Stop Autoplay — Block Video Autoplay

Stop Autoplay prevents videos from playing automatically when you load a page. Autoplay videos consume CPU, GPU, and network resources even when you are not watching them — and in background tabs they can cause stutter and drain battery. This feature is free and requires no configuration beyond choosing your preferred level.

How It Works

Stop Autoplay blocks video and audio autoplay the same way Chrome’s own autoplay policy does: when a video tries to start before you have interacted with it, the play call is rejected with the same error Chrome itself returns. Each player keeps its own controls — a click on the player starts the video normally. Once you start a video, it is never paused again, including across element swaps and single-page navigation. Sites that retry aggressively (such as live players that loop on pause) are detected and let through rather than being fought in a loop.

Beyond the play() override, the script neutralizes the autoplay attribute and per-element playing events on newly inserted media, so videos that use the native autoplay path are also caught. YouTube’s next-video autoplay is handled separately: when you finish a video and YouTube queues the next one, the incoming video is frozen until you click. On Twitter, LinkedIn, and feed-style sites, videos that scroll into view are paused at the moment of intersection.

At the “Allow Common” level, major video platforms and conferencing tools (YouTube, Netflix, Twitch, Vimeo, Zoom, Slack, and others) play normally. Autoplay is blocked on all other sites. At “Block All”, every site is blocked with no exceptions.

Settings

The default is Off. Enable this feature if unexpected video playback on general websites disrupts your browsing.

When to Use This

• News sites, social feeds, and ad networks that trigger video the moment you land on a page
• Background tabs that start playing video without your interaction, causing audio overlap or performance slowdowns
• Battery-sensitive sessions where you want to avoid unexpected video processes
• Any situation where autoplaying video catches you off guard in a quiet environment

If you experience video stutter on specific platforms like Twitch or YouTube, see the related library articles — stutter on those platforms has different causes than autoplay behavior.

Privacy

Stop Autoplay operates through local browser policy settings. No information about which videos were blocked, which sites you visited, or any playback data is transmitted anywhere. Everything runs on your device.