How can I open a URL in Google Chrome from the terminal in OS X?

Question

This is what I'm trying:

/usr/bin/open -a "/Applications/Google Chrome.app" --args 'http://google.com/'

It focuses Chrome but does not open the URL.

why do you reference the open programm by it's path? It's aliased by default! — Julian Krispel-Samsel, May 11 '13 at 04:31

Arsal · Answer 1 · 2017-03-05T18:16:37.680

66

Actually for me, the command is not working with the "--args" being present so the command working for me is

/usr/bin/open -a "/Applications/Google Chrome.app" 'http://google.com/'

OS X version: 10.6.8

edited Mar 05 '17 at 18:16

answered Dec 19 '12 at 18:34

Arsal

760

can you pipe string in place google – Muhammad Umer Oct 14 '20 at 02:03

score 62 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '11 at 04:44

62

If you remove the --args it seems to work fine, since --args can only affect things on first launch (it changes what main gets called with)

answered Oct 18 '11 at 04:44

cobbal

1,667

weird. seems like i used to have to use them. thanks. – cwd Oct 18 '11 at 04:48

score 50 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 30 '15 at 08:56

50

If you set Google Chrome as your default browser

open http://google.com/

will just do the trick.

OS X version: 10.8.4

edited Aug 30 '15 at 08:56

Daz Lewis

103

answered Sep 04 '13 at 06:04

alikewmk

609

OS X 10.10 Yosemite as well. – leymannx Jun 17 '15 at 09:28
This only works if google chrome is your default browser. If you're using safari, firefox or another option but want to open the URL with chrome you'll need one of the other options. – tgf Mar 17 '16 at 02:32
1

good answer, now how do I do this in a new Chrome window? – chharvey May 13 '16 at 02:31

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

12

You can use

open -a "Google Chrome" index.html

or, to put it in a shell script (e.g. ~/bin/chrome)

edit the file ~/bin/chrome, and put the following in it

open -a "Google Chrome" "$*"
make the file executable by running the following in a terminal

chmod 700 ~/bin/chrome
then run the following to open a file in chrome from the terminal

chrome /path/to/some/file

Pulled from here

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

1

answered Jul 31 '14 at 12:11

Brad Parks

2,988

2

function chrome(){ open -a "Google Chrome" "$*" } – Joel AZEMAR Jul 01 '15 at 07:40

Taylor D. Edmiston · Answer 5 · 2018-12-13T18:21:24.097

7

There are several helpful answers here but none that contain the complete info for opening a URL in Chrome in both cases whether it is or is not the default browser.

Open a URL in the default browser (could be Chrome):
```
open http://www.example.com
```
Open a URL in Chrome always (using the app name):
```
open -a "Google Chrome" http://www.example.com
```
Open a URL in Chrome always (using the app path alternative syntax):
```
open -a /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/ http://example.com
```
Open a URL in Chrome always (using the bundle identifier alternative syntax):
```
open -b com.google.chrome http://www.example.com
```
Open a URL in Chrome in an incognito window always:

From man open, it would seem that you should be able to do it like this (but alas it does not seem to get the incognito option to Chrome):
```
open -a "Google Chrome" http://example.com/ --args --incognito
```
However, you can do it by passing the Chrome command line switches directly to the Chrome binary:
```
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --incognito http://example.com
```

edited Dec 13 '18 at 18:21

answered Dec 13 '18 at 17:43

Taylor D. Edmiston

257
2
9

This answer, your 5th point, but without --incognito - is what I came looking for, and could not find elsewhere. I was wondering how to bypass open (which does not support chrome-extension://) - so I could do like so, /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome 'chrome-extension://<gobbledygook>/views/default.html#/' ... where I've copied the URL from an extension. I'm using this to open Jironimo (for JIRA) and OneTab, when I cd into work-project directory for first time each day. – floer32 May 06 '19 at 23:44
I'm trying to achieve something similar to @driftcatcher but his method won't work for me (macOS 11.0.1, Chrome 90.0.4430.72) when trying to open a chrome:// scheme, it just opens a new window with a blank tab. Some security measure maybe? If anyone knows a workaround, I'd appreciate the ping. – lima Apr 16 '21 at 17:19
1

@lima It does seem like the browser prevents loading the chrome:// scheme programmatically for security purposes. https://twitter.com/anatudor/status/1099590311540609024 – Taylor D. Edmiston Apr 16 '21 at 18:58
@TaylorEdmiston Thanks for looking into it. I suspect something can be done using osascript, but I ended up just quoting the URL and calling it a day. – lima Apr 16 '21 at 22:53

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 08 '13 at 19:29

7

I've an alias for google

function google() { open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/ "http://www.google.com/search?q= $1"; }

answered Feb 08 '13 at 19:29

Mohsen

203

that's a great idea :) – Julian Krispel-Samsel May 11 '13 at 04:30
1

for zsh: chrome() { open -a "Google Chrome" "http://www.google.com/search?q=$1"; } – nbari Jun 17 '15 at 10:02

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 18 '11 at 04:45

4

Get rid of the --args. open already knows how to handle URLs.

answered Oct 18 '11 at 04:45

user7541

208

score 2 · Answer 8 · 2016-12-04T17:49:48.253

this is my method.

Update ~/.bash_profile and add the chrome function below:

function chrome(){ 
    local site=""
    if [[ -f "$(pwd)/$1" ]]; then
        site="$(pwd)/$1"
    elif [[ "$1" =~ "^http" ]]; then
        site="$1"
    else
        site="http://$1"
    fi  
    /usr/bin/open -a "/Applications/Google Chrome.app" "$site"; 
}

Load ~/.bash_profile:
source ~/.bash_profile
Lunch chrome and open a site:
chrome www.google.com
Open a local site:
chrome LOCAL_SITE_PATH

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 22 '17 at 06:32

1

In macos Sierra 10.12.6 .If chrome is your default browser. You can do this by
open index.html

answered Jul 22 '17 at 06:32

Dominic Motuka

111

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 16 '21 at 11:53

Using chrome-cli:

chrome-cli open <url>  (Open url in new tab)
chrome-cli open <url> -n  (Open url in new window)
chrome-cli open <url> -i  (Open url in new incognito window)
chrome-cli open <url> -t <id>  (Open url in specific tab)
chrome-cli open <url> -w <id>  (Open url in new tab in specific window)

How can I open a URL in Google Chrome from the terminal in OS X?

10 Answers10