💠Windows Terminal Keyboard Shortcuts
20 essential shortcuts for Windows Terminal
Tabs
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Shift+T | New tab (default profile) |
| Ctrl+Shift+1–9 | New tab with profile 1–9 |
| Ctrl+Tab/Ctrl+Shift+Tab | Next / previous tab |
| Ctrl+Alt+1–9 | Switch to tab number |
| Ctrl+Shift+W | Close tab or pane |
Panes
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt+Shift+D | Duplicate pane (auto split) |
| Alt+Shift+-/Alt+Shift+= | Split pane horizontal / vertical |
| Alt+←/Alt+→ | Move focus between panes left / right |
| Alt+↑/Alt+↓ | Move focus between panes up / down |
| Alt+Shift+←/→ | Resize pane left / right |
| Alt+Shift+↑/↓ | Resize pane up / down |
General
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Shift+F | Find / search |
| Ctrl+Shift+P | Open command palette |
| Ctrl+, | Open settings |
| Ctrl+Shift+Space | Open new tab dropdown |
| Ctrl+=/Ctrl+- | Increase / decrease font size |
| Ctrl+Shift+C/Ctrl+Shift+V | Copy / paste |
| Alt+Enter/F11 | Toggle full screen |
| Ctrl+0 | Reset font size |
| Ctrl+Shift+Scroll | Adjust transparency |
About Windows Terminal Shortcuts
Windows Terminal is Microsoft's modern, fast, and feature-rich terminal application for Windows. It supports multiple tabs, panes, GPU-accelerated text rendering, Unicode/UTF-8 support, and custom themes. It can host any command-line application including PowerShell, Command Prompt, WSL distributions, and Azure Cloud Shell. Windows Terminal is highly configurable through its JSON settings file.
This reference covers 20 essential Windows Terminal keyboard shortcuts organized across 3 categories: Tabs, Panes, General. Each shortcut lists both macOS and Windows/Linux key combinations where applicable, making it easy to find the right key combo regardless of your operating system.
Learning keyboard shortcuts is one of the highest-leverage investments you can make in your daily workflow. Studies show that developers and designers who rely on keyboard shortcuts are measurably faster at common tasks. Rather than memorizing every shortcut at once, focus on the ones you use most frequently and gradually expand your repertoire.
Bookmark this page for quick reference whenever you need to look up a Windows Terminal shortcut. The categorized layout makes it easy to find shortcuts by their function, whether you need navigation, editing, or specialized commands.