How do I block YouTube Shorts on Chrome for free?

The simplest free route is to block all of youtube.com with a free Chrome blocker like Focuh, which redirects every YouTube tab — Shorts included — to a quiet local page. Install the extension, add youtube.com to the blocklist, and start a challenge. It takes under a minute and needs no account. If you want to keep regular YouTube but kill only the Shorts feed, you need a path-level tool instead, covered below.

Can I block only YouTube Shorts and still watch normal videos?

Yes, but not with a plain domain blocker. Blocking youtube.com blocks the whole site, Shorts and all. To remove only the Shorts feed while keeping standard videos, use a tool that filters by URL path — LeechBlock NG can block youtube.com/shorts as a pattern, and a few dedicated 'hide Shorts' extensions strip the Shorts shelf from the homepage. Those are the right pick if YouTube is part of your work or study.

Why does YouTube Shorts feel harder to stop than regular videos?

Shorts is a vertical, autoplaying, infinite feed — the same format as TikTok and Reels. There is no natural end point, so the decision to stop never arrives on its own. Regular YouTube at least pauses between videos and shows a recommendations page you can close. Shorts removes that pause, which is why a hard block tends to work better than relying on willpower to swipe away.

Will blocking YouTube on Chrome also block Shorts in the YouTube app?

No. A Chrome extension only controls tabs inside Chrome. The YouTube desktop app, the iOS and Android apps, and YouTube in other browsers like Safari are all outside its reach, so Shorts still plays there. To cover those routes on a Mac, add the free Focuh desktop app, which blocks at the system level across every browser and app. On a phone, use Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing app limits.

Does blocking Shorts work in Brave, Edge, and Arc?

Yes. Focuh is a Chromium extension, so it installs and runs in any Chromium-based browser that accepts Chrome Web Store extensions — Brave, Edge, Arc, and Vivaldi included. You install it separately in each browser because extension storage is per-browser. If you tend to switch browsers to dodge a block, a single-browser extension will not hold, and a system-level Mac app is the better fit.

Can a Chrome extension blocking Shorts be bypassed?

Yes. Any Chrome extension can be turned off from chrome://extensions, so a determined user can always disable it. That is by design — a free blocker is meant to interrupt the reflex, not to be unbreakable. If you need blocking that is hard to switch off mid-session, the Focuh desktop app for Mac uses macOS Accessibility APIs, which is far harder to undo on impulse than toggling an extension.

How long should I block YouTube Shorts for?

Long enough to break the swipe reflex, not so long you resent it. Thirty days is usually enough to stop reaching for Shorts on autopilot; ninety days lets a new default settle. With Focuh you pick a challenge length up front — 30, 91, 180 days, or a custom number — and the block runs in the background. If you relapse the moment it ends, start another challenge. There is no penalty for repeating.

Is blocking Shorts better than setting a YouTube time limit?

It depends on the problem. A time limit assumes you can spend a controlled amount on Shorts and stop, which is exactly what the infinite feed is designed to defeat. A hard block removes the choice entirely, so the reflex hits a wall instead of a countdown. If Shorts is a genuine compulsion, blocking holds up better; if it is occasional, a limit may be enough.

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How to Block YouTube Shorts on Chrome (Free) — 2026

June 7, 20269 min readFocuh

YouTube Shorts is the fastest way to lose twenty minutes you meant to spend working. The feed is vertical, autoplaying, and endless, so there's no natural moment to stop. This guide shows you how to block YouTube Shorts on Chrome for free, in about a minute, with no account — either by blocking all of YouTube or by stripping out just the Shorts feed.

It also covers the parts most Chrome-only blocks miss: the YouTube desktop app, Shorts in other browsers, and Shorts on your phone.

How to block YouTube Shorts on Chrome — the fast answer

To block YouTube Shorts on Chrome for free, install Focuh from the Chrome Web Store, add youtube.com to the blocklist, and start a challenge. Every YouTube tab — Shorts included — redirects to a quiet local page, and the extension counts each attempt. No account, no 3-site cap, no telemetry.

That blocks all of YouTube. If you need YouTube for work or study and only want the Shorts feed gone, skip to the path-level method below — a plain domain blocker can't separate Shorts from the rest of the site.

Two versions of this problem

Before you install anything, decide which one you actually have:

You want YouTube gone entirely. Shorts is just the worst part of a site you already lose time to. A domain blocker is the clean fix.
You need YouTube but Shorts is the trap. You watch tutorials, lectures, or work references on YouTube, but the Shorts shelf and the swipe-up feed derail you. You need path-level blocking, not a full-site block.

