How to Use Incognito Mode in Chrome on Windows

Opening and closing Incognito mode in Chrome is simple enough, but it's worth being precise about the difference between "no local history" and "fully anonymous" — a lot of people conflate the two.

Which method should you use?

Why closing the window clears everything

Incognito mode is built to avoid saving browsing history, cookies, and anything typed into forms to your computer. While the window is open, that data sits temporarily in memory, and it all gets wiped at once the moment you close the last remaining Incognito window. So if you close one Incognito window but leave another one open, the session isn't over yet — nothing has been cleared. Downloaded files and any new bookmarks are the exception; they aren't part of what gets deleted, so they stick around after the window closes.

What Incognito doesn't hide

This is where most of the confusion comes from. Incognito only erases the traces that would otherwise be stored on your own computer. Any site you're logged into still knows who you are, and your school, workplace network, or internet service provider (ISP) can still see that you connected and from what IP address. It's less a tool for disappearing online and more a way to avoid leaving a trail for the next person who uses the same computer.

When Incognito is actually the right tool

The most common reason people reach for Incognito is comparing prices — flights and hotels in particular. A regular, logged-in window can show different prices or recommendations based on your past searches, while an Incognito window starts from a blank slate with no personalization applied. It's also handy for staying logged into two accounts on the same site at once: instead of signing out and back in on your regular window, you can open a second account inside an Incognito window running alongside it. And if saved passwords or autofill data are getting in the way — say, you want to see exactly what a website's login screen looks like to a first-time visitor — Incognito skips all of that by default.

Site permissions reset with every Incognito session as well. Camera, microphone, and location access you granted a site in your regular Chrome profile don't carry over, so a site has to ask again from scratch each time you visit it in a new Incognito window. That's a smaller, less-discussed side effect of the same "nothing persists" design that clears history and cookies.

Launching Chrome straight into Incognito

Instead of pressing the shortcut every time, you can make a Chrome shortcut that only ever opens Incognito windows. Right-click your Chrome shortcut on the desktop or in the Start menu, open Properties, and add a space followed by --incognito to the end of the "Target" field. Save it, and from then on that shortcut launches straight into an Incognito window instead of a regular one — useful if Incognito is your default way of browsing on a shared or public computer.

Incognito vs. manually clearing your history

It's worth separating Incognito from Chrome's "Clear browsing data" tool, since they solve different problems. Clearing history wipes out data that's already accumulated in your regular profile — you have to remember to open Settings and run it, and it affects every tab in that profile, past and present. Incognito works the other way around: it never writes history, cookies, or form data to your computer for that session in the first place, and it clears itself the moment you close the last Incognito window, with no extra step required. If you only need privacy for one browsing session, Incognito is the faster path; if you want to reset a profile that's already built up months of history, "Clear browsing data" is the tool for that.

Extensions are another place Incognito behaves differently by default. Chrome disables every installed extension inside Incognito windows unless you specifically allow it, on the theory that an extension you didn't vet for privacy shouldn't automatically get to see what you're doing in a session meant to be more private. If you rely on an ad blocker or password manager extension and want it available in Incognito too, you'll need to turn it on manually from Chrome's extensions page.

How to tell you're actually in Incognito

Chrome makes it obvious at a glance: an Incognito window uses a dark theme instead of your usual one, and shows a small icon (often described as a hat and glasses) next to the address bar. Clicking that icon also shows how many Incognito windows you currently have open, which is a quick way to check whether closing the one in front of you will actually end the session or just leave others running in the background.

Using Incognito on a shared or public computer

Incognito is often the first thing people reach for on a shared family computer, a library terminal, or a work machine they don't own — and it does the job of not leaving history or cookies behind. But it's worth remembering what it doesn't cover: it won't stop someone from watching your screen in person, and it does nothing against malware or a keylogger already installed on that machine. If you sign into any accounts during the session, make a habit of signing back out before you close the window, since Incognito clearing local data doesn't automatically log you out of a website's server-side session everywhere else that account is used.

If you're on a Mac, the shortcuts are different — see our full guide to Incognito mode in Chrome on Mac.