Your browser is your digital command center, and Chrome extensions are the tools that give you more control, customize your experience, and make your life easier. They can transform a simple browsing session into a productivity powerhouse, an entertainment hub, or a resource to learn anything. In this article, we will guide you in discovering the best Chrome extensions you can currently find and install right away.
The best Chrome extensions at a glance
| Extension | Category | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | Productivity | AI writing assistance |
| Dark Reader | Accessibility | Customizable dark mode for all websites |
| Notion Web Clipper | Productivity | Save web pages to your Notion workspace |
| StayFocusd | Productivity | Block distracting websites |
| Proton VPN | Security | Secure, private, and easy-to-use VPN |
| Shazam | Music | Instantly identify songs playing in your browser |
| Smart Mute | Browsing | Only one tab plays audio at a time |
| Checker Plus for Google Calendar | Productivity | Manage Google Calendar directly in your browser |
| Loom | Communication | Record and share screen recordings |
| OneTab | Productivity | Reduces tab overload |
| Momentum | Productivity | Inspiring new tab page with task management |
| Todoist | Productivity | Manage Todoist tasks from your browser |
| Google Translate | Languages | Easy translation of words and web pages |
| Speechify | Accessibility | Text-to-speech reader |
| Sider | AI Assistance | ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in your sidebar |
| Honey | Shopping | Automatically apply coupons and discounts |
| Productivity | Save articles and videos for later | |
| Toucan | Language learning | Learn a new language while browsing |
| Just Read | Reading | Distraction-free reading experience |
| Google Keep | Productivity | Capture ideas, notes, and web pages |
How did we choose these Chrome extensions?
We meticulously evaluated each extension based on these factors:
- Ease of use: An excellent extension should be intuitive and user-friendly, seamlessly integrating into your browsing experience without requiring a computer science degree to operate.
- Problem-solving: Does the extension genuinely solve a problem or fulfill a need? We prioritized those that offer practical solutions and tangible benefits, not just gimmicks.
- Feature set: We looked for extensions with a robust and versatile feature set that caters to a variety of needs and use cases and offers flexibility and customization options.
- Uniqueness: Does the extension offer something genuinely unique and innovative? We selected those that stand out from the crowd by providing novel features or approaching problems in a new way.
- Performance: A laggy browser is a frustrating browser. We favored lightweight and efficient extensions that minimize their impact on your computer’s resources and keep your browsing experience smooth.
- Security: Protecting your online security is non-negotiable. We prioritized extensions from reputable developers with a strong track record of security and privacy, ensuring your data stays safe.
- Updates and support: We favored extensions that are actively maintained with regular updates, bug fixes, and responsive support from the developers.
- Ratings and reviews: We considered the collective wisdom of the user community and paid close attention to ratings and reviews to gauge real-world experiences and satisfaction.
1. Grammarly
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: AI writing assistance
Grammarly is your all-in-one writing assistant. It catches grammar and spelling errors, but it also goes deeper, offering real-time suggestions to improve clarity, conciseness, and overall style. You can think of it as a tireless editor who’s always ready, whether crafting a professional email, writing an essay, or simply posting a comment on social media. It even helps you fine-tune your tone to ensure your message comes across exactly as intended. Advanced features offer vocabulary enhancements and fluency suggestions for those who want to take their writing to the next level.
2. Dark Reader
📌 Category: Accessibility
⭐ Highlight: Customizable dark mode for all websites
Tired of bright, glaring websites? Dark Reader transforms any page into a soothing dark theme, making it easier on your eyes, especially at night. It inverts bright colors and adjusts contrast for optimal readability. But it’s not just a simple on/off switch; you can customize the darkness, contrast, sepia filter, and font settings to create your perfect visual experience. It’s a great way to reduce eye strain and improve browsing comfort, day or night.
