Question 1

What is a shadcn tabs?

Accepted Answer

A shadcn Tabs is the tabbed-panel pattern — a row of tab buttons at the top, content panels below, only one panel visible at a time. Used for switching between related views without leaving the page (Settings → Profile / Account / Notifications, Product page → Description / Specs / Reviews). Built on Radix UI's Tabs primitive (proper roving tabindex, ARIA-tablist semantics, keyboard navigation) styled with shadcn/ui.

Question 2

Are these tabs examples free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, every tabs example on shadcn.io is free for personal and commercial use — no attribution requirement, no runtime dependency, no gating.

Question 3

Tabs vs Accordion vs separate routes — which one?

Accepted Answer

Tabs when only one panel is relevant at a time AND users will switch between them frequently — settings sections, dashboard views. Accordion when users might want multiple panels open at once — FAQs, settings checklists. Separate routes when each panel deserves its own URL (deep linking, SEO, browser back button) — long-form content, multi-step flows. Pick by interaction frequency and URL semantics.

Question 4

When should the tab state sync with the URL?

Accepted Answer

If users would benefit from sharing a link to a specific tab ("share Settings → Notifications"), URL-sync. If the tabs are just for in-page navigation that users don't need to bookmark (toggle between Code / Preview in a sandbox), local state is fine. URL-sync via `useSearchParams` (App Router) — read the current tab from `?tab=`, update on TabsChange via `router.replace`.

Question 5

How do I build vertical tabs (sidebar on the left)?

Accepted Answer

Use the layout variant. Wrap TabsList with `flex-col` and place TabsContent in a sibling column. Common in dashboard-style settings pages where the tab list IS the navigation. Vertical tabs scale well to many tabs (20+) — horizontal tabs run out of space at ~7 — but they consume horizontal real estate and are awkward on mobile (collapse to horizontal scrollable instead).

Question 6

How do I add badges or counts inside tab triggers?

Accepted Answer

Use the advanced variant. Render a small Badge inside each TabsTrigger after the label: "Inbox 23", "Active 5". Useful for navigation tabs that double as count indicators. Use `tabular-nums` on the badge text so column alignment stays stable as numbers update. Don't put badges on every tab — reserve them for tabs with quantitative state.

Question 7

How do I make tabs scrollable when there are too many?

Accepted Answer

Wrap TabsList in a horizontally-scrollable container (`

` with `flex-nowrap` on the inner). On overflow, users swipe / scroll to access additional tabs. Visual hint: render a small fade gradient on the right edge so users know there's more content to scroll. The scrollable variant in this gallery shows the canonical pattern.

Question 8

How do I install a tabs example?

Accepted Answer

Run the `npx shadcn@latest add` command shown under the Installation heading. The CLI copies the example's TSX source into `components/examples/tabs/…`, plus the shadcn/ui Tabs primitive (and its Radix dependency) if you don't already have it.

Question 9

How do I lazy-load tab content (don't render until first activation)?

Accepted Answer

Default behavior: TabsContent renders for every tab even if hidden — fine for cheap content. For expensive content (a chart, a heavy fetched list), pass `forceMount` only when the tab is active or use a custom unmount-on-hide wrapper. Pattern: track which tabs have ever been activated in a Set, and only render content for those (lazy mount, persistent on switch).

Question 10

How do I sync the active tab to the URL?

Accepted Answer

Read `?tab=...` via `useSearchParams()` (App Router) for the initial value. On TabsChange, call `router.replace(?tab=...)` (use `replace` not `push` so back-button doesn't add tab switches to history). The active tab persists across reloads and is shareable. For Server Component pages, read `searchParams.tab` server-side for SSR'd tab state.

Question 11

Which libraries do tabs examples depend on?

Accepted Answer

Radix UI Tabs (the primitive — roving tabindex, ARIA-tablist, keyboard nav, controlled / uncontrolled), shadcn/ui Tabs (the styled wrapper generated into your project), Tailwind CSS, and Lucide React (for icon-led tabs). For URL-synced tabs, next/navigation (App Router). React 19 baseline.

Question 12

Are tabs examples accessible for keyboard and screen reader users?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Radix Tabs implements the WAI-ARIA Tabs pattern: ArrowLeft/ArrowRight (or Up/Down for vertical) moves between tabs, Home/End jump to first/last, Tab moves to the active panel content. Tablist has `role="tablist"`, each trigger has `role="tab"` + `aria-selected`, panels have `role="tabpanel"` linked via `aria-labelledby`. Screen readers announce "tab, X of Y".

Question 13

Can I use these tabs examples with React Server Components?

Accepted Answer

Tabs is a client component (it manages active tab state). Wrap it inside a Server Component layout. For URL-driven tabs, the active tab can be read from `searchParams` server-side and passed as `defaultValue` — the Tabs primitive then takes over on the client for smooth switching without re-renders.

React Tabs Examples for shadcn/ui

Browse every tabs example

Frequently Asked Questions