Picking the wrong one is why people give up. Block all of YouTube when you genuinely needed it for work, and you'll disable the blocker by Tuesday. Try to "just watch less" Shorts on an infinite feed, and you won't.

Method 1: Block all of YouTube (Shorts included)

This is the right method if YouTube as a whole costs you more than it gives you.

1. Install Focuh

Open the Focuh page and click install. Confirm the permission prompt — the extension checks the current page hostname locally against your blocklist and sends nothing off your device.

2. Add youtube.com to the blocklist

Click the Focuh icon, open the options page, and add youtube.com. Because Shorts lives at youtube.com/shorts, the same domain entry covers it. If you also use YouTube Music, add music.youtube.com separately — it's a different host.

3. Set a challenge length

Pick 30, 91, or 180 days, or a custom number. The block runs in the background, and each time you open a YouTube tab it redirects and ticks the daily attempt counter up by one. That counter is quietly useful: seeing "YouTube — 14 attempts today" tells you how strong the reflex really is.

This method is the same one in the full how to block YouTube on Chrome guide, with Shorts folded in for free.

Method 2: Block only the Shorts feed (keep regular YouTube)

A plain domain blocker can't do this — it works at the hostname level, and Shorts shares youtube.com with every video you want to keep. You need a tool that filters by URL path.

LeechBlock NG lets you block a URL pattern like youtube.com/shorts* while leaving the rest of the site open. It's free and open source, though the setup screen is dense.
Dedicated "hide Shorts" extensions remove the Shorts shelf from the homepage and the sidebar, so you stop seeing them in the first place. They don't run a timer or count attempts — they're cosmetic, not a hard block.

Approach	Blocks all YouTube?	Blocks only Shorts?	Account	Has a timer/challenge
Focuh (domain block)	Yes	No	None	Yes
LeechBlock NG (path rule)	Optional	Yes	None	Schedules only
Hide-Shorts extension	No	Hides feed	Varies	No

Be honest with yourself about which column you need. If you keep telling yourself you'll only watch the tutorials and then thumb through Shorts for half an hour, the "keep regular YouTube" path may just be a loophole you're building on purpose.

What about Shorts in the app and other browsers?

Chrome extensions only block what happens inside Chrome. Shorts still plays in:

The YouTube desktop app (Mac, Windows, or installed as a PWA)
Safari, Firefox, and other non-Chromium browsers
The YouTube mobile apps on iOS and Android

For full coverage on a Mac, install the free Focuh desktop app alongside the Chrome extension. The desktop app blocks at the macOS system level, so Shorts is unreachable in Safari, Chrome, the YouTube app, and every other browser at once — the gap a Chrome-only block always leaves. The reasoning behind OS-level blocking is laid out in system-level vs browser website blocking.

On a phone, there's no extension to install. Use Screen Time → App Limits on iOS or Digital Wellbeing timers on Android to cap or block the YouTube app, which is where most Shorts time actually goes.

Why Shorts is harder to quit than regular YouTube

Regular YouTube has seams. A video ends, autoplay pauses for a beat, and a recommendations page appears that you can close. Those seams are tiny exits. Shorts removes every one of them — the next clip starts before you've decided to keep watching, and the feed never reaches a bottom.

That's the same design TikTok and Instagram Reels use, and it's why a soft "I'll watch less" rarely works on it. There's no built-in moment where stopping is the default action. A block reintroduces a hard stop. When the swipe lands on Focuh's blocked page instead of the next clip, the autopilot reflex hits a wall, and over a few weeks it stops firing. If Shorts is your main trap, the same logic applies to blocking TikTok on Chrome — same format, same fix.

Which method should you choose?

"YouTube costs me more than it's worth" — Use Method 1. Block youtube.com with Focuh; Shorts comes free.

"I need YouTube for work but Shorts derails me" — Use Method 2 with LeechBlock NG's path rules or a hide-Shorts extension.

"Shorts follows me into Safari and the app" — Add the free Focuh Mac app for system-level blocking across every browser and app.

No extension fixes the swipe habit by itself, and any of them can be switched off. The point isn't to make Shorts impossible to reach — it's to interrupt the reflex long enough that you notice you're reaching. Install Focuh free, no account, and add the free desktop app if Shorts shows up everywhere else too.