Claude in Chrome — Let Claude Handle Your Browser Tasks

Claude in Chrome is an AI agent extension that lives in Google Chrome's side panel. Claude reads the page you have open, and can click and type on your behalf, letting you hand off everyday browser tasks directly to Claude.

This article walks you through installation, setup, and real-world usage examples step by step.

What Is Claude in Chrome?

Once you install Claude in Chrome, a side panel appears on the right side of your browser. Claude understands the page you are viewing in real time and can take over tasks such as:

• Reading and summarizing pages: Instantly summarize the content of any open page
• Clicking and typing on your behalf: Fill out forms, click buttons, send emails
• Managing multiple tabs: Execute workflows that span several open tabs
• Running in the background: Delegate a task and continue working on something else
• Scheduled execution: Automate recurring tasks on a daily, weekly, or other cadence

In terms of automating browser actions, Claude in Chrome is similar to Cowork, but Claude in Chrome is an agent specialized for the browser. While Cowork can control your entire desktop, Claude in Chrome operates only within the web browser.

Supported Browsers

Supported Plans and Models

Quick model selection guide:

• Haiku 4.5: Fast responses for simple, straightforward tasks
• Sonnet 4.6: The well-balanced choice for most everyday work
• Opus 4.6: Complex reasoning and judgment-heavy tasks

Common stumbling block: Claude in Chrome is not available on the Free plan. You will need to upgrade to Pro or higher. You can change your plan at claude.ai/settings.

Installation and Setup

Installation Steps

1. Open Chrome Launch Google Chrome.

2. Go to the Chrome Web Store Type chrome.google.com/webstore in the address bar, or search for "Claude" in the Chrome Web Store.

3. Click "Add to Chrome" Find the Claude extension and click the "Add to Chrome" button.

4. Approve the permissions A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm adding the extension. Click "Add extension."

5. Sign in with your Claude account After installation, sign in with your Claude account (paid plan required).

6. Pin the extension Click the puzzle-piece icon (Extensions menu) at the right end of Chrome's address bar, then click the pin icon next to Claude. This keeps the Claude icon visible in your toolbar at all times.

Configuring the Permission Mode (Important)

Claude in Chrome has two operating modes. If you are new to the extension, "Ask before acting" is strongly recommended.

Opening the Side Panel

After installation, you can open the side panel in two ways:

• Click the Claude icon in the toolbar.
• Right-click anywhere on a page and choose "Open Claude."

Once the side panel appears, you are ready to go.

Basic Usage

Reading a Page and Asking Questions

The simplest thing you can do is ask Claude about the page you have open.

1. Open any page you want to learn about (a news article, product page, PDF, etc.).
2. Type your question in the side panel's input field.
3. Claude reads the current page and responds.

Example prompts:

Summarize this page in three sentences.

List the key points from this page as bullet points.

Based on this page, what sets this company apart from its competitors?

Letting Claude Interact with the Page (Clicks and Typing)

You can ask Claude to perform actions on the page for you. In "Ask before acting" mode, Claude will show you a plan and ask for your approval before doing anything.

1. Describe what you want done in plain language.
2. Claude presents a plan of action (in "Ask before acting" mode).
3. Review the plan and choose "Approve" or "Cancel."
4. Once approved, Claude carries out the actions.

Example prompts (with Gmail open):

Draft a thank-you email to Sarah with the subject "Thank you for your time."
Body: "Thank you for meeting with me — I really appreciated it. Looking forward to working together."

Reply example:

Write a reply to this email accepting the meeting.
Preferred time: next Tuesday at 2 PM. Location: our office, Conference Room B.

Common stumbling block: If Claude says it cannot read the page, check the extension's site access permissions. Open the settings from the top of the side panel and change the current site's access to "Allow." This usually resolves the issue.

Shortcuts (Saved Prompts)

You can save frequently used instructions as "shortcuts." Type / in the side panel's input field to see a list of your saved shortcuts.

Register prompts you use all the time — such as "Summarize this," "Translate this," or "Extract action items" — as shortcuts to avoid retyping them every session.

Working Across Multiple Tabs

Claude in Chrome can handle tasks that span multiple open tabs.

Example prompts (with multiple tabs open):

Look at all the open tabs and give me a summary of each page.

Check the schedule in Tab 1 (Google Calendar) and add this week's appointments
to the "Meeting Notes" page in Tab 2 (Notion).

Usage Examples

Composing Emails (Gmail)

With Gmail open, instruct Claude via the side panel to draft or send emails on your behalf.

Basic draft:

Write a weekly status update email to my manager with the subject "Project Progress Report."
Project name: New Product Launch. Current progress: 50% complete.
Include the milestones we plan to hit next week.

Writing a reply:

Reply to this email to accept the meeting invitation.
Preferred time: next Tuesday at 2 PM. Location: our main conference room.

Organizing your inbox:

List the subject lines and senders of all unread emails,
and flag any that look urgent.

Research and Summarization

Claude in Chrome is great at cross-site research tasks.

Competitor research:

Read this company's services page and create a comparison table covering:
- Main services offered
- Pricing structure
- Key differentiators and strengths

News monitoring:

Read five articles on the news site I have open and list
the topics most relevant to our industry.

