Browser slowdown? Check your extensions installed first

Extensions that run their code after page loads can also affect Chrome, but to a lesser extent

Kate Mills - May 21, 2024

A representational image of Chrome logo. — Unsplash

Extensions that process data before a page is rendered can significantly slow down your browsing experience. Chrome extensions are a great way to enhance Internet browsing, but some of them are slowing down your browser without you even realising it.

A recent study by DebugBear, a web page optimisation service, analysed 5,000 extensions to see how they affect Google Chrome. The results revealed that some extensions can cause long load times on websites, depending on how they process data. VPNs, for example, can cause delays of up to a whole second due to routing traffic through an intermediary server.

On the other hand, extensions that run their code after the page loads can also affect Chrome, but to a lesser extent. Other extensions include Trancy AI Subtitles and Klarna Pay Later. Even if the extension doesn't cause slow load times, it can cause page interactions, making clicking on a website feel sluggish.

Avira Password Manager, for example, adds a 160 millisecond delay when certain content is clicked. While this may not seem like much, it's unclear whether this delay can accumulate, potentially leading to significant performance degradation.

How can you fix a browser slowdown with extensions installed?

Most ad blockers can improve your browsing experience by reducing CPU processing time on advertising websites. uBlock Origin, Malwarebytes, and Privacy Badger are some of the best ad blockers you can add to Chrome. On the other hand, AdBlock Plus takes a lot of time to process, making it one of the worst options.

If you're experiencing slowdowns with extensions in the browser, there's not much you can do to fix the problem, as fixing extensions ultimately falls to the developers who created them.

However, you can uninstall the offending tools or restrict them from being enabled only on certain sites. DebugBear also recommends using its Chrome Extension Performance Lookup tool to find the best, lightweight extensions for the browser.