How to Enable Dark Mode on Notion Without Double-Darkening Issues

Notion has its own dark mode, so you don't need an extension for it. The double-darkening problem happens when a dark mode extension darkens a page that Notion has already made dark. Here's how to set it up cleanly, and how to turn dark mode off.

Turn Notion's dark mode on or off

• Shortcut: press Ctrl + Shift + L (Cmd + Shift + L on Mac) in the desktop app or the web app to switch between light and dark.
• Settings: open Settings in the sidebar, then the appearance option, and choose Light, Dark or Use system setting.
• Mobile: open Settings in the Notion app and look for Appearance or Theme.

If Notion is dark and you don't want it to be, check whether it's set to follow your system. If your computer or phone is in dark mode, choose Light in Notion to override it.

What double-darkening looks like

• Notion turns light again, or a strange gray, when you expected dark.
• Text looks washed out, or colored highlights look wrong.
• Images and embeds look odd while text looks normal.

It happens because the extension doesn't know Notion is already dark, so it darkens it again, which can flip it back toward light.

The fix

Use one dark mode, not both:

1. Use Notion's dark mode and add Notion to your extension's excluded sites. In Modern Dark Mode, add notion.so to the excluded list, plus notion.site if you read published Notion pages.
2. Or keep Notion in Light mode and let the extension darken it, if you prefer one consistent look across every site.

The first option is usually better, since Notion's own theme is designed for its colors, callouts and databases.

Published Notion pages

Pages published to the web follow the reader's own setting, or the site's theme if the creator set one. If a published page looks too bright, that's when a dark mode extension helps.

Readability tips for dark mode in Notion

• Colored text and backgrounds look different in dark mode. Check important color-coding after switching.
• Images with white backgrounds stand out sharply. Use images with transparent or dark-friendly backgrounds in pages you read at night.
• For long documents, Notion's Full width and Small text options in the page menu change how much fits on screen.

For other work apps, see dark mode for Jira and Confluence.