Best Chrome Extensions You Should Still Use Today Browsers are powerful, but Chrome extensions are what really turn them into a productivity machine.

From password managers and ad blockers to AI writing tools and design helpers, the right extensions can save you time, protect your privacy, and even help you make smarter shopping decisions.

This guide is a cleaned-up, structured version of Brett’s “super-sized” Chrome extension video — focused only on the extensions that are still worth using today.

💡 Note: Most of these extensions also work with other Chromium-based browsers like Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera, and many are available on Firefox too.

Why extensions still matter

Browsers are increasingly feature-rich, but extensions let you tailor the experience to exactly how you work. They can:

• Add missing features (e.g., better screenshot tools or reader modes).
• Protect privacy beyond built-in options.
• Speed up workflows (text suggestions, one-click password fill).
• Help creators and developers inspect web design, fonts, colors.
• Save money and track shopping deals.

That said: use extensions selectively. Each one adds potential surface area for privacy or performance impact — so pick the ones you’ll actually use and manage them with an extension manager.

Top productivity & writing helpers – 50+ Best Chrome Extensions You Should Still Use Today

• Compose AI
  • An AI writing assistant that works anywhere you type:
  • Autocompletes sentences.
  • Suggests alternative phrasing.
  • Can draft entire emails from a short prompt.
  • Great for people who write a lot of emails, messages, or documents and want to speed things up.
• Grammarly
  • Still one of the best grammar extensions:
  • Catches spelling, punctuation, and tone issues.
  • Works in Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, Facebook and many text fields.
  • Underlines errors in red, suggests fixes with one click.
  • If you want to avoid embarrassing mistakes, Grammarly is basically a must.
• QuillBot
  • A paraphrasing tool that helps you:
  • Rewrite sentences in different tones.
  • Improve clarity and flow.
  • Fix grammar errors.
  • Helpful for students, bloggers, and anyone who needs to rephrase content without changing the core meaning.
• Wordtune
  • Another AI-powered writing assistant:
  • Offers multiple alternative rewrites for a sentence.
  • Focuses on making your writing clearer and more engaging.
  • Works well for emails, posts, and long-form content.
  • Perfect when you know what you want to say, but not how to say it.
• Merlin — GPT-based assistant for summarizing YouTube, drafting emails, and chatting with docs/PDFs.
• Loom
  • Loom makes recording your screen + webcam incredibly simple:
  • One-click recording.
  • Great for sending quick walkthroughs, feedback, or tutorials.
  • Automatically stores videos online and gives you shareable links.
  • Ideal for remote teams, clients, or teaching.
• Awesome Screen Recorder & Screenshot
  • A powerful tool for:
  • Full-page and visible-area screenshots.
  • Markup with pens, highlighters, and shapes.
  • Saving as image/PDF or copying to clipboard.
  • Recording screen + audio (with time and resolution limits on the free plan).
• Just Read — creates a distraction-free reading mode (removes ads/popup clutter).

Session Buddy / OneTab

• A session manager + tab organizer:
• Save sets of open tabs as “sessions” (e.g., “PC Build Research”).
• Reopen these tab groups later with one click.
• Great for organizing work by project or topic.
• If you live with 50+ tabs open, this will save your sanity.

Security & privacy

• Bitwarden — open-source password manager with strong free features and cross-device syncing.
• Dashlane — another strong password manager alternative with easy setup and password generation.
• DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials — blocks trackers and upgrades site privacy; swaps default search to DDG.
• Privacy Badger — EFF tool that automatically blocks trackers based on behavior.
• uBlock Origin (Light) — lightweight ad and tracker blocker alternative; configurable filtering modes.
• Web of Trust (WOT) — community ratings for website trustworthiness (use cautiously, check reviews).

Save to Google Drive — quick save web images/links/files to Google Drive for later.