Document summarization:

Summarize the important clauses in this PDF (contract) as bullet points.
Pay special attention to the cancellation terms and payment conditions.

Data Extraction and Form Entry

Extract and organize data from web pages, or automate filling out forms.

Extracting table data:

Read the pricing table on this page and format it as CSV.

Collecting job listings:

From this job listing page, pull out all positions based in New York
that are open to candidates without prior experience.
List the company name, job title, and salary for each.

Automating form entry:

Fill in this contact form with the following details:
Company: Acme Corp
Name: Jane Smith
Email: jane.smith@example.com
Message: [I will provide the message text separately]

Common stumbling block: Always review the information before letting Claude submit a form automatically. In "Ask before acting" mode, Claude will show you what it plans to enter before proceeding, so you can catch any mistakes.

Calendar Management

Connect with calendar services like Google Calendar to check and add events.

Open Google Calendar and list all my appointments for this week.

Add an event called "Call with Acme Corp" for next Wednesday from 3 PM to 4 PM.
Set the location to "Online (Zoom)."

Multi-Site Workflows

Claude in Chrome can also handle complex tasks that combine multiple websites.

Example: Competitor research to report

Visit Company A's services page and Company B's services page in order,
then add a comparison table of their pricing, features, and key differences
to the "Competitor Research" page in Notion.

Example: Lead management automation

Read the form submissions on the inquiry page I have open
and add them as new leads in our CRM (Salesforce).

Scheduled Execution (Recurring Tasks)

Set up recurring research or monitoring tasks to run automatically.

• Choose a frequency: daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
• Specify the target site and what you want done.
• Results are delivered via the side panel or email notification.

Setup example:

Every Monday at 9 AM, check our competitors' blogs for new posts
and send me a summary of the titles and key points of any notable articles.

Integration with Claude Code (For Developers)

By combining Claude Code (the developer-focused terminal CLI) with Claude in Chrome, you can build a workflow where you write code and immediately verify the result in the browser.

How to Launch

Run the following command in your terminal:

claude --chrome

Or use the following slash command during a Claude Code session:

/chrome

Example Development Workflow

1. Start Claude Code with claude --chrome in the terminal.
2. Ask Claude to make a code change (e.g., "Update the button styles").
3. Claude edits the code and automatically previews the result in the browser.
4. Claude reads console errors and DOM state to inform the next revision.
5. You can even record the changes as a GIF.

Limitations When Using Claude Code Integration

• Not available via Amazon Bedrock
• Not available via Google Vertex AI
• Not available via Microsoft Azure AI Foundry

Claude in Chrome vs. Cowork

Both Claude in Chrome and Cowork let Claude execute tasks automatically, but they serve different purposes.

Which One Should You Use?

Use Claude in Chrome when:

• You are working in web apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, or Slack.
• You need to collect, summarize, or compare information from websites.
• You want to fill out online forms.

Use Cowork when:

• You need to process large numbers of files stored on your computer.
• You need to work with locally saved Excel or Word documents.
• You need to combine web actions with local file processing (Cowork can use Chrome as a tool in larger workflows).

Staying Safe

Because Claude in Chrome can perform many actions in your browser, it is important to use it with security in mind.

Per-Site Access Control

Claude in Chrome lets you control access on a site-by-site basis.

• Allow once: Permit the action for this operation only.
• Always allow: Let Claude operate on this site at any time.
• Block: Prevent Claude from accessing this site.

For sites you trust regularly, "Always allow" works well. For sites you visit for the first time, start with "Allow once."

Sites Blocked by Default

The following categories of sites are blocked from Claude in Chrome access by default:

• Banking and financial institution websites
• Investment and stock-trading platforms
• Cryptocurrency exchanges
• Adult content sites
• Pirated content sites

Recommended Uses to Avoid

Common stumbling block: Make it a habit to review Claude's plan in "Ask before acting" mode before letting it proceed. If something looks off, you can cancel before any action is taken.

Protection Against Prompt Injection

Malicious web pages may attempt to trick Claude into performing unintended actions — a type of attack known as prompt injection. Anthropic addresses this with the following safeguards:

• Training-time mitigations (Claude Opus 4.5 reduces the attack success rate to approximately 1%)
• Content filters that detect malicious instructions
• Domain-level approval controls for sites that can run JavaScript

That said, no protection is perfect. Use caution when granting access to unfamiliar sites.

For Team and Enterprise Administrators

When deploying across an organization, administrators can configure:

• Allowlist: Specify which sites Claude is permitted to access.
• Blocklist: Specify which sites Claude is prohibited from accessing.
• Organization-wide enable/disable toggle

Plan Comparison

Next Steps

Now that you understand the basics of Claude in Chrome, try combining it with other products and features.

• Claude Desktop App Guide — Understand when to use the desktop app versus the Chrome extension
• Getting Started with Cowork — Delegate Tasks to Claude — Learn about automation tasks that include local files
• Claude Web (claude.ai) Guide — Review the core features of the browser-based Claude
• Comparing Plans — Choose the plan that fits your needs