How to record a Chrome tab as a video
Chrome has no built-in tab recorder, so you either record the whole window with your operating system's screen recorder and crop it afterwards, or use an extension that captures the tab directly. ReelCap does the second: it records the active tab straight to a WEBM file, with page audio, your microphone and a highlighted cursor already baked in.
Doing it without an extension
- 1On Windows, press Win+G to open Game Bar, or on macOS press Shift+Cmd+5 to open the screenshot toolbar.
- 2Choose to record a window or a screen region, and drag the region roughly over the page area.
- 3Record your demo, then stop from the recorder's toolbar or menu-bar icon.
- 4Open the file in a video editor to crop out the browser UI and trim the start and end.
Where that falls short
- The recording includes everything the window shows: tabs, the address bar, notifications that pop up mid-take.
- You capture the whole system's audio, not the tab's — a Slack ping lands in your demo.
- The system cursor stays tiny and clicks leave no visual trace, so viewers lose track of what you did.
Doing it with ReelCap
- 1Install ReelCap from the Chrome Web Store, then open the tab you want to demo.
- 2Open the popup with the toolbar icon or Alt+Shift+R, and switch on tab audio, your microphone or the camera bubble as needed.
- 3Pick an output size and frame rate, then press Start recording and wait out the 3-2-1 countdown.
- 4Stop with Alt+Shift+S, check the take in the preview tab, and download the WEBM.
Every step happens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and the export carries no watermark.