Best Google Chrome extensions for productivity, security, and performance (2018 edition)

Here are a selection of the best extensions hand-picked from the Chrome Web Store that focus on privacy, performance, and productivity. These extensions allow you to do a variety of things, from taking screenshots and recording video, securing your browser, keeping your passwords safe, taking control of your tabs (and freeing precious RAM!), securing your connection, do more with Gmail, extract the text out of images, and much more.

All these extensions are free and are available to download from the Chrome Web Store.

The free spell checker and grammar checker by Grammarly helps you write clearly and confidently on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, and nearly anywhere else on the Web.

With Grammarly, you can always be sure that your words are mistake-free and say what you mean.

Download.

Take a Speedtest directly from your toolbar to quickly test your internet performance without having to open a new tab.

Download.

Like Ghostery, Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking what pages you look at on the web. If it detects that an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger will automatically block that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser.

Download.

When your tabs are in the OneTab list, you will save up to 95 percent of memory because you will have reduced the number of tabs open in Google Chrome.

Download.

If you're anything like me than you constantly have dozens of browser tabs open at any one time. And mostly you keep them open to remind you of something, not because you're using them at that time.

The Great Suspender will automagically unload each tab while retaining its favicon and title text. A tab can be restored by clicking anywhere on the page when it is needed.

Download.

HTTPS Everywhere is an extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.

HTTPS Everywhere is produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Download.

So much more than a password manager! On top of keeping your passwords safe and secure (and generating new ones for you to prevent reuse) Blur is also a privacy manager as well as a secure payments tool.

Download.

Need a VPN to secure your browser connection? AnchorFree has a tool called Hotspot Shield that's not only free to use, but is ad-free and totally unlimited. I've been using it here for some time now and it does what is says it does, and has been totally reliable.

Download.

This is a great way to keep everything you do on a single page.

See your tasks from 40+ other services on Chrome's new tab page. Asana, Basecamp, GitHub, Gmail, OmniFocus, Trello, Zendesk, and more.

Download.

Here's one for all you OneNote users out there -- a simple way to clip all or part of a web page and send it to OneNote.

Download.

Replace new tab page with a personal dashboard featuring your to-do list, weather, and inspiration.

Download.

Goodbye, bookmarks. Hello, Web Clipper! Clip the web pages you want to keep. Save them in Evernote. Easily find them on any device.

Download.

Another one for OneNote fans -- a quick and simple way to access your OneNote notes direct from the browser.

Download.

Less an ad-blocker and more a tool to control annoying content. uBlock is lightweight and easy on RAM and CPU usage.

Download.

I'm a Gentleman does one thing, and does it well -- it allows for easy downloading of images from a web page. You can press Alt and click to download, drag to download, or download every image n a page with a single click.

Download.

Yeah, I know that Google Chrome comes with a bookmark manager, but it's hardly anything to write home about. In fact, it's so basic that I've declared "bookmark bankruptcy" several times and just deleted them all and started again.

Google Bookmark Manager is the bookmark manager that Google Chrome should come with.

Download.

Know more about contacts (in Gmail, LinkedIn, Twitter, Rapportive and more).

Download.

Screencastify is a simple video screen capture software for Chrome. It is able to record all screen activity inside a tab, including audio.

Download.

I have no problem with well-behaved ads, but I still like to have protection against malware and ads that blare a sound from my speakers!

Adblock Plus is the most popular ad blocker ever, and also supports websites by not blocking unobtrusive ads by default (configurable).

Download.

It shortens URLs. Not much more to say. But it does do it well.

Download.

To go along with a URL shortener, you also need a URL unshortener!

Shortened links can be hiding anywhere. With the Unshorten Chrome extension, any shortened link (such as bit.ly or t.co) you click on will be automatically expanded and analyzed for malware giving you a clear view of where the link is taking you. Unshorten will also automatically remove known tracking cookies from the URL.

Download.

View and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files -- without needing Office installed on your computer.

Once the extension is installed, Office files that you drag into Chrome, open in Gmail, Google Drive, and more, will be opened in Docs, Sheets, and Slides for viewing and editing.

Download.

Found a webpage, image, or quote that you want to save for later? With the Google Keep Chrome Extension, easily save the things you care about to Keep and have them synced across all of the platforms that you use -- including web, Android, iOS, and Wear.

Download.

Browse web pages without distraction. No images, no videos, no animation. It also desaturates colors for a more relaxed experience.

Not only does this extension make page loads faster, it makes information a lot easier to scan.

