Best Auto-Refresh Extensions Compared for 2026

Chrome has no built-in auto-refresh, so you need an extension. They fall into three groups: timers that reload a tab, monitors that check a page for changes and alert you, and rotators that cycle through several pages. Pick the group first, then the extension.

Timers: reload a tab every few seconds or minutes

Popular choices include Tab Reloader, Auto Refresh Plus and Easy Auto Refresh. Typical features:

• a separate interval for each tab;
• random intervals, so reloads don't happen at exactly the same moment;
• stopping when you start typing or scrolling, on some extensions.

Good for live scores, ticket queues you're allowed to refresh, and dashboards that don't update on their own. Feature sets change, so check each listing for what's current and whether anything is behind a paid tier.

Monitors: watch for changes

If you only care when something changes, such as a price, a stock status or a new post, a monitor is better than refreshing constantly. Distill Web Monitor is a well-known one: select part of a page and it checks it on a schedule and alerts you when it changes. Some timer extensions have simpler "notify when text appears" options too.

Rotators: several pages in one tab

For a wall screen, kiosk or second monitor, you often want several pages shown one after another rather than reloading a single one. AutoBrowser does this: it plays the sites in a bookmark folder in one tab, staying on each for the time you set (1 second to 5 minutes), and loops. Each page is loaded fresh when its turn comes. A folder with a single bookmark makes it a simple auto-refresh for that one page. It doesn't watch for changes, scroll or click; it just shows and reloads pages on a timer.

Why not a script in the Console?

A line like setInterval(() => location.reload(), 60000) pasted into DevTools reloads once and then stops, because the reload clears the script. That's why an extension is needed for repeated reloading.

How to choose

• One page, reloaded on a timer: a timer extension, or AutoBrowser with a one-page folder.
• Tell me when something changes: a monitor such as Distill.
• Rotate dashboards or sites on a screen: AutoBrowser.

Use it responsibly

• Don't refresh faster than you need. Very frequent reloads can get you rate-limited or blocked, and some sites forbid automated refreshing in their terms.
• Don't auto-refresh pages with forms you're filling in; you'll lose what you typed.
• Check permissions: refresh extensions often ask to read all sites, which is necessary for some features but worth knowing.

For pages that sometimes fail, see how to reload a page automatically when it shows an error.