diff --git a/quartz/components/scripts/spa.inline.ts b/quartz/components/scripts/spa.inline.ts
index fc5aa7400..31ae14fcb 100644
--- a/quartz/components/scripts/spa.inline.ts
+++ b/quartz/components/scripts/spa.inline.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ const isLocalUrl = (href: string) => {
 
 const getOpts = ({ target }: Event): { url: URL; scroll?: boolean } | undefined => {
   if (!isElement(target)) return
+  if (target.attributes.getNamedItem("target")?.value === "_blank") return
   const a = target.closest("a")
   if (!a) return
   if ("routerIgnore" in a.dataset) return
diff --git a/quartz/plugins/transformers/links.ts b/quartz/plugins/transformers/links.ts
index e050e00ad..8d16136f3 100644
--- a/quartz/plugins/transformers/links.ts
+++ b/quartz/plugins/transformers/links.ts
@@ -18,11 +18,13 @@ interface Options {
   markdownLinkResolution: TransformOptions["strategy"]
   /** Strips folders from a link so that it looks nice */
   prettyLinks: boolean
+  openLinksInNewTab: boolean
 }
 
 const defaultOptions: Options = {
   markdownLinkResolution: "absolute",
   prettyLinks: true,
+  openLinksInNewTab: false,
 }
 
 export const CrawlLinks: QuartzTransformerPlugin<Partial<Options> | undefined> = (userOpts) => {
@@ -52,6 +54,10 @@ export const CrawlLinks: QuartzTransformerPlugin<Partial<Options> | undefined> =
                 node.properties.className ??= []
                 node.properties.className.push(isAbsoluteUrl(dest) ? "external" : "internal")
 
+                if (opts.openLinksInNewTab) {
+                  node.properties.target = "_blank"
+                }
+
                 // don't process external links or intra-document anchors
                 const isInternal = !(isAbsoluteUrl(dest) || dest.startsWith("#"))
                 if (isInternal) {