There are some extensions that may be used to discard tabs on startup like Suspend Tabs at Startup ( https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/suspend-tabs-at-startup/dhgmempheoefomjckiihacjicbecjbae ). This usually prevent Chrome from reloading tabs. I've noticed for a long time though that these extensions don't always work perfectly on Chrome Canary, but work reliably on Chrome Stable.