Google has finished a years-long cleanup of Chrome’s extension platform. On August 31, 2026, remaining Manifest V2 extensions were pulled from the Chrome Web Store, including the full version of uBlock Origin.

Installed copies are not mass deleted. They can stay on a machine, but they will not receive updates and cannot be reinstalled from the store. For most people on current Chrome, that distinction barely matters. Google disabled Manifest V2 for ordinary users in 2025, then removed the last flags and workarounds in Chrome 150 and 151 this summer.

Manifest V3 is the new rulebook. Google first shipped it in 2020 and has argued that it improves security, performance, and battery life by replacing always-on background pages with service workers and by limiting what extensions can inspect. The old blocking webRequest API is gone. In its place is declarativeNetRequest, which lets an extension submit a predeclared set of rules for Chrome to enforce.

That model is a poor fit for classic uBlock Origin. The original extension inspects requests in real time, runs large filter lists, and uses dynamic filtering against new ad servers and anti-block scripts. Developer Raymond Hill has said there is no Manifest V3 version of full uBlock Origin, because rebuilding it under the new limits would gut what made it effective. The project issued version 1.74 as its last stable Chrome Web Store release just before the cutoff.

Firefox users are not in the same spot. Mozilla still supports the full extension, and Hill continues to maintain it there.

What to use instead

If you want to stay on Chrome, the official stopgap is uBlock Origin Lite. It is free, open source, and built for Manifest V3. Recent tests have shown it can still stop a large share of ads and trackers. It is not a full replacement. Dynamic filtering, the complete element picker, custom lists, and fast anti-circumvention updates are gone or reduced.

Other Chrome options include AdGuard’s Manifest V3 extension and Ghostery. Adblock Plus also works, though its default Acceptable Ads list lets some ads through unless you turn that setting off. All of these add-ons share Chrome’s rule caps, so none restore the old uBlock Origin experience.

Stronger options sit outside Chrome’s extension sandbox:

  • Firefox + full uBlock Origin is the closest like-for-like move.
  • Brave has built-in Shields and has said it will host a few popular Manifest V2 tools, including uBlock Origin, on its own backend.
  • A desktop app such as AdGuard blocks ads at the system level, so Chrome’s extension rules do not apply.
  • DNS or VPN filters can cut many ads before they reach the browser, with less per-site control.

Google presents Manifest V3 as a security cleanup after years of malicious extensions. Critics note that Google’s business depends on advertising, and that weaker blockers help that business. Both points can be true at once. The practical result is simpler. The best free content blocker on the web no longer lives in the Chrome Web Store.