Chrome extension

Use less data, without giving any away

Data Saver blocks ads, trackers, images and autoplaying video before they download — not after. Built for anyone on a limited, capped, prepaid, slow or metered connection. Free, open source, and it collects nothing.

What it does

• Blocks ads and trackers using a maintained blocklist evaluated by Chrome itself. Nothing is sent anywhere to decide what to block.
• Blocks images, loading pages as text only. Each blocked picture leaves a faint placeholder; hover it and press Load image to fetch just that one.
• Stops video and audio, including the adaptive streaming requests most video sites use — not just visible <video> tags.
• Shows what you saved — the exact number of blocked requests, with an estimate of the data that saved beside it.

It does not break your browsing

That is the usual worry, and it is a fair one. Three things address it:

• Video, call, screen-sharing and remote-desktop sites ship unblocked. You already know video uses data, and a meeting or a remote-support session is the last thing that should half-work.
• Image searches, maps and captchas load in full. On those pages the pictures are the point.
• One tap stops blocking on any site — the first control in the panel, or Alt+Shift+D. The toolbar icon shows OFF where you have done it.
• Per-site rules. Block ads on a site but let its images through, or the reverse.

What it will not claim

Most tools in this category quote you a percentage saved. This one does not, because it cannot honestly measure one: Chrome tells an extension that a request was blocked, but never how many bytes it would have transferred. The popup shows you the exact count of what was stopped and labels the byte figure as the estimate it is.

Common questions

How do I save mobile data in Chrome now that Lite mode is gone?

Google retired its own Data Saver extension and later switched off Lite mode, so Chrome no longer has a setting for this. An extension like this one puts the control back: it stops ads, images and autoplaying video at the network layer, so those bytes are never downloaded.

Does it work on my phone?

Not in Chrome for Android, which does not run extensions. It works in Chrome on a laptop or desktop, including one tethered to a phone hotspot, which is often where a mobile allowance disappears fastest.

How much data will it save?

It depends on the sites you visit. Image- and ad-heavy news pages save the most. The popup shows your own exact count of blocked requests, with the data figure labelled as an estimate, because Chrome does not report the size of a request it stopped.

Does it save data used by other apps?

No. It only affects what Chrome downloads. Other apps, system updates and cloud sync on the same connection are not touched.

Is it just an ad blocker?

No. Ads are one of three switches; images and video are the other two, and they are usually where most of the data goes.

Privacy

The extension talks to no server and has no account, no analytics and no telemetry. Every blocking rule ships inside the extension and runs in your browser. Settings and counts stay on your device. The one feature that records which sites you visited is kept locally, never sent anywhere, and deleted the moment you switch it off in the dashboard.

Read the privacy policy · Read the source

Deploying it across an organisation?

Settings can be pinned centrally by policy, and a configuration can be exported and pushed to a fleet. Details for organisations.