Today, Google announced a major overhaul to AI Mode in Chrome, introducing a suite of features designed to kill "tab hopping" forever. On paper, it’s a productivity dream: a new side-by-side browsing mode and the ability to search across multiple open tabs, PDFs and images simultaneously.
Under the hood, this new experience is powered by Gemini 3 Flash. While Google has optimized this model for speed, the 'PhD-level reasoning' it promises requires a massive amount of active context. When you use the new '+' menu to bridge 10 tabs together, you’re essentially asking Gemini 3 to keep all that data 'warm' in your RAM.
In my tests, this is where the efficiency of Flash meets the reality of hardware limits; expect a significant hit to your available memory the moment you start a multi-tab deep dive.
The side-by-side appeal
The headlining feature is a new side-panel experience for desktop. When you’re using AI Mode, clicking a link opens the webpage side-by-side with your AI chat. This makes it much easier to visit relevant websites, compare details and ask follow-up questions while maintaining the context of your search.
It's clear the utility is undeniable. If you’re shopping for a coffee maker for a small apartment, you can have a retailer's site open on the left and ask the AI "How easy is this specific model to clean?" on the right. AI Mode shares insights using context from the page and across the web, helping you make a decision without losing your place.
Of course, with AI Overviews inaccurate 10% of the time, it personally makes me want to skip AI Mode for shopping. Tom Guide's own Erin Bashford, a coffee expert who has personally tested 43 coffee makers in two years, offers far more insight than an AI model going off of patterns.
Search across your tabs and files
The real game-changer is the ability to search across the tabs you already have open. On both desktop and mobile, a new “plus” menu in the search box (on the New Tab page or within AI Mode) allows you to select recent tabs, images or local files like PDFs to add to your search context.
This turns the search bar into a researcher’s launchpad. You can mix and match:
- Recent tabs: Select multiple open websites to ground the AI's answers (e.g., comparing several hiking trails at once).
- Academic files: Bring in context from open tabs with class notes, lecture slides, and PDFs to ask for examples of tricky concepts.
- Creative tools: Access powerful tools like Canvas or image creation wherever you see the new plus menu.
The 'warm' tab problem
In a normal Chrome session, the browser uses Memory Saver to "freeze" or discard tabs you aren't looking at to save RAM. But here's what nobody is talking about, when you use the new "plus" menu to search across 10 tabs, Chrome can no longer freeze them.
To keep the Gemini 3 Flash context window active and responsive, those tabs have to remain "warm" (active in RAM). If you have 10 media-heavy tabs open and "active" for the AI, you’re looking at a massive 2–4GB RAM hit just for the site data before the AI even starts "thinking."
So now your "PhD-level reasoning" feels like it’s running through molasses, and your laptop gets hot enough to fry an egg (ok, not really, but I wouldn't put it on your lap). For the first time in years, Chrome is more than a browser and more like a high performance workstation and finally has the system requirements to prove it.
Should you enable it?
If you’re rocking a machine with 16GB of RAM or more, this is an immediate, must-have upgrade to your daily workflow. But if you're a "hardware minimalist" who values battery life above all else, my recommendation is no, or at least proceed with caution. The new AI features may be a dream for your brain, but they are a heavy-duty workout for your CPU and RAM.
The takeaway
Google is fundamentally changing how we use Chrome with two new AI features: a side-by-side exploration mode and the ability to search across multiple open tabs simultaneously.
It effectively turns your browser into an AI agent that can read your PDFs and websites at once. It’s a massive productivity win, but from where I'm sitting it comes with a high "RAM tax." If you have 8GB of memory, prepare for your computer fan to start spinning.
More from Tom's Guide
- ChatGPT’s new ‘Thinking’ mode just hit a 94% reasoning score — 7 prompts it can solve that standard AI can’t
- The 'Learn to Code' era is over — as an AI editor, here's the 'Intent Architecture' roadmap I’m giving my kids instead
- Google just unlocked 'Agent Mode' for Gemini 3.1 — here are 7 things it can now do for you
