Short answer: most people only need a few extensions, one for each job. These are good first picks, each from its official Chrome Web Store listing and each checked live in the store when this page was written. Install them in Chrome on a computer.
- Block ads: uBlock Origin Lite, from Raymond Hill. Its listing says it blocks ads and trackers as soon as it is installed.
- Passwords: Bitwarden Password Manager, from Bitwarden Inc. It creates a strong, different password for each account and keeps them in an encrypted vault.
- Stop trackers: Privacy Badger, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It learns which hidden trackers follow you from site to site and blocks them.
- Write without mistakes: Grammarly, which checks grammar, clarity and tone as you type in Gmail, Google Docs and many other sites.
- Too many tabs: OneTab, which turns all your open tabs into one list you can reopen later, one at a time or all at once.
- Dark mode on every site: Dark Reader, which makes dark versions of websites. You can adjust brightness and contrast, or turn it off for one site.
- Translate a few words: Google Translate, from Google. Highlight or right-click text to translate it. To translate a whole page you do not need it: its listing says page translation is now built into Chrome.
- Save things for later: Google Keep Chrome Extension, from Google. It saves links, text and images to Google Keep, which syncs to your phone.
Every pick above shows the Web Store’s Featured badge. Google says badges are a signal of quality and trust on vetted items and that developers cannot pay for them.
Want more in one area?
Each of these pages goes deeper on one need:
- Productivity extensions: tasks, focus, notes, tabs and email.
- Privacy and security extensions: tracker blockers, and the safety settings Chrome already has.
- Choosing extensions you can trust: a small, low-risk set for work, and how to limit what each extension can see.
- Ad blockers, password managers and developer tools.
You may not need an extension
Chrome already does some jobs people install extensions for:
- Saving passwords: Chrome has its own Google Password Manager, which offers to save a password when you enter a new one on a site.
- Grouping tabs: right-click a tab and select Add tab to group (Google’s help on tabs).
- Secure connections: turn on Always use secure connections under Settings > Privacy and security > Security. Chrome then switches sites to HTTPS and warns you before opening a site that does not support it. The EFF, which made the old HTTPS Everywhere extension, announced in 2021 that it was retiring it, so you do not need it.
How to install an extension
These steps follow Google’s Chrome Web Store help:
- Open the extension’s store link in Chrome on your computer.
- Select Add to Chrome.
- If Chrome lists permissions the extension needs, read them, and select Add extension only if you trust it.
- To use it, select its icon to the right of the address bar. If you do not see it, select the Extensions icon (the puzzle piece) and pin it.
You cannot add extensions in Incognito mode or as a guest. On a work or school computer, your organization might block some extensions. If you open a store listing on your phone, the button says Add to Desktop, and the extension is installed the next time you open Chrome on your computer while signed in to the same Google Account.
Check, turn off or remove extensions
Paste this into the address bar to see everything you have installed:
chrome://extensions
Or open the Chrome menu (three dots) and select Extensions > Manage extensions. Use the switch to turn an extension off, or select Remove to uninstall it. Remove anything you no longer use, since some extensions can read and change data on the sites you visit.
Older extensions built for Manifest V2 no longer run in Chrome, and Google says all remaining Manifest V2 extensions were removed from the Chrome Web Store on August 31, 2026. If an old favorite stopped working, that is the likely reason; look for a replacement above. If an extension misbehaves, see fixing extension problems.