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The best dark mode extensions for Google Chrome
Dark mode is pretty popular and occasionally helpful, since it can reduce eye strain in low-light conditions. We have a tutorial for Google Chrome’s native dark mode in case you want to try it, and you can set an auto dark mode flag in the browser as well. Other people use extensions, however, as they can darken websites that Chrome’s native mode doesn’t necessarily work with. Plus, it’s simply easier to turn an extension on and off. Here are the best dark mode extensions for Chrome.
These extensions should also work with Microsoft Edge, which is Chromium-based and therefore can use many Chrome extensions. We tested the below ones briefly on Edge and they seemed to work okay.
The best dark mode extensions for Google Chrome
Dark Reader
A color inverter extension with just the right amount of customization.
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Google Chrome (Chrome Web Store)
What we like:
- Let’s you choose between dark gray and black with the contrast slider.
- You can whitelist websites with a native dark mode so it doesn’t invert back to light mode.
- There are some nice extras, like a Sepia slider that effectively adds a blue light filter, if you’re into that.
What we don’t like:
- Like most dark mode extensions, it can sometimes negatively impact a website’s performance.
Dark Reader is one of the more popular and stable dark mode extensions. It uses a basic color inversion technique that most extensions use. It basically flips the white to a dark gray. You can opt for black by adjusting the contrast slider in the extension’s options. We also like that there are Sepia and Grayscale options, along with the option to whitelist websites with their own native dark mode, so it doesn’t get inverted back into white. While it’s not perfect, it’s certainly closer to it than most.
Dark Theme for Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Google Chrome (Chrome Web Store)
What we like:
- Super easy to use.
- Includes both a dark mode and a blue light-filtering night shift mode.
- Extra features like whitelists and scheduling put this a step above most other dark mode extensions.
What we don’t like:
- Like all dark mode extensions, this can affect site performance on some websites.
Dark Theme for Chrome (formerly Dark Theme and Night Shift Mode) is an excellent dark mode extension and one we readily recommend. It features easy controls, allowing you to customize your dark theme with lighter or darker backgrounds. We also appreciate the scheduling feature, along with the whitelist feature that turns the extension off on websites you choose. The extension worked on every website we tested, and we could hardly find anything wrong with it.
Midnight Lizard
A dark mode extension that also lets you use more colors aside from black or dark gray.
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Google Chrome (Chrome Web Store)
What we like:
- It is the most customizable dark mode extension on this list and includes background colors other than black or gray.
- Extras include text color, link color, and border color options.
- Typical stuff like site whitelists is also appreciated.
What we don’t like:
- Busier UI than many others.
- Can negatively impact some websites, like all dark mode extensions.
Midnight Lizard is easily the most customizable dark mode extension on our list. It not only gives you the standard gray and black options but also the option of having any custom background color you want. From there, you can customize the color of links, text, and other elements to truly theme your whole experience. The extension UI is a bit more busy and harder to learn than others, but it’s not that big of a deal. Some users report quirks on a few sites, but it worked fine in our testing.
Night Eye
Overview Sentence
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Google Chrome (Chrome Web Store)
What we like:
- Includes integration with sites with existing dark themes, reducing the need for a whitelist feature.
- A reasonably simple UI with plenty of features, including a scheduling option.
- Granular customization.
What we don’t like:
- Can impact the performance of some sites, like most extensions.
- Some features can trigger higher CPU usage, so be mindful.
Night Eye offers some relatively common features, like scheduling and an AMOLED black mode. but there are some unique additions, including a blue light filter, dimming, and icon and image conversion. The only downside is that enabling everything can cause high CPU usage in a browser that’s already known for high resource consumption. In any case, it gave us dark mode on all of the sites we tested, and the UI is clean and easy to use.
Super Dark Mode
An excellent dark mode extension with enough options for most people.
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Google Chrome (Chrome Web Store)
What we like:
- Integrates with popular sites with existing dark themes so it doesn’t turn dark ones light. Barring that, the extension icon works as a quick on/off switch.
- Includes welcome features like a whitelist and scheduling.
- Deeper features, like custom CSS, make it more user-friendly.
What we don’t like:
- Once again, it can negatively impact website performance.
- All customizations take place in the options menu. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but most other extensions can be customized through the extension menu.
Super Dark Mode is one of the most reliable dark mode extensions in this space. It has all of the typical customization options, along with some more advanced stuff if you want it. We like that it integrates with existing dark modes on popular websites, so you don’t have to toggle it on and off all the time, and any additional sites it doesn’t support can be quickly added to a whitelist. The only thing that some people may not like is that the extension icon acts as a quick on/off switch, so you need to go to the options menu to customize it. Otherwise, it’s rock solid and works like a charm.
FAQ
The native dark mode won’t affect site performance, so generally, yes. However, many websites don’t work with Chrome’s native dark mode, so extensions are the only way to get it to work almost everywhere.