Is uBlock Origin Removed from Chrome? 2026 MV3 Truth

Key takeaways

• uBlock Origin was never removed from the Chrome Web Store — the listing is live as of July 2026 (v1.72.2, 12 million users, no warning banner).
• It stopped running anyway. Chrome 138 (July 24, 2025) disabled every Manifest V2 extension with no re-enable option. Reinstalling does not bring it back.
• The listing itself disappears on August 31, 2026, when Google removes all remaining MV2 extensions from the store.

As of July 2026, uBlock Origin is on the Chrome Web Store: v1.72.2, updated July 8, 2026, 12 million users, no warning banner. It was not banned, not taken down, and not removed by Google. But listed is not the same as working. Chrome 138 (July 24, 2025) disabled every Manifest V2 extension with no way to re-enable, and uBlock Origin is still MV2. Installing it from the store does not make it run.

The Short Answer: Not Removed, but It No Longer Runs

uBlock Origin v1.72.2 is live on the Chrome Web Store as of July 2026: same URL, same author, 12 million users, 4.7 stars. Google has not removed it, though it has stripped the Featured badge, which it no longer grants to Manifest V2 extensions.

Two things are true at once. The listing survives until August 31, 2026, the date Google has set for removing all remaining MV2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store. And the extension has been unable to run on stable Chrome since Chrome 138 shipped on July 24, 2025. Reinstalling from the store does not fix a disabled install: Chrome refuses to run MV2 code no matter how fresh the install is. The 12-million user count reflects legacy installs, enterprise machines, and Chromium forks that still allow MV2 — not working Chrome installs.

Why People Think It Was Removed

Chrome 138 did something that looked like removal but wasn’t. When Google enforced the Manifest V2 deprecation, Chrome disabled every MV2 extension already installed. No popup, no error message. Just a grey disabled badge in the toolbar.

uBlock Origin had been MV2 since its original release, and it still is. Users who had it installed for years woke up to a disabled extension and assumed the worst: that Chrome had banned it, that Google had forced it off the store, or that gorhill had abandoned the project. Panic threads from that window are still indexed, including reports of a store takedown and a March 2026 “return” that we could not verify against the listing’s own history. As far as the store record shows, the listing stayed up the whole time. What actually happened, per Google’s own MV2 timeline:

The confusion took root in that first 2025 window, when the extension went dark without explanation. Users who searched “uBlock Origin removed” found panic threads, not a timeline.

What Changed — and What Didn’t

Full uBlock Origin is still MV2. gorhill never ported it to MV3 and has said Chrome 138/139 marks the end of its support on Chrome. He continues shipping updates to the CWS listing (v1.72.2, July 8, 2026), which serve Firefox users, MV2-capable Chromium forks, and other browsers — just not stable Chrome. The core capabilities are unchanged where the extension still runs:

The structural picture: on Firefox, uBO has webRequest network interception plus scriptlets. Chrome’s MV3 framework disallows that combination, and uBO avoided the limitation by remaining MV2 — which is exactly why Chrome 138 switched it off. Chrome 150 (stable June 30, 2026) removed one of the last internal MV2 flags, and Chrome 151 (stable July 28, 2026) deletes the rest. There is no path back on stable Chrome.

For a side-by-side comparison of uBlock Origin (full) versus uBlock Origin Lite, see uBlock Origin Lite vs uBlock Origin.

uBlock Origin vs uBlock Origin Lite

These are two different extensions by the same author. Confusing them is the second-most common mistake after assuming uBO was deleted.

uBlock Origin Lite was released as a native MV3 extension from day one, before the MV2 sunset. Part of its install base came from people who installed it thinking it was the main uBlock Origin.

uBOL works well for general website ad blocking, and it does include cosmetic filtering — specific cosmetic rules by default, generic cosmetic filtering once you raise a site’s blocking mode to Complete. Its default ruleset hovers around 17K rules, with all optional rulesets slightly above 30K. What it gives up: dynamic filtering, custom filters and list imports, and live filter updates (rulesets only refresh when the extension itself updates through the store). On YouTube specifically, it is the weakest of the MV3 options. uBOL does ship scriptlets bundled inside its rulesets, so it is not helpless against video ads — but those scriptlets only refresh when the extension itself clears Chrome Web Store review. When YouTube ships an anti-adblock change, uBOL’s fix arrives days behind a dedicated YouTube blocker’s. The gap is a release-cadence problem, not an absolute wall.

YouTube Ad Blocking Status

On stable Chrome, uBlock Origin cannot block YouTube ads for the simplest reason: it cannot run at all since Chrome 138. The YouTube arms race between gorhill and Google now plays out on Firefox, where uBO’s scriptlets intercept the player’s configuration data and strip ad metadata before the player reads it.

YouTube pushes counter-measures regularly. The biggest wave since 2023 was June 2025 (about 13 months before this article’s July 2026 update). That wave restructured how YouTube packages ad metadata in its player API, breaking scriptlet-based blockers across the board; gorhill patched it within weeks. Firefox recovered faster than Chromium-based setups because Firefox has an additional network-interception layer that Chrome does not allow.

As of July 2026, no comparable DOM-level wave has followed since June 2025. YouTube has shifted to testing Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) — ads stitched into the video stream before delivery — which would be a structural change no browser extension can address. That is still in limited testing; a future risk, not a current break.

What to Use on Chrome Instead

On Chrome the question is no longer “how do I wait out a patch window” but “what replaces uBO entirely.” For YouTube specifically, the working options use a preventive API-proxy approach rather than reactive scriptlets: when the proxy strips ad metadata before the player ever reads it, YouTube’s counter-measure detection finds nothing to detect.

AdBlock for YouTube (v7.2.3, 10 million users) uses this approach as its core method, typically patching within 24-48 hours of YouTube changes. SuperchargePerformance takes the same API-proxy engine as a base layer and adds three additional proprietary layers: DNR network rules evaluated before any page script runs, a fallback skip-button clicker and interstitial hider for ads the proxy misses, and cosmetic CSS targeting YouTube’s feed and masthead.

Neither approach is immune to YouTube’s long-term SSAI plans. For the deepest general web ad blocking — procedural cosmetic filtering and scriptlet injection that DNR alone cannot express — full uBlock Origin remains the strongest option, but in 2026 that means running it on Firefox.

Which Setup Fits Your Situation

• uBlock Origin shows disabled on Chrome: reinstalling will not help — Chrome 138+ refuses to run MV2. Pick an MV3 blocker or move to Firefox
• You want gorhill’s work on Chrome: uBlock Origin Lite (MV3) — general ads and cosmetic filtering covered, YouTube video ads only partly, and always a step behind
• You need YouTube ads blocked on Chrome: AdBlock for YouTube or SuperchargePerformance (API-proxy approach)
• You want the deepest general web ad blocking and will switch browsers: Firefox plus full uBlock Origin v1.72.2
• You are on a low-RAM device and don’t need YouTube ad blocking: uBlock Origin Lite, near-zero overhead
• You manage enterprise Chrome: the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy ended at Chrome 138/139 — there is no MV2 exemption path left