Chrome has no setting that stops a website from ending your session for inactivity. If the site renews the session when the page loads, reloading before that limit usually keeps you signed in. The site still decides. A fixed maximum session length, a daily sign-in, or a multi-factor prompt will sign you out anyway.

| Goal                               | What to add                                                                                                                     |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Reload on a timer                  | [Refresh Page](/steps/refresh-page) and [Repeat](/steps/repeat)                                                                 |
| Click a **Stay signed in** warning | [Wait / Delay](/steps/wait-delay) Until, then [If / Else](/steps/if-else) and [Click Element](/steps/click-element) in **Then** |
| Alert if you were signed out       | If / Else on the sign-in URL, with [Send Alert](/steps/send-alert) in **Then**                                                  |

Use this on a dashboard, queue, or portal you leave open. Do not use it on a tab where you are typing. A reload drops text you have not submitted.

## Why the site logs you out

[OWASP’s session guidance](https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Session_Management_Cheat_Sheet.html#session-expiration) separates two limits, and the site enforces both on the server:

- An **idle timeout** ends the session after a period with no HTTP request for that session. OWASP describes a few minutes as common on high-value apps, and about 15–30 minutes on lower-risk ones. Your site can use a different number.
- An **absolute timeout** ends the session after a maximum lifetime, even if you keep using it. You have to sign in again.

Some sites also run a countdown in the page and show a **Stay signed in** or **Extend session** button before the idle limit. Clicking that button, or loading the page again, is often enough to reset the idle timer. Neither one resets an absolute timeout.

## Check the site's own setting first

Look for **Keep me signed in** or **Remember me** on the sign-in form before you automate anything. On a work account, follow your organization’s policy. This guide keeps a session you are allowed to keep. It does not bypass a sign-out your administrator requires.

## Reload before the idle timeout

You’ll need Tab Automation installed. Custom automations are free; [Explorer](/blog/launch-license) unlocks the full Dashboard. Google Search is coming soon. The [side-panel tour](/blog/welcome) covers first-time setup.

1. Open the signed-in tab you want to keep.
2. Open Tab Automation from its toolbar action. The extension opens in Chrome's side panel.
3. Click **New Automation**. Under **Select a Tab**, turn off **Always start this automation in a new tab**, then pick that tab.
4. Click **Add Step**, then choose [Refresh Page](/steps/refresh-page). Leave **Bypass cache** off. A normal reload is enough to send a new request.
5. Turn on [Repeat](/steps/repeat) at the End block. It is off in a new automation. Enabling it starts with a 30-second **Fixed** wait.
6. Set that wait shorter than the site’s idle limit. If the site signs you out after 15 minutes of inactivity, **Fixed** 600 seconds (10 minutes) leaves a margin. The 15 minutes is an example, not a timeout we measured.
7. Click **Save & Run**.

Each cycle reloads the tab, waits, then starts again. **Pause** stops the run until you **Resume** it. **Remove Automation** deletes it. Repeat can also stop after a cycle count or a duration if you do not want it to run until you pause it.

The wait is a request, not a guaranteed clock time. [Chrome limits alarms in installed extensions to at most once every 30 seconds and can delay them further](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/alarms#method-create), including when the computer sleeps. A 600-second wait sits well above that floor. The [interval table](/blog/auto-refresh-a-tab-in-chrome#refresh-intervals-every-5-seconds-30-seconds-5-minutes) lists other waits. The [dashboard guide](/blog/auto-refresh-dashboard-chrome) explains why the wait should also be longer than the page’s load time.

This works on a tab you are not looking at. See [auto refresh a background tab](/blog/auto-refresh-background-tab-chrome) for hidden tabs versus tabs Chrome has discarded.

## Click the stay-signed-in warning

Use this when the site shows a button before it logs you out, and you would rather not reload every few minutes.

Leave **Pause when this wait succeeds** off. A successful wait with that switch on skips the click.