3. Notion Web Clipper
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Save web pages, articles, and research to your Notion workspace
Notion Web Clipper seamlessly connects your browser to your Notion workspace, allowing you to clip important information with a single click. Did you find an article you want to read later? Saving research for a project? Want to save pictures of kittens? Just hit the Notion button, and the page will be instantly captured. You can then organize your clippings into Notion pages, add tags, share with collaborators, and seamlessly integrate them into your workflow.
It’s also worth noting that you can use 2sync to connect your Notion workspace with other tools like Google Calendar, Google Tasks, and Todoist to improve your organization further.
4. StayFocusd
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Block distracting websites
If you constantly get sidetracked by social media, news sites, or online games, this extension is your new best friend. It allows you to block or limit your time on specific websites, helping you stay focused on work, studies, or any task that requires your undivided attention. You can customize the blocking schedule, set daily time limits, and even activate the “Nuclear Option” for a truly distraction-free period. It’s a powerful tool for anyone who struggles with procrastination and wants to reclaim their online focus.
👉 Learn more: 8 Best Pomodoro Apps (for Free!)
5. Proton VPN
📌 Category: Security
⭐ Highlight: Easy-to-use, secure, and private VPN
Proton VPN offers a free and secure way to encrypt your internet connection and mask your IP address. This helps protect your online activity from prying eyes, whether it’s your internet service provider, advertisers, or malicious actors. With a single click, you can browse anonymously, access geo-blocked content, and enjoy peace of mind knowing your data is safe. For those who need advanced features, premium plans offer access to a broader range of servers, faster speeds, and additional security measures like Secure Core protection.
6. Shazam
📌 Category: Music
⭐ Highlight: Instantly identify songs playing in your browser
Never be left wondering “what song is this?” again. With the Shazam extension, you can identify music playing in any browser tab with just one click. Whether watching a YouTube video, browsing a website with background music, or even playing a game, Shazam can recognize the song and provide you with artist information, lyrics, and related videos. It even syncs with your Apple Music account to easily add discovered tracks to your library.
7. Smart Mute
📌 Category: Browsing
⭐ Highlight: Only one tab playing audio
Smart Mute is a simple yet effective Chrome extension that automatically mutes tabs in the background, ensuring that only the active tab plays audio. It avoids the chaos of competing sounds, allowing you to focus on the content you’re actually engaging with. You can also create whitelists for sites where you always want audio to play and blacklists for those that you prefer to keep silent.
8. Checker Plus for Google Calendar
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Manage your Google Calendar directly in your browser
This extension provides quick access to your Google Calendar’s schedule and upcoming events right in your browser. You can view your agenda, receive desktop notifications for meetings, and even snooze or reschedule events with a single click. It eliminates the need to constantly switch between tabs or open a separate calendar app.
For those who use Notion, this extension complements the Notion Web Clipper (also featured in this article) perfectly. You can connect your Google Calendar and Tasks to Notion to centralize your productivity and task management.
9. Loom
📌 Category: Communication
⭐ Highlight: Record and share screen recordings
Loom makes it incredibly easy to create quick videos of your screen, whether you’re explaining a concept, providing feedback, or giving a presentation. With one click, you can record your screen, webcam, or both and instantly get a shareable link. Loom also offers features like time-stamped comments and emoji reactions to enhance collaboration and engagement. Plus, you can organize your recordings in your Loom library and download them offline.
10. OneTab
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Reduces tab overload
If your browser is constantly cluttered with dozens of open tabs, OneTab can help you. With a single click, it consolidates all your open tabs into a neat list, freeing up memory and reducing browser clutter. You can then restore individual tabs or the entire list as needed. This improves your browser’s performance and helps you stay organized and focused. It’s easily one of the best Chrome extensions you can get.
11. Momentum
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Transforms your new tab page into an inspiring workspace
Momentum replaces your new tab page with a beautiful photo, an inspiring quote, and a simple to-do list, creating a more mindful and focused browsing experience. It’s a welcome change from the usual clutter of bookmarks and distractions. Momentum also includes features like a weather widget, customizable links to your favorite websites, and a “Focus Mode” to help you stay on track.
