Home / Compatibility / Google Chrome
Run two Chrome instances on Mac
Chrome profiles share one app, one Dock icon and one set of extensions. A MacDupl instance is a second Chrome outright — separate cookies, separate extensions, separate sync account, separate icon.
3-day free trial · $29 once · macOS 13+ · notarized by Apple
What you get
- Separate sessions. Cookies, storage and logins are isolated per instance — signing into a site in one doesn't touch the other.
- Separate extensions. Each instance has its own extension set, so a work-only extension never loads in your personal browser.
- Separate sync accounts. Sign each instance into a different Google account and keep bookmarks and history apart.
- A real second browser. Its own Dock icon and its own window set — not a profile picker you have to think about.
Cloning a browser is also the honest answer for web-first services whose desktop app can't be cloned. Clone Chrome, open the service's web app in each instance, and you have two independent accounts side by side.
Verified — Chrome is launch-tested. The same Chromium isolation applies to Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera and Chromium itself.
- The same Chromium isolation verified for Chrome also covers Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, and Chromium itself.
- Instance credentials are isolated per copy and never land in the shared macOS Keychain.
How to set it up
- Pick the app
Open MacDupl and choose Google Chrome from the list of apps installed on your Mac. - Name and colour it
Call it “Work”, “Personal” or a client's name, and give it one of nine icon tints. - Hit Create
About two seconds later there's a new Google Chrome in your Dock — sign into the second Google account — bookmarks and history stay separate from the original.
Questions about Google Chrome
How is this different from a Chrome profile?
Profiles live inside one app: one Dock icon, one process tree, one extension store view, and a switcher you drive by hand. An instance is a separate app with its own icon, its own extensions and its own session — permanently signed in, side by side.
Do I need to reinstall my extensions?
Yes — an instance starts as a clean Chrome, which is the point. It gets exactly the extensions you install into it, and removing one there doesn't touch your original browser.
Does this work with other Chromium browsers?
Yes. Brave, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Opera GX and Chromium are the same engine family and isolate the same way.
Will passwords leak between instances?
No. Credentials are isolated per instance and never land in the shared macOS Keychain.
Can each Chrome profile get its own Dock icon?
Not inside one Chrome: every profile belongs to the same app, so they all share its one Dock icon. Make an instance for each browser you want in the Dock instead. Each one is a separate app with its own pinnable icon and colour, and it can still hold profiles of its own.
What is the code_sign_clone folder Chrome creates?
That one is Chrome's own, not MacDupl's. Recent versions of Chrome make a temporary copy-on-write clone of themselves under /private/var/folders at startup, so a staged update can't invalidate the signature of the copy that's running. Chrome deletes it when it quits, and a restart clears anything left behind.
Try it on your own Mac
The free trial classifies every app in your Applications folder instantly, so you can see exactly how Google Chrome is handled before paying anything.