Very simple, but very effective.

Download.

Working in a busy, noisy environment? Perhaps an ambient noise generator is the solution to creating a more peaceful, productive workspace.

Download.

LastPass is an award-winning password manager that saves your passwords and gives you secure access from every computer and mobile device. Very secure, and very easy to sue

Download.

Get quick and easy access to definitions of words on web pages you visit without having to open a new tab or copy/paste the term into a search box.

Download.

Automatically create website citations in the APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard referencing styles at the click of a button.

Download.

A screen capture extension for all or part of any web webpage. Add annotations, comments, blur sensitive info, and share with one-click uploads.

Download.

Manage your tabs, improve your browsing, and maintain your sanity when you have many tabs open.

Download.

A one-click solution to clean your browser and protect your privacy. With Click&Clean you can:

• Scan your PC for Malware
• Delete your browsing history,
• Remove download history,
• Erase temporary files,
• Clear cookies and Empty cache,
• Delete client-side Web SQL Databases
• Remove Flash Cookies (LSOs)

And much more.

Download.

Automatically closes inactive tabs and makes it easy to get them back

- Automatically closes idle tabs after designated time

- Saves closed tabs, easy to re-open

- Chrome sync saves settings between computers

- Doesn't close pinned tabs

- Lock tabs from closing

Download.

PanicButton makes it easier for you to hide all of your tabs at once just by clicking on a button. They are then saved as bookmarks in a separate folder. Afterwards, the PanicButton turns green and shows you how many tabs are currently hidden.

Download.

Use messengers like WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Skype and many more in one app!

Download.

Everything in Signal is always end-to-end encrypted and painstakingly engineered in order to keep your communication safe.

Download.

The Telegram web-client is a free, fast and secure way to enjoy most of Telegram's features right in your web-browser.

Download.

Session Buddy is a session manager for your browser that allows you to:

• See all open tabs in one place.
• Save open tabs and restore them later. Great for freeing up memory and avoiding tab clutter.
• Recover open tabs after a browser or system crash.
• Organize links by topic and find them when you need them with keyword search.
• Easily consolidate link sets and eliminate duplicates.
• Export link sets in a variety of text formats for use in email messages, documents, spreadsheets, and online posts.
• Create sessions from a list of URLs.

Download.

Wolfram|Alpha is the world's definitive source for expert, computable knowledge across thousands of domains.

Download.

TabCloud allows you to save any window session and restore it at a later date or on another computer. This allows you to sync open tabs between multiple computers.

Download.

Tampermonkey is the most popular userscript manager for Google Chrome.

Download.

Ghostery is an extension that reveals "invisible" web, which consists of trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google, and over 500 other ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers - all companies interested in your activity.

Find out - and more importantly, control - who is tracking your browsing.

Download.

This extension allows you to enforce a 25 minute period of distraction-free work by blocking a whole host of time wasting websites (the list is customisable). As a reward, you get 5 minutes to blow on the websites of your choice before going back to work.

Download.

A sleek to-do app keeps you organized, focused, and more productive. The perfect to-do productivity app is there wherever you need it: on Google Chrome, mobile device, desktop, browser, Gmail, and more.

Download.

Project Naptha automatically applies state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms to every image your browser loads while browsing the web. The result is a seamless and intuitive experience, where you can highlight as well as copy and paste and even edit and translate the text formerly trapped within an image.

A very handy extension indeed.

Download.

Get desktop notifications, read, listen or delete emails without opening Gmail or Inbox by Gmail and easily manage multiple accounts.

Download.

Everyone likes emojis, right? Well, OK, maybe not, but if you do here's a quick and simple way to corral them and get 1-click copy and paste, or auto-input emoji anywhere in Chrome.

Download.

The web is an infinite source of distraction. StayFocusd does what is says on the tin - helps you to stay focused on the task in hand by blocking your favorite internet time-suck websites and services.

Download.

Make Google services such as Gmail a lot easier to use by removing much of the toolbar and navigation clutter. Be warned though that for the advanced features you need to be good with CSS.

Download.

This extension allows your browser to monitor web pages for changes automatically. It can inform you whenever a particular page changes without you having to go and check every time, and it can even show you what the differences are.

I have a long list of websites that I keep an eye on using this tool, and so far it has worked flawlessly.

Download.

Social Fixer enhances your Facebook experience and makes the site easier to use by adding a ton of great functionality. One of its most useful features is allowing you to filter out junk (might be just what you need to get rid of all those political posts swamping your feed right now).

Download.