12. Todoist
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Manage your Todoist tasks in your browser
Todoist for Chrome brings the power of this popular task management app directly to your browser. You can quickly add tasks, organize your to-do list, and check off completed items without switching between apps or windows. It’s a fantastic way to stay on your tasks while browsing the web. The extension also allows you to add websites as tasks, making it easy to save articles for later reading or keep track of important web pages. You can also sync Todoist with Notion using 2sync.
13. Google Translate
📌 Category: Languages
⭐ Highlight: Easy translation of words and pages
The Google Translate extension makes understanding web pages in different languages easy. Simply highlight or right-click on a section of text and click the Translate icon to see it in your preferred language. You can also translate entire pages with a single click, opening up a world of information that might otherwise be inaccessible.
14. Speechify
📌 Category: Accessibility
⭐ Highlight: Text-to-speech reader
Speechify lets you listen to articles, emails, PDFs, and even Google Docs. This is incredibly helpful for those with dyslexia, visual impairments, or anyone who simply prefers to consume information through listening. Speechify boasts natural-sounding voices in multiple languages and offers adjustable playback speed to customize your listening experience.
15. Sider
📌 Category: AI assistance
⭐ Highlight: ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini sidebar
Sider gives you access to various powerful language models, including ChatGPT, GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini, all within a convenient sidebar. You can get AI assistance with tasks like writing, researching, translating, and summarizing without leaving your current tab. Sider also offers unique features like AI chat groups, where you can compare responses from different models, and a prompt library to save and reuse your favorite prompts.
16. Honey
📌 Category: Shopping
⭐ Highlight: Automatically find and apply coupons and discounts
Honey automatically searches for and applies coupon codes at checkout, saving you time and money. It supports a vast network of online retailers, so you can enjoy discounts on everything from clothes and electronics to travel and food delivery. Honey also offers cash-back rewards and price-tracking features, helping you maximize your savings and make informed purchasing decisions. It’s a simple and effective way to keep more money in your wallet while shopping online.
17. Pocket
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Save articles, videos, and other web content
Whenever you find something interesting online that you don’t have time to read or watch right away, you can simply save it to Pocket with one click. The extension captures the content and makes it available across all your devices in a clean, distraction-free reading environment. This allows you to catch up on your saved articles and videos whenever you have free time, even offline. Pocket is a great way to curate your online reading list and ensure you never miss out on interesting content.
18. Toucan
📌 Category: Language learning
⭐ Highlight: Learn a new language passively while browsing
Toucan integrates language learning into everyday browsing. As you visit websites, Toucan subtly translates a few words and phrases on each page, gradually introducing you to new vocabulary in context. This immersive approach helps you naturally absorb the language without the need for dedicated study sessions. Toucan supports a variety of languages and offers interactive games to reinforce your learning.
19. Just Read
📌 Category: Reading
⭐ Highlight: Clean, distraction-free reading experience
Just Read strips away all the clutter from web pages, leaving only the essential text and images. No more annoying ads, sidebars, or pop-ups interrupting your focus. This extension allows you to customize the reading experience with different themes, fonts, and text sizes, creating a personalized and comfortable environment for absorbing information. It’s a great tool for anyone who wants to focus on the content without distractions, especially for reading long articles or blog posts.
20. Google Keep
📌 Category: Productivity
⭐ Highlight: Capture ideas, notes, and web pages
Google Keep is a simple and versatile note-taking tool, and its Chrome extension makes it even more powerful. With a single click, you can save web pages, images, and text snippets directly to Keep, creating a centralized repository for your ideas and inspiration. You can also add notes to your saved content, organize them with labels, and access them from any device. It’s a great way to keep track of your thoughts, research, and to-dos, all within a user-friendly interface.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Chrome extensions can significantly enhance your browsing experience by boosting productivity, improving accessibility, and adding convenience to everyday tasks. Whether you’re looking to improve your writing, stay focused, manage your tasks, or just make browsing more enjoyable, the extensions in this list offer something for everyone.
