Ad Blocking
Compare Chrome ad blockers after the Manifest V3 transition. SuperchargePerformance vs AdGuard, uBlock Origin alternatives, and content filtering guides.
15 articles
The MV2 era ended in mid-2025. Chrome 135-138 progressively disabled MV2 extensions, and by the time Chrome 138 shipped, any extension still on Manifest V2 stopped loading. This forced every major ad blocker to complete their MV3 migrations or disappear.
Most survived. uBlock Origin v1.70.0 launched on MV3 in mid-2025 and is still on the Chrome Web Store as of March 2026. AdGuard, AdBlock Plus, and Brave's Shields all completed migrations. The key technical limitation that the MV3 transition introduced: blocking ad blockers are now limited to 30,000 dynamic rules and up to 330,000 static rules via declarativeNetRequest. The old webRequest blocking allowed unlimited dynamic rules.
In practice, 186,000+ static rules covers the vast majority of ad and tracker blocking. Where MV3 ad blockers still fall short is highly dynamic evasion (some ad networks rotate domains faster than static rules can track) and cosmetic filtering for complex page layouts.
The RAM argument for ad blocking is real: removing heavy ad scripts from pages has been measured at 40-60% reduction in page load time and a consistent 30-50% reduction in per-tab memory usage on ad-heavy news and social sites.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is uBlock Origin still available for Chrome in 2026?
Yes. uBlock Origin completed its Manifest V3 migration with v1.70.0 in mid-2025 and remains on the Chrome Web Store as of March 2026. The MV3 version uses declarativeNetRequest rules and maintains comparable blocking capability for most users, though some advanced filter syntax from MV2 required adaptation.
What happened to ad blockers when Chrome switched to Manifest V3?
MV3 removed the blocking webRequest API that MV2 ad blockers used. Extensions had to migrate to declarativeNetRequest, which uses pre-compiled rule sets with limits of 30,000 dynamic rules and up to 330,000 static rules. MV2 extensions stopped loading in Chrome 135-138 (mid-2025). Extensions that didn't migrate were removed from the Chrome Web Store.
Does ad blocking actually reduce RAM usage in Chrome?
Yes, measurably. Ad and tracking scripts run in the renderer process of each tab. On heavy ad-supported news sites, blocking those scripts reduces per-tab RAM by 100-300MB and reduces ongoing CPU usage from background tracker calls. As of March 2026, the most efficient approach is network-level blocking via declarativeNetRequest, which stops requests before they reach the renderer.
What is the best ad blocker for Chrome after the MV3 transition?
As of March 2026, the main options are: uBlock Origin (MV3, the largest filter list coverage), AdGuard for Chrome (MV3, 750,000+ rules, 8MB filter list), and SuperchargePerformance (MV3, 186,000+ rules from 22 sources, combined with tab suspension). The best choice depends on whether you also need tab management — a combined tool reduces total extension overhead.
SuperchargePerformance
Tab suspension, ad blocking, and script control. Free.