Chrome Extensions That Work Offline

Many Chrome extensions work fine offline, because everything they do happens on your computer. Others are just a front end for an online service and stop working the moment the connection drops. Here's how to tell them apart and set up the ones you'll need on a plane or a bad connection.

How to tell if an extension works offline

• Works offline: extensions that change pages or keep data on your computer, such as dark mode, word counters, page tools, local note-takers and password managers with an offline copy of your vault.
• Needs a connection: anything that sends data to a server to do its job, such as translation, AI writing tools, grammar checkers, price trackers and sync services.

Not sure? Turn off Wi-Fi, open a page you've saved or a local file, and try it.

Extensions from Bushe.co that work offline

These run entirely in your browser and store their settings on your computer, so they don't need the internet:

• Sticky Notes Anywhere: notes are saved on your computer, so you can read and write them offline.
• Modern Dark Mode and Blue Light Filter: darken or warm any page, including saved pages and local files.
• Word Counter: counts words and reading time on any page or selection.
• Reading Progress Bar: shows how far you've scrolled.

Their pop-ups may show a plainer font offline, since the font loads from the web, but everything else works.

Set up Google Docs, Sheets and Slides offline

1. Install Google's Google Docs Offline extension.
2. In Google Drive, open Settings and turn on Offline.
3. For files you'll need, right-click them in Drive and turn on Available offline.

Do this while you're online. Changes you make offline sync when you reconnect.

Gmail offline

Gmail's offline mode doesn't need an extension. In Gmail, open Settings → See all settings → Offline, tick Enable offline mail, and choose how many days of mail to keep. Mail you send offline goes out when you're back online.

Reading web pages offline

• Save the page: press Ctrl + S (Cmd + S on Mac) and choose "Webpage, Complete" to save it with its images.
• Save as PDF: press Ctrl + P and choose "Save as PDF" for a clean copy to read anywhere.
• Read later on mobile: Chrome on Android and iPhone has a Reading List and can download pages for offline reading.

Extensions that change pages also work on saved pages, as long as they're allowed to run on local files. Turn on "Allow access to file URLs" on the extension's Details page in chrome://extensions.