Shopping & money saving

• CouponBirds — auto search coupon codes at checkout (Honey alternative).
• Keepa / Camelizer (CamelCamelCamel) — Amazon price history and price alerts to know if a deal is real.
• Octoop — price comparison across retailers and in-stock alerts.
• Price trackers & alerts — use Keepa/Camelizer/Octoop in combination to make smarter purchases.

Research, academics & knowledge work

• Google Scholar Button — quick access to paper search, citations (APA/MLA/etc.).
• Sci-pace Copilot — explain jargon, acronyms, and dense research passages (great for technical reading).
• Wayback Machine — see historical snapshots of websites and recover content no longer live.
• WikiWand — cleaner, navigable Wikipedia layout with table of contents and dark mode.

SEO, keyword & marketing tools

• Keyword Surfer — free keyword ideas and estimated search volumes in Google results (handy for quick on-the-fly research).
• Hunter — find contact emails and roles from company websites — useful for outreach and sales.

Design & developer helpers

• ColorZilla — advanced eyedropper to sample colors from any web page and keep a color history.
• Fonts Ninja / WhatFont — identify fonts and CSS properties on any site; useful for designers.
• Wappalyzer (Wapalizer in the demo) — detect technologies powering a site (analytics, frameworks, CMS).
• Tampermonkey — user script manager (power users only — be careful with scripts).
• WhatFont / Fonts Ninja — inspect font family, size, weight and download/buy if available.

Image & media utilities

• TinEye / TinyEyes — reverse image search to find sources or higher resolution versions.
• Image Eye — list and bulk-download all images from a page with filter options.
• Turn Off The Lights — dims the page when watching videos to create a “theater” experience.
• Volume Master — increase tab audio volume up to ~600% (use cautiously to avoid speaker damage).

Fun & focus breaks

• Boxel Rebound / Boxil Rebound — quick jumping platformer for short breaks.
• Ice Dodo and Arcade Classics — browser games like Pac-Man, Tetris, Space Invaders for quick fun.
• Homie — customizable start page with live wallpapers, widgets, notes, and bookmarks.

Accessibility & browsing comfort

• Dark Reader — force a dark theme on sites for easier nighttime reading, with brightness/contrast controls.
• Smooth Scroll — makes scrolling feel more natural and fluid.
• Stylish — apply user stylesheets to theme websites (change YouTube layout, etc.).

Utilities & miscellaneous (super useful)

• Block Site — block distracting or undesirable sites, filter words, set password protection for blocks.
• Print Friendly & PDF — remove junk for printing or saving clean PDFs.
• WhatFont / Fonts Ninja — identify fonts in use.
• TinEye (Tenni) — best for reverse image provenance.
• Weapilizer / Wappalyzer — technology stack detection.
• Save to Google Drive — save content for later reference.
• Web of Trust — community site reputation ratings.

Installation & management tips

• Limit what you install. Only add extensions you will use regularly.
• Use an extension manager. Keep unused extensions disabled with Extensity or native Chrome controls to reduce resource use.
• Check permissions. Ensure an extension’s requested permissions make sense for its functionality (e.g., password managers need access to fill fields; coupon extensions should not require universal data access unless necessary).
• Keep passwords safe. Use a reputable password manager (Bitwarden or Dashlane) rather than storing passwords in plain browser storage.
• Update & review. Periodically review installed extensions and remove ones you no longer need. Also read recent reviews — extension behavior can change over time.

Privacy & security caution

Extensions can access web page content. That’s powerful but risky. Only install extensions from reputable sources, check the developer and reviews, and avoid granting unnecessary permissions. For highly sensitive workflows (banking, private docs), consider disabling all nonessential extensions.

Final thoughts

Brett’s curated collection highlights how extensions make the browser more capable and tailored to your workflow — whether you’re a student, marketer, developer, or casual browser. Pick a few from each category that solve real problems for you, manage them sensibly with Extensity or Chrome’s built-in manager, and enjoy a cleaner, faster, more productive browsing experience.