miss them.

Clicking into a text box switches the keys to normal typing, so forms and logins work as expected. Typing :help opens the full manual inside the browser.

What You Get, and What You Give Up

• Speed once learned. Following a link with two keystrokes beats hunting for it with the mouse, especially on a laptop trackpad.
• Built-in ad blocking. It blocks ads and trackers from standard block lists, with no add-on to install.
• Userscripts. Small scripts can change how any site looks or behaves, which covers much of what extensions do elsewhere.
• No Chrome Web Store. The usual browser extensions are not part of the setup, so a password manager's add-on, for example, will not install the normal way.
• Streaming with copy protection. Services such as Netflix need extra setup before they play, and on some systems they will not play at all.

Which File to Download

The download page carries three files, all for version 3.6.3.

For the portable version, unzip the folder and run qutebrowser.exe from inside it. Windows unzips it on its own, so there is nothing extra to install.

There is no build here for Intel Macs, and the Windows files need Windows 10 version 1809 or newer. On Linux, install it from your distribution's package manager instead.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

The quickest tell is your right hand. If it rests on the mouse while you browse and you have no wish to change that, qutebrowser will feel like a puzzle, not a shortcut.

• Vivaldi Browser has strong keyboard shortcuts and a command box, inside a normal-looking browser with a mouse-friendly interface.
• Zen Browser and Floorp Browser are Firefox-based and lean towards a clean, minimal screen.
• Brave Browser blocks ads out of the box and keeps the full Chrome extension store.
• LibreWolf Browser is a privacy-tuned version of Firefox, with tracking protection switched on from the start.

If your main concern is staying anonymous rather than browsing fast, Tor Browser is the tool built for that job.

qutebrowser Next to Chrome and Edge

Because it runs on Chromium's engine, pages look much the same as they do in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The difference is that there is no Google or Microsoft account behind it, and nothing syncs to the cloud.

Its engine version follows the Qt toolkit rather than Chrome's own release schedule, and security fixes are backported into each Qt update. Keeping qutebrowser itself up to date matters more than with a browser that updates itself.

If you only want Chrome without the sign-in and sync, plain Chromium is the closer match. For a Chrome you can run from a USB stick, there is Google Chrome Portable.

Moving From Arc or Another Browser

Arc users looking for a new home should read our guide to saving your Arc tabs before the shutdown first. qutebrowser can be one of the places you land, if a keyboard-first browser appeals.

The project offers an import script for bookmarks from other browsers, though it takes a few steps on the command line. If you would rather not, keeping your old browser around for a week while you learn is the gentler route.

Quick questions

Want to compare more options? Our Web Browsers section lists every browser we host, including Opera Browser.

Download qutebrowser 3.6.3 and see how quickly the keys become habit, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.