How to Block Websites on Chrome: Every Method, Ranked

You told yourself you’d stop checking Reddit during work hours. Then you opened a new tab, and your fingers typed it anyway before your brain had a say. Sound familiar?

You’re not alone, and you’re not lacking willpower. Chrome just makes distraction very, very easy. The frustrating reality is that there’s no native way to block websites on Chrome, no built-in setting you can toggle. There’s no native setting you can toggle. If you want to keep certain sites off-limits, you need to set something up yourself.

There are several solid ways to do it, from a quick extension install to solutions that sync across all your devices; and some hold up a lot better than others when your focus actually wavers.

Method 1: Use a Chrome extension (quick and easy)

The fastest way to block websites on Chrome is with a browser extension. If you just need a light layer of accountability to keep yourself off Twitter during a work sprint, an extension can get you set up in minutes.

How to install a Chrome blocking extension

1. Open Chrome and go to the Chrome Web Store
2. Search for your extension of choice (more on options below)
3. Click Add to Chrome, then confirm by clicking Add extension
4. Once installed, open the extension and add the sites you want to block

Most blocking extensions let you add sites to a blocklist, set time limits, or schedule when blocking is active. A few worth knowing:

• Freedom — blocks sites and apps across Chrome and your other devices simultaneously. More on this below.
• StayFocusd — a free Chrome extension that limits how much time you can spend on specific sites per day
• LeechBlock — highly customizable, lets you block by time of day or after a set number of minutes

The catch with Chrome extensions

Chrome extensions are easy to get around. Open an incognito window and most blockers won’t work unless you’ve specifically enabled them there. Feel a moment of weakness and want to unblock a site? You can disable or remove the extension in about three clicks.

That’s not a knock on extensions! For casual use, they’re fine. But if you’re someone who genuinely struggles to stay off certain sites, a browser extension alone probably isn’t enough.

Method 2: Block websites on Chrome on your phone

Most distraction doesn’t happen at your desk. They happen on your phone, a quick check that turns into twenty minutes. Blocking Chrome on desktop but leaving mobile wide open is like locking the front door and leaving the back door swinging.

On iPhone (iOS)

Apple’s Screen Time feature can restrict Safari, but Chrome on iPhone runs inside iOS’s browser framework, which means you can use Screen Time’s content restrictions to block specific websites across all browsers including Chrome.

1. Go to Settings → Screen Time
2. If Screen Time isn’t enabled, tap Turn On Screen Time
3. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content
4. Choose Limit Adult Websites to block explicit content, or Allowed Websites Only to whitelist specific sites
5. Under Never Allow, add the URLs you want to block (e.g., reddit.com, twitter.com)

One limitation: iOS Screen Time is more of a parental control tool than a focus tool. You can bypass it with your Screen Time passcode, it doesn’t allow scheduling, and it’s all-or-nothing per site.

On Android

Android doesn’t have a single built-in equivalent to iOS Screen Time for website blocking in Chrome. Your best options are:

• Digital Wellbeing (Settings → Digital Wellbeing & parental controls): lets you set app timers, but doesn’t block specific websites within Chrome
• Third-party apps like Freedom, which can block specific sites inside Chrome on Android through a VPN-based filter

True website-level blocking in Chrome on Android requires a dedicated app. The built-in tools just aren’t granular enough.

Method 3: System-level blocking (no extension required)

If you want to block sites without relying on a Chrome extension, or if you want something that works across all browsers on your computer, you can edit your computer’s hosts file. More technical, but effective and hard to undo accidentally.

On Windows

The hosts file is a plain text file that tells your computer to redirect certain domain names. By pointing a site to a dead address, you effectively block it in any browser.

1. Press Windows + R, type notepad, then right-click Notepad and choose Run as administrator
2. In Notepad, open the file at: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
3. At the bottom of the file, add a new line for each site you want to block:
   127.0.0.1 reddit.com
127.0.0.1 www.reddit.com
4. Save the file (you may need to confirm admin permissions)
5. Flush your DNS cache by opening Command Prompt and typing: ipconfig /flushdns

On Mac

1. Open Terminal (search for it in Spotlight)
2. Type: sudo nano /etc/hosts and press Enter
3. Enter your Mac password when prompted
4. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the bottom of the file and add your entries:
   127.0.0.1 reddit.com
127.0.0.1 www.reddit.com
5. Press Control + X, then Y to save, then Enter
6. Flush the DNS cache by typing: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

The trade-off

The hosts file method works across all browsers and doesn’t require any installed software. But it only applies to that one computer, doesn’t sync to your phone, and requires a bit of technical comfort. It’s also all-or-nothing: you can’t say “block Reddit from 9am–5pm” without more setup.

Method 4: Cross-device blocking with Freedom (the serious option)

If you’ve tried extensions and found yourself disabling them, or you keep forgetting that your phone isn’t covered, this is where things actually change.

Freedom is a focus app built specifically for this problem. The core difference: Freedom works across all your devices simultaneously: Your Mac, Windows PC, iPhone, Android, and Chrome, so when you start a blocking session, everything is covered at once.

How Freedom blocks websites on Chrome

Freedom operates at the network level rather than through a browser extension alone. That means it can block sites in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and any other browser or app, all at the same time.

To set up your first Chrome-blocking session:

1. Download Freedom and create an account
2. In the Freedom app, go to Blocklists and create a new list
3. Add the sites you want to block (e.g., twitter.com, reddit.com, youtube.com) or choose from Freedom’s pre-built lists like “Social Media” or “News Sites”
4. Click Start Session, choose your blocklist, set a duration, and start

Within seconds, those sites will be unreachable in Chrome and every other browser on your device.

Scheduled blocking

One of Freedom’s most useful features for Chrome blocking is scheduling. Instead of remembering to start a session every morning, you can set recurring blocks that run automatically:

• Block social media every weekday from 9am to 5pm
• Block news sites after 10pm so you’re not doom-scrolling before bed
• Set a “deep work” block every morning before you check email

Locked mode: for when you don’t trust yourself

Locked Mode is what actually separates Freedom from a browser extension.

When you start a session in Locked Mode, you can’t end it early. Not even if you really, really want to. The session runs until the timer expires, and there’s no override. No toggle to flip, no uninstall trick that works.

This sounds extreme, but it’s often exactly what people need. Most of us don’t fail at focus because we lack good intentions. We fail because future-us, in a moment of stress or boredom, undoes what past-us carefully set up. Locked Mode removes that option.

Which method is right for you?

Not everyone needs the same level of blocking:

If you’ve already tried a Chrome extension and it hasn’t stuck, that’s not a willpower problem, it’s a tools problem. Extensions are easy to bypass. Something that works across your devices and can’t be disabled mid-session is a different category of help.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

Start with a Chrome extension if you want something up and running in two minutes. If you’ve already tried that and found yourself disabling it an hour later, the extension isn’t the problem… it’s that it’s too easy to undo. Freedom is built for that gap: it blocks across all your devices at once, supports scheduling, and has a locked mode that means what it says.

Try Freedom free for 7 days →

Looking to go further? Check out our guides on how to block Instagram, how to block YouTube, and the best productivity browser extensions to pair with your Chrome blocking setup.