How to switch to new window in Selenium for Python?

You can do it by using window_handles and switch_to.window method.

Before clicking the link first store the window handle as

window_before = driver.window_handles[0]

after clicking the link store the window handle of newly opened window as

window_after = driver.window_handles[1]

then execute the switch to window method to move to newly opened window

driver.switch_to.window(window_after)

and similarly you can switch between old and new window. Following is the code example

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver

class GoogleOrgSearch(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.driver = webdriver.Firefox()

    def test_google_search_page(self):
        driver = self.driver
        driver.get("http://www.cdot.in")
        window_before = driver.window_handles[0]
        print window_before
        driver.find_element_by_xpath("//a[@href='http://www.cdot.in/home.htm']").click()
        window_after = driver.window_handles[1]
        driver.switch_to.window(window_after)
        print window_after
        driver.find_element_by_link_text("ATM").click()
        driver.switch_to.window(window_before)

    def tearDown(self):
        self.driver.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main()

On top of the answers already given, to open a new tab the javascript command window.open() can be used.

For example:

# Opens a new tab
self.driver.execute_script("window.open()")

# Switch to the newly opened tab
self.driver.switch_to.window(self.driver.window_handles[1])

# Navigate to new URL in new tab
self.driver.get("https://google.com")
# Run other commands in the new tab here

You're then able to close the original tab as follows

# Switch to original tab
self.driver.switch_to.window(self.driver.window_handles[0])

# Close original tab
self.driver.close()

# Switch back to newly opened tab, which is now in position 0
self.driver.switch_to.window(self.driver.window_handles[0])

Or close the newly opened tab

# Close current tab
self.driver.close()

# Switch back to original tab
self.driver.switch_to.window(self.driver.window_handles[0])

Hope this helps.

window_handles should give you the references to all open windows.

this is what the documentation has to say about switching windows.

for eg. you may take

driver.get('https://www.naukri.com/')

since, it is a current window ,we can name it

main_page = driver.current_window_handle

if there are atleast 1 window popup except the current window,you may try this method and put if condition in break statement by hit n trial for the index

for handle in driver.window_handles:
    if handle != main_page:
        print(handle)
        login_page = handle
        break

driver.switch_to.window(login_page)

Now ,whatever the credentials you have to apply,provide after it is loggen in. Window will disappear, but you have to come to main page window and you are done

driver.switch_to.window(main_page)
sleep(10)

We can handle the different windows by moving between named windows using the “switchTo” method:

driver.switch_to.window("windowName")

<a href="somewhere.html" target="windowName">Click here to open a new window</a>

Alternatively, you can pass a “window handle” to the “switchTo().window()” method. Knowing this, it’s possible to iterate over every open window like so:

for handle in driver.window_handles:
    driver.switch_to.window(handle)

try:
    # Each browser window or tab opened by WebDriver is identified by a unique "handle".
    # Think of it like an ID string that Selenium uses internally to know which window
    handles = webdriver.window_handles

    # If there is at least one window handle available:
    if handles:
        # Switch to the first window (index 0).
        # This tells Selenium: "make this window the active one for all following commands."
        webdriver.switch_to.window(handles[0])  

    # assume one window
    # → This code assumes you only have a single window or tab open.
    #   If there are multiple, you'll need to pick the right one (e.g., handles[1], handles[2], etc.)
    #   or loop through handles to find the window with the URL/title you want.

    # simple way to implement into your code if it's a small service
    # → For small scripts or one-window cases, just grabbing handles[0] works fine.
    #   For larger apps, you might want to add logic to choose the correct handle.

    # exception can be handled if the url of the window cant be read

    # note: check if your server is running
    # → If the page is served from your local FastAPI/Flask/etc server,
    #   make sure that backend is running; otherwise Selenium may open a blank page
    #   or throw navigation timeouts.
except Exception as e:
    print("Error switching windows:", e) #can use webdriver.current_url  for sending a response