1. Follow the same setup through **New Automation** and the open tab. Do not add Refresh Page.
2. Click **Add Step**, then [Wait / Delay](/steps/wait-delay). Switch it from **Delay** to **Until**.
3. Set **Until trigger** to **Appears**. You will paste the button’s selector in a moment. A new Wait step starts as a 2-second delay, so raise **Timeout** after you switch to Until. If the warning shows up after about 10 minutes, set **Timeout** to **Fixed** 900 seconds so the wait outlasts it. The maximum is 3600 seconds. Until checks about every 250 milliseconds. A timeout records a warning and the run continues. It does not mean the button was found.
4. Add [If / Else](/steps/if-else) after the wait. It is marked **Experimental**. That label does not change the check. A new If is already set to **When** **Page**, **Compare** **Exists**.
5. Click **Pick on page** and select the **Stay signed in** button while it is visible. If the warning is not on screen, wait for it once, pick the button, then continue. The card shows the selector. Copy it into the Wait step’s **CSS selector** field.
6. In the **Then** frame, click **Add Step** and choose [Click Element](/steps/click-element). **Pick on page** the same button.
7. Turn **Repeat** on. A 30-second **Fixed** wait is enough here: it is only the gap after the click or the timeout, before the next cycle.
8. Click **Save & Run**.

The If is there so a missing button does not stop the run. Click waits up to six seconds, then pauses the automation if the element is still missing. After a timed-out wait, **Exists** is false, **Else** runs, and the click is skipped. An empty Else continues.

Until does not reload the page while it waits. The next cycle opens the Start URL in that tab again, so a long timeout returns there about once per wait instead of every few minutes. If the tab has moved, that navigation loads Start again.

## Get an alert if you were signed out

Put this after the reload, or in the **Else** of the button check. If / Else runs once, when the runner reaches it. It does not watch for a later change.

1. Add **If / Else**.
2. Set **When** to **URL**, and choose **Path** or **Full URL**.
3. Set **Compare** to **Contains**.
4. Set **To** to **Text**, and enter a path that appears only on the sign-in page. `/login` is an example. Use the path your site actually shows.
5. In **Then**, click **Add Step** and choose **Send Alert**. A new alert includes a desktop notification and a sound.

For Slack, Discord, or ntfy, turn on **Webhook** on that alert and follow [send a Slack webhook when a Chrome page changes](/blog/chrome-webhook-slack-discord). If a desktop **Test** is silent, follow [Chrome notifications not working](/blog/chrome-notifications-not-working). Send Alert does not send email or SMS.

Check the URL again in If, rather than alerting immediately after a Wait timeout. A timeout only means the button never appeared. The sign-in page is the signal that the session ended.

## Keep the session alive without an extension

For a temporary test, open DevTools, select Console, and paste:

```js
const timer = setInterval(() => {
  fetch(location.href, { credentials: "same-origin" });
}, 600000);
// Stop this timer without leaving the page:
// clearInterval(timer);
```

The delay is 600,000 milliseconds, or 10 minutes. The request includes the page’s own cookies. OWASP defines idle time from the last HTTP request, so a site that works that way may treat this as activity. Run `clearInterval(timer)` to stop it.

**A navigation or reload removes this timer.** It also does not click a warning dialog, and it does not extend an absolute timeout. Hidden tabs add another limit: Chrome can [throttle page timers](https://developer.chrome.com/blog/timer-throttling-in-chrome-88). Tab Automation schedules the next cycle outside the page.

## What this will not do

- **Do not type in the tab.** Refresh Page reloads it and drops unsubmitted text. Every later cycle also opens the Start URL. If you had moved the tab somewhere else, the next cycle brings it back, and that load drops unsubmitted text too.
- **This is not a mouse jiggler.** Click uses Chrome’s debugger on the element you picked. It does not move your operating-system pointer, and it does not keep a Teams or Slack status on **Active**.
- **It does not replay a heartbeat request.** There is no step that repeats `/ping`, `/heartbeat`, or another background URL. The reload and the button click are the two actions above.
- **It cannot beat an absolute timeout or a multi-factor prompt.** When the site demands a new sign-in, reload and click will not satisfy it.
- **Chrome has to stay open, and the computer has to stay awake.** Extension alarms do not fire after you quit Chrome. Running automations are rescheduled when Chrome starts again. Sleep can delay the next cycle.
- **Some tabs cannot be automated.** Chrome UI pages, extension pages, and the Chrome Web Store are excluded.
- **One automation stays on one assigned tab.** A second portal needs its own automation.

Automations stay in `chrome.storage.local` on this computer. Read the [privacy policy](/privacy) for permissions and data handling.

## If you are still signed out

Open [Activity](/steps/activity). A Wait timeout is a warning, not a sign-out. A paused Click means the button was missing or could not be pressed. The sign-in URL check is what tells you the session ended.

Sign in again in that tab, then **Resume**. If the site uses an absolute timeout, a shorter wait will not help. The session ends on the site’s schedule no matter how often the tab reloads.