The OS that i am using is windows 11 and have seen this on windows 10 as well.
@prashanths why do you say it’s misaligned? The design is to keep the minimize, maximize, and close options to be different enough in appearance to stand out from other buttons. It’s easier to recognize and click.
If you aren’t hiding the title bar, it keeps more traditional.
Horizontal tabs
Vertical tabs, show title bar:
Vertical tabs, hide title bar
It might be hard to tell, but in all three they are in the same place and in alignment. The only thing that shifts is the placement of things like the hamburger menu, profile picker icon, etc.
When removing the title bar, it removes the default space for icons. It shifts much of them to the left so then the things that were in the title bar can be moved down.
Because it actually is. Though I’ve been told Brave uses Win32 controls, nothing custom so they can’t adjust it as a result.
Normal Brave window:
Maximized Brave window (more misaligned than normal window):
Edge in either normal or maximized (it doesn’t change):
Firefox in either normal or maximized (it doesn’t change either):
It visually is not in the same place in your screenshot with vertical tabs. That’s why I used straight horizontal line in mine.
Your top two don’t count, the controls are on a different line, therefore don’t need to line up.
Truly, Brave is the only browser with visually misaligned elements in vertical tab mode. How do you not see it? 
(This ending bit was clearly sarcasm, a joke, not to be taken personally. The emoticon usually conveys that laughter as to not be serious. If this is being taken seriously and what “started it”, it shouldn’t be. Let’s not do this?)
@MasterLink I didn’t ask you but asked OP their reasoning. Sometimes you need to sit back and let people answer.
I explicitly pointed out the concept of the title bar. So you aren’t really contradicting or correcting me on that.
And then on the other part, I emphasized:
So I already said it was different from the rest and I believe it to be intentional. So what’s the purpose of drawing the lines and confirming that they are different?
-NOTE-
Also should point out at this point we have no idea what they are saying is not aligned? Is it that they thought the Close icon and Minimize weren’t aligned? It’s not aligned with other icons? Or what is it in particular they were looking at.
Often it’s good not to assume or plug in our own bias. I provide some detail but rely on the person complaining or presenting a problem to share what it is they want.
Because @prashanths isn’t wrong, and you kind of just dismissed them.
And I don’t agree with you, I agree with them, it’s visually borked.
The lines are there to make it very clear that no one makes the:
claim holds no water, not when a dev admitted to simply using Win32 titlebar controls. That’s sheer laziness.
Watch when OP agrees with me. Just wait. This is NOT the first post regarding this. lol
Again:
Comes off quite dismissive. I’m ignoring the rest of the sentence because you don’t know that for a fact, and I know based on what a dev admitted, how and why the controls are the way they are.
I do NOT want a mod misreading the OP’s post. I understand loud and clear what misalignment they are talking about, and I promise I read them right.
@Saoiray @MasterLink We’re all on the same team here – let’s drop the in-fighting and keep it civil please 
Yeah it looks like the Window controls are “stuck” in the position they would be in if the Show title bar option is enabled. They don’t adjust when the title bar is disabled. Not sure if this intentional or not – more likely an oversight.
I’ve filed this issue and pinged a couple devs and will wait to see what they have to say about it:
Thanks @Mattches for the reference hope this will be fixed soon.
@MasterLink Thank you for sharing the justification screenshots. I truly appreciate you taking the time to clarify and I agree with your explanation.
@Saoiray It ultimately comes down to personal perspective. You may have a clear view of how you’d prefer things to be, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else will see it the same way.
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That is precisely why I asked for clarification in the first place. Just because someone else believes they fully understand your perspective does not mean they actually do. I wanted to make sure your specific concern was accurately recognized and handled, rather than assumed. Topics have derailed and issues not resolved in the past because people focused more on what they assumed rather than confirming the report from a person reporting.
Yet rather than trying to allow you to be heard. MasterLink decided he wanted to respond on your behalf. And while doing so, he also wanted to shift the tone, such as:
- He replied as though I had not already identified the same issue, even though I had provided screenshots and a written explanation outlining exactly why it looked that way.
- The phrasing came across as condescending, especially comments like “How do you not see it?”, which does not contribute constructively to resolving the issue.
- He challenged my statement that it was intentional, yet then repeated the same conclusion by saying a developer intentionally implemented it, only adding the assumption that it was done out of laziness. That shifts the discussion from the technical issue to speculation about motive.
- He also suggested that my asking you for specifics was inappropriate. It was not. I was making sure I understood your report precisely so it could be addressed exactly as you described it. I was verifying details so nothing was misrepresented.
If we keep the focus on the actual behavior of the UI and the technical reasoning behind it, this can stay productive.
You’re welcome, I’m glad Mattches pushed the report for you as well. It’s why I wanted to clarify with the screenshot and lines, no confusion nor anything. You weren’t the first to mention this, and it’s been one of those side issues I too have been a little on edge about, just never posted about it since last time it felt “shot down”. (Kinda like how you got it, and I didn’t want that happening again.)
With that, now that the GitHub ticket is out there, hopefully we can fix the alignment because yea, it looks inconsistent compared to every other browser and makes the UI feel…sloppy (without being sloppy of course, it just looks off).