Can I block websites for studying on Chrome for free?

Yes. Focuh, StayFocusd, LeechBlock NG, and Strict Workflow all block sites inside Chrome at no cost. The catch is what each one means by free. Focuh and LeechBlock NG have no site limit and no account. StayFocusd is free but unmaintained and owned by an ad-intelligence company. BlockSite calls itself free but stops you at three sites unless you pay, which rarely covers a real study blocklist.

Will a Chrome extension block websites during exams in a lockdown browser?

No, and you should not rely on it for that. A study blocker like Focuh is a personal focus tool you install yourself to stop your own procrastination. Exam lockdown browsers such as Respondus or proctoring software are separate systems run by your school. Use a study blocker for revision and homework, not to satisfy an exam requirement, since proctored exams enforce their own rules outside any extension you add.

How many sites should a student block while studying?

Block the handful you actually open on autopilot, not a giant list you will never visit. For most students that is YouTube, a social app or two, a messaging site, and whatever news or shopping tab you check out of boredom. Five to ten domains usually covers it. A blocker with no three-site cap, like Focuh or LeechBlock NG, lets you add the whole set without hitting a paywall halfway through.

Can a Chrome extension block YouTube but allow study videos?

Not cleanly. A standard blocker matches the whole youtube.com hostname, so blocking it blocks lectures too. If you study from YouTube, the better move is to block youtube.com generally and keep specific playlists open in a separate browser, or use the Focuh Mac app and switch blocking off only during the session where you genuinely need a lecture. Trying to allow part of YouTube usually reopens the whole rabbit hole.

Does a study blocker work on a school Chromebook?

Sometimes. On a personal Chromebook you can install any Chrome extension and block sites normally. On a managed school Chromebook, the administrator controls which extensions are allowed and may block installs entirely. If your school account restricts extensions, you cannot add your own blocker. On your own device, a Chromebook runs Chrome extensions just like any laptop, so Focuh works the same way.

Can I bypass a study blocker if I get tempted?

Yes. Any Chrome extension can be switched off from chrome://extensions in two clicks, so no browser blocker is truly locked. That is fine for studying, because the goal is to interrupt the reflex tab-open, not to build a vault. If you keep disabling it the moment a problem set gets hard, you need higher friction — the Focuh Mac app blocks at the system level and is far harder to quit mid-session.

Is a Chrome extension or a Mac app better for studying?

It depends on where you get distracted. If you revise entirely in Chrome tabs, the extension is enough and faster to set up. If you switch to Safari to dodge the block, open the YouTube or Discord desktop app, or study across multiple browsers, an extension only covers one of those doors. The Focuh Mac app blocks every browser and native app at once, which suits longer, stricter study blocks.

Chrome extensionstudyingwebsite blockerstudentsfocus

Best Chrome Extension to Block Websites for Studying (2026)

Q: What is the best Chrome extension to block websites for studying?

For most students the best Chrome extension to block websites for studying is Focuh, because it is free, needs no account, and has no cap on how many sites you block. You add YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and anything else that pulls you off task, start a challenge, and those tabs redirect to a quiet page. LeechBlock NG is the more configurable pick if you want hour-by-hour study schedules. BlockSite works but caps the free tier at three sites.

June 17, 202610 min readFocuh

You sit down to study, open one tab to look something up, and twenty minutes later you are watching a video about something unrelated. The fastest fix is the best Chrome extension to block websites for studying: install Focuh, add the sites you lose hours to, and start a challenge so those tabs redirect to a quiet page instead of your feed. It is free, takes about a minute, and needs no account.

This guide compares the study blockers worth installing in 2026, what each one really costs, and the one limit every browser extension shares.

What makes a good study blocker?

A study blocker lives or dies on three things, and the flashy feature lists miss all of them.

First, the cost of "free." Plenty of extensions are free to install but cap you at three blocked sites or push an account on you. A real study blocklist is longer than three sites, so a cap means you pay or you leave half your distractions unblocked.

Second, how hard it is to quit mid-session. The whole point is that future-you, stuck on a hard problem at 11pm, cannot disable it in one click. Browser extensions are weak here by design, which matters more the worse your willpower gets.

Third, whether it gets out of your way. You want to add sites, pick a duration, and start working — not configure a dashboard for twenty minutes.

