How do I block news websites on Chrome for free?

Install a free blocker like Focuh from the Chrome Web Store, then add each news domain — cnn.com, nytimes.com, bbc.com, and so on — to the blocklist and start a challenge. There's no account and no cap on how many sites you add, which matters for news because the habit usually spans a dozen outlets, not one. Every blocked tab redirects to a quiet local page, and the attempt is counted.

How many news sites can I block on a free blocker?

With Focuh, as many as you want — there is no site limit on the free tier. This is the key difference for news blocking, because the refresh habit rarely lives on one site. You bounce between CNN, the BBC, your local paper, Hacker News, and three subreddits. A blocker capped at three sites, like BlockSite's free tier, runs out before you've listed your morning rotation.

Should I block news aggregators and Google News too?

Yes, if you want the block to hold. Blocking individual outlets but leaving news.google.com, Apple News on the web, or Reddit's news subreddits open just reroutes the habit. Add the aggregators to the same blocklist: news.google.com, and any subreddits or social feeds you use as news sources. The goal is to close every easy door at once, not just the front one.

Does blocking news on Chrome also block it in Safari or on my phone?

No. A Chrome extension only controls Chrome. News sites still load in Safari, Firefox, or Edge, and on your phone's browser and news apps. Focuh works in any Chromium browser, installed per browser. To block news across every browser and the news apps on a Mac at once, use system-level blocking like the Focuh desktop app.

Can I block news without installing an extension?

On macOS or Linux you can edit the hosts file to point each news domain at 127.0.0.1, blocking them in every browser. It works but it's tedious for a long list, needs admin access, and is easy to forget. macOS Screen Time can limit individual sites but only in Safari. For a long, changing list of news sites, a free Chrome extension is far less painful to manage.

Why is reading the news so compulsive?

News sites are built on novelty and a low-grade sense of urgency — headlines are written to imply that not reading is risky. Refreshing for updates is a variable-reward loop, the same mechanism behind social feeds: most refreshes show nothing new, but the occasional big story trains you to keep checking. During stressful periods this tips into doomscrolling, where the checking outpaces any real need to be informed.

How do I stay informed if I block the news all day?

Replace constant checking with a deliberate window. Block news during focused work, then open a single 15-to-20-minute slot — say, after lunch — to read what matters. A daily email digest or a weekly summary covers almost everything you'd otherwise refresh for. You lose nothing of substance by reading the news once a day instead of forty times.

Can the block be bypassed?

Yes. Any Chrome extension can be turned off from chrome://extensions, so it's never unbreakable. That's by design — a free blocker exists to interrupt the refresh reflex, not to lock you out. If you want blocking that's genuinely hard to disable in the moment, the Focuh desktop app for Mac blocks at the OS level using Accessibility APIs, which is much harder to switch off mid-session.

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How to Block News Websites on Chrome (Free, No Account) — 2026

June 5, 20269 min readFocuh

Blocking one news site never works, because the news habit isn't about one site. You close CNN and open the BBC; you finish the BBC and refresh Hacker News; somewhere in there you check a subreddit "for context." This guide shows you how to block news websites on Chrome for free — all of them, in one blocklist, with no account and no subscription.

The trick with news specifically is that you need to block a list, not a site, and you need a blocker that doesn't cap how many you add. Most of this guide is about doing that without paying.

The fast answer

To block news websites on Chrome for free, install Focuh from the Chrome Web Store, add every outlet you compulsively check — cnn.com, nytimes.com, bbc.com, news.google.com, and the rest — to the blocklist, then start a challenge. Each blocked tab redirects to a quiet local page. There's no account, no telemetry, and crucially no 3-site cap, so your whole news rotation fits in one list.

If you also read the news in Safari or on news apps, a Chrome extension won't reach those. On a Mac, add the free Focuh desktop app for system-level blocking across every browser and app.

Why the site cap matters for news

Most "free" blockers limit you to a handful of sites. For a single distraction like one social network, that's fine. For news, it's the whole problem.

Your actual news habit probably looks like this: two or three major outlets, a local paper, one or two aggregators, Hacker News, and a couple of subreddits. That's eight to ten domains before you've added anything niche. A blocker capped at three sites — like BlockSite's free tier — taps out before you've finished your morning list, and the habit just flows to whatever you couldn't block.

