These seven Chrome extensions solve real problems with YouTube. They skip sponsor segments, remove distractions, bring back dislike counts, fix clickbait, improve playback controls, sort playlists, and block ads. Every extension in this list was verified on the Chrome Web Store in May 2026. All of them are actively maintained.

SponsorBlock

SponsorBlock skips sponsored segments in YouTube videos automatically. When a creator reads a 60-second ad for a VPN or meal kit, SponsorBlock jumps past it. The data is crowdsourced: users mark sponsor segments, and everyone benefits.

It also handles intro animations, subscription reminders, and non-music sections in music videos. You can configure which categories to skip and which to leave.

Users: 2,000,000. Rating: 4.65/5. Last updated: April 2026. Price: Free.

Pros: Saves real time on every session. Community database is massive and accurate. Highly configurable.

Cons: Occasionally skips a few seconds too early or too late. Relies on community submissions, so obscure videos may not have segments marked.

Unhook

Unhook removes YouTube recommendations, Shorts, trending, comments, and other distractions. You choose exactly what to hide through a simple toggle popup.

If you have ever opened YouTube to watch one specific video and found yourself 40 minutes deep in recommendations, Unhook fixes that. It turns YouTube from a slot machine into a video player.

Users: 1,000,000. Rating: 4.86/5. Last updated: March 2026. Price: Free.

Pros: Extremely high rating for a reason. Fine-grained control over every element. Lightweight.

Cons: If you actually enjoy browsing YouTube recommendations, this removes the thing you like. No way to schedule when distractions are hidden.

Return YouTube Dislike

Return YouTube Dislike brings back the dislike count that YouTube hid in late 2021. It combines archived data from before the removal with real-time estimates based on votes from extension users.

The dislike count is useful. It tells you whether a tutorial actually works, whether a product review is trustworthy, and whether a video is worth your time. YouTube removed it. This extension puts it back.

Users: 6,000,000. Rating: 4.48/5. Last updated: May 2026. Price: Free.

Pros: The most popular extension in this list for a reason. Restores genuinely useful information. Works on every video.

Cons: Counts are estimates, not exact. The more people use the extension, the more accurate it gets, but numbers on smaller videos can be off.

Enhancer for YouTube

Enhancer for YouTube adds a toolbar below the video player with controls for playback speed, quality, volume, screenshot capture, and player size. You can set playback speed anywhere from 0.07x to 16x, choose default quality levels, and use keyboard shortcuts for everything.

The wide player mode expands the video beyond YouTube’s default theater mode. The mini player lets you keep watching while scrolling through comments. The pop-up player detaches the video into a resizable window.

Users: 1,000,000. Rating: 4.66/5. Last updated: March 2026. Price: Free.

Pros: Best playback speed control of any extension. Multiple player modes. Clean interface. Does not collect user data.

Cons: The toolbar can feel crowded if you enable every option. Takes some time to configure to your preferences.

Cleangarden

Cleangarden sorts YouTube playlists by popularity, duration, title, or date published. It opens in a side panel next to YouTube, so you can sort and browse without leaving the page.

If you have a playlist with hundreds of videos and want to find the most watched ones, or sort by duration to fit something into a lunch break, Cleangarden does that. It also shows total playlist duration and video count, and lets you queue up to 10 videos to play in sequence.

Price: Free. No ads. Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese.

Pros: The only extension focused specifically on playlist sorting. Side panel stays open while you browse YouTube. Sorting playlists by views is one of YouTube’s most requested missing features.

Cons: Requires Google sign-in through the YouTube API. Only works with playlists you created, not saved or public playlists. Does not support Watch Later. If you use YouTube primarily for building learning playlists, the sorting is very useful. If you mostly watch other people’s playlists, this will not help.

DeArrow

DeArrow replaces clickbait titles and thumbnails with community-submitted alternatives. Instead of “YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED” with a shocked face thumbnail, you see a straightforward description of what the video actually covers.

It is made by the same developer as SponsorBlock and uses the same crowdsourced approach. When no community submission exists, DeArrow generates a neutral title and picks a random frame from the video as a thumbnail.

Users: 100,000. Rating: 4.32/5. Last updated: April 2026. Price: Free (optional $1 donation for a license key, but the extension works without paying).

Pros: Makes YouTube genuinely calmer. Crowdsourced titles are usually more accurate than the originals. Open source.

Cons: Smaller community than SponsorBlock, so many videos still show original titles. The auto-generated fallback titles are hit or miss. Some users find the random thumbnail frames less informative than the originals.

uBlock Origin Lite

uBlock Origin Lite is the Manifest V3 version of uBlock Origin, rebuilt to work within Chrome’s current extension framework. The original uBlock Origin was removed from the Chrome Web Store when Google completed its transition to Manifest V3 in late 2024. This is the official replacement.

It blocks ads, trackers, and miners using declarative rules that run at the browser level, which means it uses no CPU or memory while filtering. For YouTube specifically, it removes most pre-roll and mid-roll ads.

Users: 17,000,000. Rating: 4.5/5. Last updated: April 2026. Price: Free, open source.

Pros: By far the most popular extension in this list. Efficient, lightweight, and privacy-focused. Blocks most YouTube ads on Chrome.

Cons: Less effective than the original uBlock Origin, which still works on Firefox. YouTube’s more sophisticated ad delivery can sometimes bypass MV3 limitations. If ad blocking on YouTube is your top priority, Firefox with the full uBlock Origin is still the better option.

What about Improve YouTube (ImprovedTube)?

Improve YouTube is an open-source extension with over 170 features and 400,000 users. It has been around since 2012 and was last updated in March 2026.

It is a legitimate option, but it tries to do everything at once. User reviews consistently mention instability after updates, playback bugs, and high CPU usage. If you want a single extension that handles playback, UI tweaks, and distraction blocking, it can work. But for most people, combining Enhancer for YouTube (for playback) with Unhook (for distractions) gives better results with fewer bugs.

How to choose

You do not need all seven. Pick the ones that solve your specific problems.

Watching too many ads? uBlock Origin Lite.

Hate sponsor segments? SponsorBlock.

Keep getting distracted by recommendations? Unhook.

Want to know if a video is worth watching before you click? Return YouTube Dislike and DeArrow.

Need better playback controls? Enhancer for YouTube.

Need to sort a large playlist? Cleangarden.

Start with one or two. Add more if you need them. Every extension in this list is free, maintained, and works with YouTube as of May 2026.