Must-Have Browser Extensions ​
TL;DR: A small set of free extensions can block ads, protect your privacy, improve YouTube, and save you money while shopping. Pick the ones that match your needs — you don't need all of them.
What Is a Browser Extension? ​
Think of extensions as small apps that live inside your browser. They add new features or improve the ones already there — and most of them are completely free.
You install them in seconds from your browser's extension store, and they sit quietly in your toolbar, ready when you need them.
Note for Brave and Safari users: Brave is built on Chrome and supports all Chrome extensions — anything listed as available on Chrome works on Brave too. Safari, on the other hand, supports a more limited range of extensions. Check the "Available on" line under each extension.
🛡️ Privacy & Ad Blocking ​
Blocking ads and trackers keeps your personal data out of advertisers' hands and makes pages load faster. Trackers are small programmes websites use to follow you around the internet and build an advertising profile about you — they run silently in the background without you noticing. Pick one of the options below — you don't need more than one ad blocker.
⚠️ Heads up: Privacy and ad-blocking extensions are very effective, but they can occasionally cause pages to load incorrectly or break certain features on some websites. If a page isn't working as expected, try temporarily disabling your blocker for that site — there's usually a toggle for this right in the extension's toolbar icon.
uBlock Origin ​
What it does: Blocks ads, trackers, pop-ups, and malicious URLs — all in one lightweight extension.
uBlock Origin is the gold standard for ad blocking. It's free, open-source, and remarkably efficient — it actually uses less memory and CPU than most other blockers. It works quietly in the background and is trusted by over 15 million users.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of uBlock Origin icon in toolbar with tracker count]
Ghostery Privacy Ad Blocker ​
What it does: Blocks ads and trackers, removes cookie pop-ups, and shows you exactly which trackers are running on any page.
Ghostery is a great all-in-one privacy tool. What makes it stand out is the transparency — it tells you precisely which companies are tracking you on every site you visit. It also automatically dismisses those cookie consent banners. It's open-source and free to use.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Safari
- [Screenshot of Ghostery panel showing tracker details on a webpage]
Adblock Plus ​
What it does: Blocks ads across websites and YouTube.
Adblock Plus is one of the oldest and most widely used ad blockers, with over 500 million downloads. It's easy to use and effective. One thing to know: by default, it allows some "acceptable ads" (non-intrusive ones) through. You can turn this off in the settings if you prefer to block everything.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of Adblock Plus settings panel]
Privacy Badger ​
What it does: Automatically learns to block hidden trackers — without a pre-set blocklist.
Made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a leading digital rights non-profit, Privacy Badger takes a different approach: instead of using a fixed list of blocked sites, it watches for trackers that follow you across multiple websites and blocks them automatically. It's a great complement to an ad blocker.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of Privacy Badger's slider controls for different trackers]
🍪 Cookie Banners ​
I don't care about cookies ​
What it does: Makes cookie consent banners disappear automatically.
You know those "Accept cookies / Manage preferences" pop-ups that appear on almost every website? This extension dismisses them for you — either by hiding them or by automatically clicking the appropriate option. No more interruptions.
⚠️ Important privacy note: This extension accepts cookies on your behalf to make the banners disappear. Only use this if you already have a privacy tool in place — such as uBlock Origin, Ghostery, or Brave's built-in tracker blocking. Without one of those, accepting cookies means more tracking, not less.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of a webpage before and after the cookie banner is removed]
📺 YouTube ​
SponsorBlock for YouTube ​
What it does: Automatically skips sponsored segments, subscription begging, intros, and outros in YouTube videos.
YouTube creators often include 30–90 second sponsorship pitches in their videos. SponsorBlock uses a crowdsourced database — built by volunteers who mark these segments — to skip right over them. It's completely free and open-source.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of SponsorBlock highlighting a skipped segment in a YouTube video's progress bar]
Enhancer for YouTube™ ​
What it does: Adds a full suite of controls to YouTube — playback speed, quality defaults, dark mode, distraction blocking, and much more.
If you spend a lot of time on YouTube, this extension gives you back control. You can set a default playback speed, skip to specific parts of a video, block distracting recommendations and end screens, enable cinema mode, or take screenshots of any frame. Highly customisable.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of Enhancer for YouTube controls overlaid on the player]
🛒 Shopping ​
Keepa – Amazon Price Tracker ​
What it does: Shows the full price history of any Amazon product and alerts you when a price drops.
Ever bought something on Amazon only to find it was cheaper last week? Keepa adds a price history chart directly to every Amazon product page, so you can see whether the current price is actually a good deal — or you're being nudged by a fake "sale". You can also set price alerts for products you're watching.
No account needed to get started.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of a Keepa price history chart embedded on an Amazon product page]
📖 Reading ​
Wikiwand – Elevate Wikipedia with AI ​
What it does: Replaces Wikipedia's standard layout with a cleaner, faster reading experience — with added AI features like timelines, top questions, and an in-page chat.
Wikipedia is invaluable, but the layout can feel dated and cluttered. Wikiwand keeps all the same content but presents it with better typography, a fixed table of contents, larger images, and AI-powered tools to help you understand articles faster. You can still access the original Wikipedia page at any time.
- Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave (not Safari)
- [Screenshot of a Wikipedia article displayed in the Wikiwand interface]
How to Install an Extension ​
Installing an extension only takes a moment:
- Open your browser and go to its extension store:
- Chrome & Edge: Chrome Web Store
- Firefox: Firefox Add-ons
- Safari: App Store on your Mac or iPhone
- Search for the extension by name.
- Click "Add to [Browser]" or "Get".
- Confirm any permissions it asks for.
That's it! The extension icon will appear in your toolbar.
[Screenshot of a browser toolbar showing several extension icons]
A Word of Caution ​
Extensions are generally safe, but always install from the official store and stick to ones with plenty of reviews. If an extension asks for permissions that seem excessive for what it does — skip it. When in doubt, a quick web search for the extension name will show you whether it's trustworthy.