Blocker	Site limit (free)	Account	Best for news?
Focuh	Unlimited	None	Yes — fits your whole rotation
BlockSite	3 sites	Required	No — runs out fast
StayFocusd	Unlimited	None	Workable, dated UX
LeechBlock NG	Unlimited (30 sets)	None	Yes, if you like configuring

The unlimited list is the point. See our best free website blocker for Chrome guide for how these compare beyond just news.

Step-by-step: block news websites on Chrome (free)

These steps work in Chrome on Mac or Windows, and in Brave, Edge, Arc, and other Chromium browsers.

1. Install Focuh

Open the Focuh extension page and add it to Chrome. The permission prompt covers storage, webNavigation, and host permissions, used to match the current page's hostname against your local list. Nothing is sent anywhere.

2. Build your news blocklist

Open the options page (click the Focuh icon, or right-click → Options) and add your domains one at a time. A realistic starting list:

Major outlets: cnn.com, nytimes.com, bbc.com, theguardian.com, washingtonpost.com
Aggregators: news.google.com, news.ycombinator.com
Social news: reddit.com (or specific subreddits via a path-based tool)
Your local paper and any niche sites you refresh

Add as many as you need — there's no cap. Plain domains work; skip http:// and www..

3. Set a challenge length

Choose 30 days to reset the refresh habit, 91 days to break it, 180 days for a deep reset, or a custom number. The challenge runs in the background and counts every attempt, which is oddly motivating once you see how many times a day you reach for the news.

4. Test it

Open a new tab and visit one of your blocked outlets. You should hit Focuh's local blocked page, and the attempt counter ticks up. Repeat for a couple of sites to confirm the whole list took.

Don't forget the aggregators

The most common reason a news block fails is leaving a back door open. You block CNN and the BBC, feel virtuous, then get your fix from Google News, Apple News on the web, or a news-heavy subreddit. Add the aggregators and social entry points to the same list:

news.google.com
Any news subreddits you use as a feed
Social platforms you treat as news (block them outright if they double as your timeline)

The goal is to close every easy door in one pass. If you're also fighting Reddit specifically, our guide to blocking Reddit on Chrome covers that case in detail.

Alternative methods (with honest trade-offs)

Edit the hosts file (macOS / Linux)

You can block news domains system-wide by mapping each to 127.0.0.1:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 cnn.com
127.0.0.1 www.cnn.com
127.0.0.1 nytimes.com

Flush DNS afterward:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Pros: blocks every browser at once. Cons: tedious for a long list, needs admin access, and editing it again to add or remove a site gets old fast.

A free desktop blocker

Focuh for Mac blocks at the OS level, covering Chrome, Safari, Edge, and any news app in one shot. This is the right choice if you tend to switch browsers to dodge the block, which is especially common with news because it feels justified.

What about news on your phone and other browsers?

A Chrome extension only blocks Chrome. News in Safari, Firefox, or Edge loads normally, and so do the news apps on your phone. For broader coverage:

macOS, all browsers and apps: Focuh for Mac
iPhone / iPad: Screen Time → App Limits on news apps and Safari categories
Android: Digital Wellbeing app timers

Layer them: the free Chrome extension for browser tabs, a free desktop blocker for other browsers and apps, and the built-in phone controls for mobile.

How to stay informed without refreshing all day

Blocking the news isn't about going dark — it's about reading on a schedule instead of on a reflex. The compulsion comes from novelty and a manufactured sense of urgency: headlines imply that not reading right now is risky, and refreshing is a variable-reward loop where the occasional big story trains you to keep checking. During tense periods this tips into doomscrolling.

The fix is a deliberate window. Block news during focused work, then open one 15-to-20-minute slot a day to read what actually matters. A morning email digest covers the rest. You stay informed; you just stop letting the news interrupt every block of deep work. Given that it takes around 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption, a single daily read beats forty quick checks by a wide margin.

Block news websites on Chrome now

Install Focuh from the Chrome Web Store — free, no account, no site cap, set up in about a minute. If you're on a Mac and want news blocked across other browsers and apps too, add the free Focuh desktop app.