How to see which extensions slow down Google Chrome

Chrome extensions are meant to help improve your browsing experience, but that’s not always true. Here’s how you can see which extensions are slowing down Google Chrome.

Google Chrome is one of the best web browsers for surfing the internet; however, it’s not the most feature-rich. This is where various Chrome extensions come in handy. These software plugins are designed to offer additional features and improve productivity.

A study by DebugBear which analysed over 5000 commonly used Chrome extensions, concluded that several extensions negatively impact page load time and user experience. These extensions include VPNs, coupon finders, AI tools, shopping assistants, Anti-viruses, and more.

How to find extensions that slow down Google Chrome

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Google Chrome has a built-in system to help identify which extensions are using more resources and causing the browser to slow down. To identify these culprits, you need to access Chrome’s Task Manager, which is buried deep under various options.   

• Click on the three-dot menu on the top right.
• Scroll down and locate More Tools.
• Click Task Manager.
• A new window shows all the tabs, extensions, and other services running on the browser.
• You can click on Memory Footprint or CPU to sort the list based on the Memory or CPU usage.
• Select the tab and click End Process at the bottom right of the window to kill a resource-hungry tab or extension.

You can follow the steps on Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers like Brave as well. 

How to delete extensions from Google Chrome

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Once you’ve identified the extensions that need to be deleted, follow the below process.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the right side of the browser. 
• Scroll down to Extensions and click it.
• Select Manage Extensions.
• Click Remove to delete the extension.

You can also temporarily turn off the extension by clicking on the toggle on the right. However, it may continue to run in the background and read website data, thus defeating the purpose.

How do these extensions impact Chrome?

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Extensions are required to perform various actions before rendering the page or after it is loaded. For example, a VPN is necessary to anonymize your browsing location. Similarly, a coupon hunter extension must quickly find deals or coupons relevant to the products displayed on the page. 

According to the experts at DebugBear, extensions that process data before a web page is rendered impact the page’s load time more than others that process data after the page is loaded.

VPNs, for example, are designed to “route traffic through an intermediary server” before it pushes out the content. This is why there could be a significant delay before you see the content on the page. Moreover, the report says extensions that start processing after the webpage is loaded may add up to 1.3 seconds of processing time.

Conversely, some extensions, including ad blockers, can help block tracking cookies, advertisements, and more, resulting in a faster load time.

So, while extensions may benefit specific use cases, installing too many extensions may impact your browsing experience. This is why monitoring their performance and deleting unwanted extensions is important.