→ GitHub: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock
→ Built by: Raymond Hill (@gorhill) | Stars: 64.4k | License: GPL-3.0
📋 Table of Contents
⚠️ Do NOT use uBlock Origin alongside other ad blockers. Other blockers can prevent uBO's privacy and anti-blocker-defusing features from working correctly. Disable Adblock Plus, AdGuard, or any other content blocker before installing.
🧠 What uBlock Origin Actually Is
uBlock Origin is not just an ad blocker. Raymond Hill describes it as a wide-spectrum content blocker — it blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, malware sites, and anti-blocker scripts, all at once, with less CPU and memory than any competing extension.
The key difference from Adblock Plus: uBO has no "Acceptable Ads" program. No advertiser can pay to get through. There are no exceptions by default unless you create them yourself.
uBO works on two modes:
Mode | Who it's for | What it does |
|---|---|---|
🟢 Basic (default) | Everyone | Install and forget. Blocks ads and trackers automatically. |
🔴 Advanced (optional) | Power users | Per-site firewall. You decide what every domain can load. |
⚡ Why It Exists — The Story
Raymond Hill released the first version in 2014. The goal was never to build a business. The repo's readme says exactly what it is: "Free. Open-source. For users by users. No donations sought."
By 2025, uBlock Origin had become the most widely used privacy extension in the world. Then Google made its move.
July 24, 2025: Google completed the Manifest V3 migration and disabled Manifest V2 on Chrome everywhere. MV3 restricts the webRequest API that uBO relies on to intercept and block network requests before they load. The full uBlock Origin — the version with complete blocking capabilities — stopped working on Chrome.
Google framed it as a security improvement. Critics, privacy researchers, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation called it what it looked like: a $2 trillion ad company protecting its ad revenue by limiting the most effective tool users had to block ads.
Raymond Hill did not stop shipping.
March 11, 2026: uBlock Origin v1.70.0 released. 287th release. Still GPL-3.0. Still free. Still no donations.
🌐 Browser Support in 2026
Browser | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
🦊 Firefox | ✅ Full — works best here | Full MV2 support. Raymond Hill recommends Firefox. |
🔵 Edge | ✅ Full support | MV2 still supported by Microsoft. |
🎭 Opera | ✅ Full support | Available via Opera Add-ons. |
🦁 Brave | ✅ Full support | Brave maintains MV2 compatibility. |
🟡 Chrome | ⚠️ Limited — ends at Chrome 139 | MV3 only after Chrome 139. Switch browsers. |
⚡ Thunderbird | ⚠️ Stuck at 1.49.2 | Get newer versions via GitHub Releases manually. |
⚠️ If you're on Chrome: Switch to Firefox for full uBlock Origin functionality. The Chrome version will stop receiving updates at Chrome 139. There is a separate uBlock Origin Lite for MV3 Chrome, but it has significantly reduced blocking capability.
📦 Installation — By Browser
🦊 Firefox (Recommended)
Open Firefox
Click Add to Firefox
Click Add on the permissions popup
Done — uBO is active immediately with default settings Give me a revised 4-week training block based on this analysis."
🔵 Microsoft Edge
Open Edge
Click Get
Click Add extension
Done
🎭 Opera
Open Opera
Click Add to Opera
Confirm installation
Done
🦁 Brave
Open Brave
Click Add to Brave
Confirm permissions
Done
📁 Manual Installation (All browsers — GitHub Releases)
For the latest version directly from Raymond Hill:
Download the
.firefox.xpifile for Firefox or.chromium.zipfor Chromium browsersFirefox: Drag the
.xpifile into an open Firefox windowChromium browsers:
Unzip the
.zipfileGo to
chrome://extensions(or equivalent)Enable Developer mode (top right toggle)
Click Load unpacked
Select the unzipped folder
uBO is installed — disable Developer mode after
⚙️ First-Time Setup
After installing, click the uBO icon in your toolbar. The popup shows:
Power button — enable/disable for the current site
Number — requests blocked on this page
Dashboard button — full settings panel
Open the Dashboard:
Click the uBO icon
Click the gear icon (⚙️) or the sliders icon
The Dashboard opens
Recommended first-time settings:
Dashboard → Settings tab:
✅ Enable "I am an advanced user" (optional — enables the firewall)
✅ Enable "Disable pre-fetching"
✅ Enable "Disable hyperlink auditing"
✅ Enable "Block CSP reports"
✅ Enable "Uncloak canonical URLs"📋 Best Filter Lists to Enable
Go to Dashboard → Filter Lists tab.
uBO ships with these enabled by default — don't disable them:
List | What it blocks |
|---|---|
✅ EasyList | Standard ads across the web |
✅ EasyPrivacy | Tracking scripts and pixels |
✅ Peter Lowe's Ad and tracking server list | Known ad servers |
✅ Online Malicious URL Blocklist | Malware and phishing sites |
✅ uBlock filters | Raymond Hill's own maintained lists |
Additional lists worth enabling:
Ads:
✅ AdGuard Base
Privacy:
✅ AdGuard Tracking Protection
✅ URLhaus Malicious URL Blocklist
Annoyances:
✅ uBlock filters — Annoyances
✅ AdGuard Annoyances
✅ EasyList Cookie
Social:
✅ Fanboy's Social Blocking List (removes social media widgets)
Multipurpose:
✅ Dan Pollock's hosts file⚠️ Don't enable every list. More lists = more rules to parse. The lists above cover 99% of what you'll encounter without bloating performance.
