Build a Chrome Extension That People Actually Use

I've shipped Chrome extensions with 2,000+ combined users. Tab Time Tracker has 1,000+ users. Lichess Analysis has 324 users.

They're not massive hits. But they have real, active users who rely on them daily. Most Chrome extensions never get past 10 installs. Here's what I learned about building ones people actually keep.

The Idea Matters More Than the Code

Both of my successful extensions solve one specific, painful problem:

Tab Time Tracker: "I waste hours browsing but I don't know where the time goes." The extension tracks how long you spend on each URL. That's it. One feature. One clear problem.

Lichess Analysis: "Chess.com charges for game analysis. Lichess does it for free. But I have to manually copy-paste FEN/PGN between sites." The extension adds a button to Chess.com that opens your game in Lichess. One click. Problem solved.

Notice what these have in common:

The problem exists before the extension does. I didn't create demand. I found people already frustrated and gave them a button.
The solution is one action. Not a dashboard. Not a settings page. One click, problem solved.
The user can explain it in one sentence. "It tracks my browsing time" or "It lets me analyze Chess.com games on Lichess for free."

If you can't explain your extension in one sentence, it's probably too complex.

How to Find Extension Ideas

Stop brainstorming. Start noticing friction.

Watch yourself. For one week, every time you do something repetitive in the browser, write it down. Copy-pasting between tabs. Reformatting text. Checking the same three sites. Any manual task you do more than twice a day is an extension idea.

Read complaints. Go to Reddit, Twitter, and forums for tools people use daily (Notion, Gmail, Slack, GitHub, LinkedIn). Search for "I wish" or "annoying" or "workaround." People are literally telling you what to build.

Look at existing extensions with bad reviews. Find extensions with good concepts but poor execution. Sort reviews by "most recent" and read the 1-star and 2-star reviews. If users are saying "this would be great if it just did X," build the version that does X.

Browse the Chrome Web Store "New" section. See what people are shipping. If something has traction but looks rough, you can build a better version.

Keep It Stupid Simple

The biggest mistake I see: developers build extension dashboards with charts, settings pages, export features, and onboarding flows before they have a single user.

My first version of Tab Time Tracker was 47 lines of JavaScript. It stored time data in chrome.storage.local and displayed it in a popup. No charts. No export. No settings.

I shipped that version, got my first 50 users, read their feedback, and then added features they actually asked for.

Build the minimum that solves the problem. Ship it. Wait for feedback. Then iterate.

Here's a practical starting point:

// manifest.json - v3, the current standard
{
  "manifest_version": 3,
  "name": "Your Extension",
  "version": "1.0",
  "description": "One sentence explaining what it does.",
  "permissions": ["storage", "activeTab"],
  "action": {
    "default_popup": "popup.html"
  }
}

Start with manifest_version: 3. Don't use v2. Google is deprecating it, and you'll have to migrate later anyway.

Only request the permissions you actually need. Users see the permission list before installing. "permissions": ["tabs", "history", "bookmarks", "webNavigation"] scares people away. Start with storage and activeTab. Add more only when a feature requires it.

Getting Your First Users

The Chrome Web Store is not a discovery platform. Nobody browses it. You need to bring your own traffic.

What worked for me:

Reddit. Find the subreddit where your target users hang out. For Lichess Analysis, that was r/chess and r/lichess. Don't spam links. Write a genuine post about the problem you solved, mention you built an extension, and link it. If the problem is real, people will install.
Product Hunt. Free to list. Gets you 50-200 installs on launch day if your product is clear and the screenshots are good.
SEO in the Chrome Web Store listing. Your extension title and description are searchable. Include the keywords people would actually type. "Free Chess.com analysis" ranks for people searching exactly that.
GitHub. Open-source the extension (or at least link to a repo). Developers discover extensions through GitHub stars and forks.

What didn't work: Twitter threads with zero followers. Cold DMs. Paying for ads to a free Chrome extension.

The Things That Kill Extensions

Permissions creep. Every Chrome update, Google tightens permissions. If you requested broad permissions you don't need, your extension will get flagged for review or removed. Only request what you use.

Manifest v2. Google has been deprecating v2 for years. If you build on v2 now, you'll have to rewrite. Start with v3.

No error handling. Extensions run in weird contexts. The DOM might not be ready. The tab might be a chrome:// URL where content scripts can't run. A try-catch around your core logic saves you from 90% of 1-star reviews.

Ignoring reviews. Chrome Web Store reviews are your only feedback channel. A 1-star review saying "doesn't work on Firefox" is useless. A 3-star review saying "love it but wish it showed weekly totals" is a feature request from a real user. Read every review.

The Distribution Insight

Here's the thing most developers miss about Chrome extensions: distribution matters more than features.

Tab Time Tracker is not the best time tracking extension. There are probably 50 better ones. But it has 1,000+ users because I posted it in the right places at the right time, the Store listing has the right keywords, and it solves one problem clearly enough that people install it on the first visit.

You don't need to build the most feature-rich extension. You need to build one that solves a real problem and put it in front of the people who have that problem.

The code is the easy part. Getting the first 100 installs is the hard part.

Start This Weekend

Pick one repetitive thing you do in the browser
Build a 50-line extension that automates it
Ship it to the Chrome Web Store (review takes 1-3 days)
Post it on one relevant subreddit
Read the feedback and iterate

The whole thing can be done in a weekend. Most extensions that reach 1,000 users started exactly this way.

I'm Anas. I build Chrome extensions, SaaS products, and web scrapers. Follow me for more on building small, profitable software.