Best Chrome extensions to block websites for studying, compared

Extension	Truly free?	Site limit	Account	Best for studying
Focuh	Yes	Unlimited	None	Long, distraction-free study challenges
StayFocusd	Yes	Unlimited	None	Daily time budgets, legacy users
LeechBlock NG	Yes	Unlimited	None	Hour-by-hour study schedules
BlockSite	No (trial)	3 sites	Required	Blocking one or two sites only
Strict Workflow	Yes	Unlimited	None	Pomodoro-style study sprints

The deciding column for students is the site limit. If you only ever block YouTube, fine — most tools handle that. But a typical study blocklist runs YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, a messaging site, and a shopping tab, and BlockSite's free tier is full before you finish typing.

Why Focuh is the default pick for studying

Focuh is a free Chrome extension that blocks distracting sites for the length of a self-imposed challenge — 30, 91, or 180 days, or a custom number. There is no account, no email, no telemetry, and no cap on how many domains you block. Your blocklist and a daily attempt counter live in Chrome's local storage and never leave your device.

For studying, two things make it fit. The challenge model suits a term or an exam season rather than a single afternoon, so you set it once at the start of revision and forget it. And the attempt counter is quietly useful: it shows how many times you reached for YouTube during a study block, which is usually a higher number than you would guess, and watching it shrink week to week is its own nudge.

The honest limit is shared by every extension and covered below. To install, open the Focuh extension page and add it from the Chrome Web Store.

Strengths for students

Unlimited sites on the free tier — block your whole list
No account, so nothing ties your study habits to a profile
Long challenges fit a term, not just a Pomodoro
A free Mac app for when the browser block is not enough

Limits

Like any extension, it can be disabled from chrome://extensions
System-wide blocking is Mac-only for now
No partial-YouTube mode — it blocks the whole hostname

When LeechBlock NG fits a study schedule better

If your studying runs on a timetable — block from 9am to noon, free at lunch, blocked again until 5pm — LeechBlock NG is the stronger tool. It is free, open-source, and gives you up to 30 separate blocksets, each with its own sites, schedule, and time limit. You can block social media all day but allow it for ten minutes after each study block, or set different rules for weekdays and weekends.

The trade-off is setup. LeechBlock's options page is dense, and a student who just wants to block YouTube and start a problem set will find it fiddly. Pick it if you genuinely want scheduled study windows and do not mind ten minutes of configuration. For a plain block-and-study flow, Focuh is faster.

Is StayFocusd still worth it for students?

StayFocusd has blocked Chrome sites since 2010 and still works. It is free, needs no account, and its daily-time-budget model — say, 20 minutes of allowed social media a day, then blocked — suits students who want a small allowance rather than a hard wall.

Two caveats. It is effectively unmaintained, and it has been owned by Sensor Tower, an ad-intelligence company, for several years. The extension blocks locally, but if you care who builds the tools watching your browsing habits, that is worth weighing. For a deeper rundown of the free Chrome field, see the best free website blocker for Chrome.

The limit every study extension shares

A Chrome extension blocks Chrome. That is the whole sentence. It cannot block Safari, Firefox, or Arc, it cannot touch the YouTube or Discord desktop app, and it cannot stop you opening a second browser to get around it.

For a lot of studying that does not matter, because you revise in Chrome and the distraction lives there too. But three escape hatches stay open: another browser, a native app, and your phone. If you find yourself switching to Safari the moment Chrome blocks YouTube, the extension is closing the front door while the back door stays wide open. The full breakdown is in system-level vs browser website blocking.

When a Mac app beats an extension for studying

If your study distractions cross browsers and apps, block below the browser. On a Mac, the free Focuh desktop app uses macOS Accessibility APIs to block sites and apps across the entire system during a focus session. It catches YouTube in Safari, the Discord app, and Chrome all at once, and because it does not live in chrome://extensions, it is harder to switch off when a 2am problem set tempts you to quit.

The strongest student setup is both layers: the free Focuh Chrome extension for browser tabs, plus the free Focuh Mac app for everything else. Both are free, so running both costs nothing. If you compare desktop study blockers, the best Mac app to block websites for studying goes deeper on the macOS options.

Which study blocker should you install?

You revise in Chrome and want it free with no cap — install Focuh, add your distractions, start a challenge.
You want scheduled study windows — set up LeechBlock NG once and let the timetable run.
You only want a small daily allowance — StayFocusd's time-budget model fits, with the ownership caveat.
You study across browsers or apps, or keep quitting the block — add the free Focuh Mac app for system-level blocking.
You need to block only one site — BlockSite's free three-site tier will cover you.

No extension makes you study; it just removes the easy escape so the work in front of you becomes the most interesting thing on the screen. For the general method on any site, see how to block websites on Chrome for free. When you are ready, install Focuh free — and add the free Mac app if the browser block is not enough.