How to Control YouTube Volume Separately From Other Tabs

YouTube’s own volume slider only goes to 100%, and it only controls that one player, it can’t be set relative to any other tab. To control YouTube’s volume independently of every other tab, at any level including above 100%, install a per-tab volume mixer like Modulate and adjust just that tab’s slider.

Why YouTube’s built-in controls fall short

YouTube’s player has a volume slider, but it has two limits that show up constantly. First, it caps at 100%, so a quiet upload or a badly mixed video stays quiet no matter how far you drag it. Second, that slider only controls the one player it’s attached to. It has no concept of any other tab, so it can’t be set relative to a call, a second video, or anything else playing in your browser. Neither of those is something YouTube’s interface gives you a way around. Even when a video is loud enough on its own, there’s no way to keep YouTube at one level while something else sits at a different level in another tab. Chrome’s own volume applies to everything at once.

This is different from an audio problem you can fix in the video itself. A video’s own volume slider only affects how loud that player is relative to its own source. It has no concept of “other tabs” at all, because it was never built to manage anything outside its own player.

Set YouTube’s volume on its own

With Modulate installed, controlling YouTube’s tab independently takes three steps:

Open the extension’s popup while the YouTube tab is playing audio.
Find that tab in the list. It shows up with its title and favicon, alongside any other tab currently making sound.
Drag that tab’s slider to the level you want: down for something too loud, or up past 100% for something too quiet.

The default ceiling is 150%, and Settings lets you raise the Max Boost preset up to 600% if a tab needs more than that. Every other tab keeps whatever level it was already at before you touched YouTube’s slider, since each one is tracked and adjusted independently of the rest.

A second use case: keeping YouTube quiet in the background

The same control works in reverse. If you’ve got a YouTube tab open in the background, an autoplay queue, an ad that started without you asking, you can mute or turn down just that tab while a meeting or a call in another tab stays untouched. This comes up often with autoplay: YouTube will keep queuing videos in a tab you’re not actively watching, and rather than closing the tab, you can drop its volume to zero and leave it running. It’s the same mixer, used the opposite direction.

This also solves the specific annoyance of a video call running alongside a reference video or livestream. Instead of muting the whole browser and missing your own call’s audio, or closing the YouTube tab and losing your place, you leave both running and just turn one down. The tab keeps playing, keeps its position, and stays ready the moment you want it audible again.

Beyond a single video

Everything here applies whether the audio is coming from a single YouTube video, an embedded YouTube player on another site, or a playlist that autoplays through several videos in a row. Modulate tracks the tab, not the individual video, so the slider you set stays applied as YouTube moves from one video to the next in the same tab. There’s no need to readjust after every video ends.

Full walkthrough

Muting, boosting, resetting, and hotkeys are all part of the same popup. Full step-by-step with every control: how to use Modulate.