Use Browser Profiles to Separate Work and Personal Browsing
How to create and switch between browser profiles to keep work, personal, and other browsing separate
Browser profiles let you keep completely separate browsing environments — different bookmarks, passwords, history, extensions, and cookies — inside the same browser. It is like having two different browsers installed, without actually installing anything extra.
- Work vs personal — Keep work bookmarks, logins, and extensions completely separate from personal ones. No accidentally sending a message from the wrong account.
- Shared computer — Each person gets their own profile with their own saved passwords and history.
- Client work — Freelancers and consultants can create a profile per client to keep projects isolated.
- Different accounts — Stay logged into multiple Google or Microsoft accounts at the same time, one per profile.
- Clean testing — A fresh profile has no extensions, cache, or cookies — useful for troubleshooting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do browser profiles share extensions?▾
No. Each profile has its own set of extensions. You will need to install extensions separately in each profile. This is actually useful — you might want your work profile to have work-related extensions while your personal profile stays minimal.
Can I have different bookmarks in each profile?▾
Yes. Bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history, cookies, and extensions are all completely separate between profiles. That is the whole point — each profile acts like an independent browser.
Does creating a new profile use a lot of disk space?▾
A fresh profile uses very little space. It grows as you save bookmarks, install extensions, and build up cache and history — just like a regular browser would. If you are concerned about space, you can periodically clear the cache within each profile.
Can I transfer data between profiles?▾
Not directly within the browser. But you can export bookmarks as an HTML file from one profile and import it into another. Passwords can be exported as CSV and reimported. See our export and import browser data guide for steps.
What happens when I delete a profile?▾
All bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history, extensions, and cookies for that profile are permanently deleted. If the profile was synced to an account (Google, Microsoft, Firefox, Apple ID), the data still exists in the cloud and on other devices — but the local copy is gone.