After enabling new lists: Click "Purge all caches" then "Update now" at the top of the Filter Lists tab.
🔥 Advanced Mode — The Dynamic Firewall
Enable Advanced Mode in Dashboard → Settings → "I am an advanced user."
The firewall adds a second layer. You control what every domain can load, per site.
How to read the firewall:
| all | example.com
-------------|------|------------
all | ⬜ | ⬜
3rd-party | 🔴 | ⬜
inline-script| 🔴 | ⬜
1st-party | ⬜ | ⬜
google.com | 🔴 | ⬜🔴 Red = blocked globally
🟢 Green = allowed globally
⬜ Grey = no rule (inherits from left column)
The power move — block all 3rd-party scripts globally:
Open the firewall popup (click uBO icon on any page)
Find the
3rd-party scriptsrowClick the red cell in the all column
Click the padlock 🔒 to save it globally
This blocks every third-party script on every site by default. Sites that break: whitelist them individually using the green cell.
⚠️ Advanced mode can break sites. Have the power button ready to temporarily disable uBO on sites that stop working. Most sites work fine. Some — especially those that depend on Google Tag Manager or third-party login — will need individual rules.
💡 What uBO Can Do — Full Capabilities
You say | What happens |
|---|---|
Visit any website | Ads, trackers, and malware scripts blocked before they load |
Click the power button on a site | uBO disabled for that domain until you re-enable it |
Click "element picker" (eyedropper) | Click any element on a page to permanently hide it |
Open the logger | See every request made by the page and what was blocked |
Add a custom filter | Block any URL pattern or element across all sites |
Use the firewall (advanced) | Control exactly which domains load scripts per site |
Enable "My filters" | Write custom adblock syntax rules for anything uBO misses |
🔧 Daily Use
The normal experience: Install it. Forget it. Ads are gone.
When a site breaks:
Click the uBO icon
Click the power button to disable uBO on this site
Reload the page
If it works now, the site was breaking due to a blocked script
When an ad gets through:
Click the uBO icon
Click the element picker (eyedropper icon)
Click the ad element on the page
Click Create — the element is permanently hidden on that site
Check what's being blocked:
Click the uBO icon
Click the logger icon (list icon)
Every request the page made is listed with its block status
💡 Power User Tips
🦊 Use Firefox. Raymond Hill says uBO works best on Firefox because Firefox gives extensions full access to the
webRequestAPI without MV3 restrictions.🔄 Update filter lists weekly. Go to Dashboard → Filter Lists → Update now. New trackers and ad servers appear constantly.
📁 Back up your settings. Dashboard → Settings → Backup to file. If you switch browsers or reinstall, you restore everything in one click.
🧹 Use the element picker for cookie banners. Cookie consent popups that slip through filter lists can be manually hidden permanently using the element picker.
🔒 Block 3rd-party frames globally. In the firewall, blocking
3rd-party framesglobally removes YouTube embeds and social widgets from every page they appear on — pages load faster and track less.📊 The logger is a privacy audit. Open the logger on any page to see every domain it contacts. You'll see how many companies are watching you on a single news article.
🚫 Don't combine with other blockers. uBO vs. uBO + Adblock Plus: the second setup actually blocks less because the two extensions interfere with each other's rules.
🚨 Troubleshooting
Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
Site is broken or not loading | Click uBO icon → click power button → reload. If it works, the site needs uBO disabled. |
Video won't play | Disable uBO on the video site. Some video players detect blocking. |
Login button doesn't work | 3rd-party scripts blocked. Whitelist the site's login domain in the firewall. |
An ad is still showing | Use the element picker to manually hide it. Or add a custom filter in Dashboard → My Filters. |
uBO not blocking anything | Check that the power button is ON (blue). Check that filter lists are updated. |
Extension not updating | Manual installs don't auto-update. Go to GitHub releases and reinstall. |
Broke a site and can't fix it | Dashboard → My Rules → click "Revert" to remove all temporary rules for that site. |
Chrome says "extension may not be supported" | This is the MV2 warning. Switch to Firefox for full long-term support. |
Where to get help:
Reddit: reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin
GitHub Issues: github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues
⚡ Quick Reference
INSTALL:
Firefox → addons.mozilla.org/addon/ublock-origin/
Edge → microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/ublock-origin/odfafepnkmbhccpbejgmiehpchacaeak
Opera → addons.opera.com/extensions/details/ublock/
GitHub → github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases
DASHBOARD:
Open → Click uBO icon → gear icon ⚙️
Filter lists → Dashboard → Filter Lists → Update now
Backup → Dashboard → Settings → Backup to file
Restore → Dashboard → Settings → Restore from file
DAILY USE:
Disable on site → Click uBO icon → power button
Hide an element → Click uBO icon → eyedropper icon → click element
View blocked reqs → Click uBO icon → logger icon
Add custom filter → Dashboard → My Filters → add rule → Apply changes
ADVANCED (enable in Settings → "I am an advanced user"):
Open firewall → Click uBO icon on any page (firewall appears below popup)
Block globally → Click red cell in "all" column → click padlock 🔒
Whitelist site → Click green cell in site column → click padlock 🔒
KEY FACTS:
Developer → Raymond Hill (@gorhill)
Repo → github.com/gorhill/uBlock
Stars → 64.4k
License → GPL-3.0
Latest → v1.70.0 (March 11, 2026)
Cost → Free. No donations sought.
Best browser → Firefox