How to switch between windows in tmux

Next / previous / by number / last-used:

keysprefix + n · p · 0–9 · l

The two you should actually use

prefix l toggles between your two most recent windows — the alt-tab of tmux. prefix w opens an interactive picker with live previews of every window in every session. Between them you rarely need window numbers at all.

No-prefix switching

Alt+number is a popular one-keystroke setup:

~/.tmux.conf
bind -n M-1 select-window -t 1
bind -n M-2 select-window -t 2
bind -n M-3 select-window -t 3

Related

Verified against tmux 3.6 · updated July 2026 · back to the full cheat sheet

[tmuxlab]
^B