You can download files easily using Google Chrome on a computer by following a few simple steps.
First, open Chrome and go to the website that contains the file you want to download. This could be a document, image, video, or software file.
Next, locate the download link or button on the page. Click on it. Chrome will start downloading the file automatically. In some cases, a prompt may appear asking you to confirm the download or choose a location to save the file.
By default, Chrome saves downloaded files to the Downloads folder on your computer. You can see the progress of your download at the bottom of the browser window or in the downloads icon at the top-right.
Once the download is complete, you can click the file from the download bar or open it from your Downloads folder.
To view all downloaded files, click the three-dot menu in Chrome and select Downloads, or press Ctrl + J (Windows) or Command + Shift + J (Mac). This opens the downloads page where you can manage files.
If you want to change where files are saved, go to Settings > Downloads. From there, you can choose a different folder or enable the option to ask where to save each file before downloading.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- Go to the site where you want to download the file.
- Save the file:
- Most files: Click the download link. You can also right-click on the file and choose Save as.
- Images: Right-click on the image and choose Save image as.
- Videos: Point to the video. Click download
. If you can't do this action, the video's owner or hosting site has prevented downloads.
- PDFs: Right-click on the file and choose Save link as.
- When you use the Chrome PDF viewer to access PDFs, scanned PDFs of physical documents are automatically converted to be searchable and selectable using optical character recognition (OCR). After the conversion, you can highlight, search, copy, paste and find text within the document. The conversion is completed on your device without sending any data to Google or third parties.
- Web pages: At the top right, click More
More tools
- If asked, choose where you want to save the file, then click Save.
- Executable files (.exe, .dll, .bat): If you trust the file, click Save. If you're not sure about the contents of the download, click Discard.
- When you begin a download, a Download in progress icon
appears on the top right next to the address bar. Once the download completes, the Download tray
opens.
- To open your file, click Open new
.
- You can also click the file to open it.
Tips:
- To show extra actions like Show in folder
, point to the filename.
- If you download a file, or if you've recently downloaded a file, the Download tray
- To view all downloads if the Download tray
- You can drag a downloaded file to another folder, program or website. To move a downloaded file, in the Download tray
- If the scanned PDF has several pages, OCR conversion might take some time. When the PDF loads, you get the notification 'Extracting text from PDF…'
Learn how to fix file download errors.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click More
- Click Privacy and security
- Click Additional permissions
- Choose the option that you want as your default setting.
- At the top right, find the file download to pause or cancel.
- Point to the filename.
- Click Pause
, Resume
or Cancel.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click More
- To open a file, click its name. It will open in your computer's default application for the file type.
- To remove a download from your history, to the right of the file, click Remove
. The file will be removed from your downloads page on Chrome, not from your computer.
You can choose whether PDFs download to your device or open in Chrome when you go to a site.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, select More
- Select Site settings
- Select Download PDFs or Open PDFs in Chrome.
You can edit a PDF online and then save the edited version to your computer.
- Go to an online PDF form.
- Type in the PDF form.
- Select Download
- When you use the Chrome PDF viewer to access PDFs, scanned PDFs of physical documents are automatically converted to be searchable and selectable using optical character recognition (OCR). After the conversion, you can highlight, search, copy, paste and find text within the document. The conversion is completed on your device without sending any data to Google or third parties.
Tip: You can open the edited PDF that you saved and continue editing.
You can choose a location on your computer into which downloads should be saved by default, or pick a specific destination for each download.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click More
- Adjust your download settings:
- To change the default download location, click Change and select where to save your files.
- If you'd rather choose a specific location for each download, turn on Ask where to save each file before downloading.
If you didn't change your default download location, Google Chrome downloads files to the following locations.
- Windows 10 and up:
\Users\<username>\Downloads - Mac
/Users/<username>/Downloads - Linux:
/home/<username>/Downloads
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- Go to the site where you want to download a file.
- After your download, select Recent download history
- Right-click on a recently downloaded file.
- If 'Always open files of this type' is checked, untick it.
Related resources
For security, Chrome may block or warn you about potentially harmful files. Always review downloads carefully and only download files from trusted sources.
In summary, downloading a file in Chrome on a computer involves clicking a download link, monitoring progress, and accessing the file from your Downloads folder or Chrome’s download manager.
