Annoyed by Chrome auto opening a pinned Google tab? Here is a quick fix​

If you’ve fired up Chrome lately only to see a random pinned google.com tab pop up every time, even when you swear your startup settings are set to a blank page or nothing at all, you’re not alone, and yeah, it’s infuriating.

People have been venting about this glitch for the past day or two, with the tab sneaking in after a slight delay, fully pinned, and sometimes with a weird timestamp tacked onto the URL like ?zx=something random. It hits not just on full launches but also when you open a new window, and it’s been driving folks nuts quick.

Complaints about the issue seem to have started rolling in yesterday. One affected user complained about how their setup suddenly forces this pinned Google tab on startup, no matter what, and they worried it was a virus or bad update.

Tons chimed in with the exact same story – it shows up quietly, you can unpin it, but boom, next time it’s back. Similar gripes popped up in multiple threads, like users noticing it after messing with Google account links on sites or even installing web apps through Chrome.

It turns out this isn’t limited to pure Chrome either; folks on Brave and other Chromium browsers reported the same headache.

Over on X, user RHVGamer also highlighted the problem noting that Chrome now forces a pinned google.com tab on every new window and it’s already annoying after five seconds flat (spot on). Google support forums have threads too, though they’re a bit messier with people describing multiple tabs spawning out of nowhere.

The good news? It’s not some sinister Chrome feature or malware in most cases. Digging through the comments, the culprit keeps pointing to one popular extension: “Disable AI Overview” (or similar ones that block Google’s AI search summaries).

That thing apparently redirects in a way that forces Chrome to pin and load a fresh Google tab on startup or new windows. Users confirmed ditching the extension entirely stops it cold – no more surprise pinned tabs. One comment in a thread nailed it: remove that extension, problem solved, with several others piling on to say it worked like a charm.

If that’s not your issue, try checking for other sketchy extensions or resetting Chrome settings, but odds are high it’s this one.

Feel free to give this a shot and let us know if it worked for you or not in the comments below.