Claude Chrome Extension: How to Install and Use Claude in Chrome

Most AI assistants stop at the edge of the chat window. You ask, they answer, and then you go and do the clicking yourself. The Claude Chrome extension changes that. It sits in your browser and can read the page you're on, click buttons, type into forms and move between tabs while you watch.

Anthropic calls it Claude in Chrome. You'll still see it searched for as the Claude Chrome extension or Claude for Chrome, which was the name during the early pilot. This guide sticks to what Anthropic's own help pages say, then adds the jobs I'd give it first in a small business and the safety settings I'd check before letting it loose.

What is the Claude Chrome extension?

It's a browser extension that lets Claude act on websites alongside you. In Anthropic's words, Claude can read pages, click, type, navigate and fill out forms, using the logins you already have. So if you're signed in to your email, your CRM or your website dashboard in Chrome, Claude can work inside those tabs without you handing over a password.

That's the big difference from a normal chat. You don't copy a page into Claude and paste the answer back. Claude works on the page itself, and you approve what it does.

Who can use Claude in Chrome?

Anthropic made Claude in Chrome generally available on its Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. It isn't part of the free plan. The help page still labels the side panel itself as beta, so expect the odd change to the layout while that settles.

A few limits worth knowing before you install it:

• The standalone extension works in Google Chrome only, not in other Chromium browsers.
• There's no mobile version of the extension.
• Through Claude Code, the extension can also connect in Microsoft Edge, and Anthropic says it's detected in Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera.
• Team and Enterprise admins can switch it off for the whole organisation, or restrict it with lists of allowed and blocked sites.

How do I install the Claude Chrome extension?

Anthropic's help page walks through it in six steps. In plain terms:

1. Open the Chrome Web Store and find Claude in Chrome, published by Anthropic.
2. Click to add it to Chrome.
3. Sign in with your Claude account.
4. Pin the extension to your toolbar so it's one click away.
5. Review and grant the browser permissions it asks for. The help page lists fifteen.
6. Open the side panel and give Claude its first task.

Read the permissions screen rather than clicking straight through. It's the one moment where you see everything the extension can touch.

What can Claude do in Chrome?

Here's what Anthropic lists, with the business use I'd pair with each:

Feature	What it does	A first job for a small business
Read and act on pages	Clicks, types, navigates and fills forms	Copy enquiry details from a web form into your CRM
Multi-tab work	Works across several tabs, grouped into its own tab group	Compare three supplier pages side by side
Shortcuts	Saved prompts you reuse by typing a slash	A standard way to summarise any article you're reading
Scheduled tasks	Browser tasks that repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly	A weekly check of your own contact page and booking form
Recorded workflows	Record a task once and have Claude repeat it	The same admin steps you do every Friday
Background work	Keeps going when you switch tabs, as long as Chrome stays open	Let it tidy a spreadsheet while you answer email

One catch on recorded workflows: Anthropic says they work in the classic side panel, not the Cowork side panel. If you use Claude Cowork day to day, you'll notice the two panels don't offer exactly the same tools yet.

How do the permission modes work?

This is the part I'd spend most time on. Anthropic gives you three modes:

• Manual: Claude asks before each action. Slowest, safest, and where I'd start.
• Auto: Claude runs a safety review on each action and goes ahead with the ones that pass.
• Skip: no approvals at all. I wouldn't use this on any site that holds client or customer data.

On top of the mode, you can set permissions site by site: allow a single action, always allow actions on that site, or decline. Some actions always need your approval whatever the mode, such as entering potentially sensitive information. And some are blocked outright, including purchases, creating accounts and following instructions that Claude finds inside emails or web pages.

When Claude meets a login page or a CAPTCHA, it pauses and hands control back to you. That's deliberate. You sign in; Claude carries on afterwards.

Is the Claude Chrome extension safe to use?

Anthropic is upfront that it still carries risk. The main danger is prompt injection: hidden instructions on a web page that try to steer Claude into doing something you didn't ask for. Anthropic reports that on its harder internal test, attacks that reached the model succeeded 3.8% of the time against Opus 5 before extra safeguards, compared with 17.6% for Opus 4.5. That's a big improvement, but it isn't zero.

My rules for a business setting are simple:

• Start in Manual mode and only move to Auto for sites you know well.
• Keep it away from banking and payment pages entirely.
• Use per-site permissions so Claude can't wander into tabs it doesn't need.
• Never ask it to act on instructions sent to you by email. Anthropic blocks this anyway, which tells you how seriously it takes the risk.

Prompts to try in Claude in Chrome

Short, specific instructions work best. Tell Claude which tab, what to do, and when to stop and check with you.

Copy this prompt

On the open tab, read our contact form submissions page.
For each new enquiry, list the name, company, what they asked for and how urgent it sounds.
Don't reply to anyone. Show me the list and wait.

Copy and paste this prompt

Open our website's home page, services page and contact page in separate tabs.
Check each one for broken links, missing phone numbers and forms that don't submit.
Give me a short report with the page, the problem and a suggested fix.

Developers get the same browser powers from the terminal: Claude Code can connect to the extension and check the pages it builds in a real browser.

Tools that work with Claude in Chrome

The extension is only as useful as the tabs you open for it. The tools I see it paired with most are Gmail and Google Calendar for admin, HubSpot or Pipedrive for logging leads, WordPress for small website edits, Google Sheets for tidying data, and Notion or Trello for turning findings into tasks. Inside the wider Claude family, Claude Code and Claude Cowork can both use the extension too.

If you want help deciding which browser jobs are safe to hand over and which should stay with a person, this is the kind of practical implementation help I give founders, or you can see how I work with business owners.

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude for Chrome the same as Claude in Chrome?

Yes. Claude for Chrome was the name during Anthropic's early pilot. The product is now called Claude in Chrome, and it's the same browser extension.

Is the Claude Chrome extension free?

No. Anthropic made it available on its Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. It isn't included in the free Claude plan.

Does Claude in Chrome work in other browsers?

The standalone extension works in Google Chrome only and not on mobile. Through Claude Code it can also connect in Microsoft Edge and is detected in Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and Opera.

Can Claude in Chrome buy things or create accounts?

No. Anthropic blocks purchases, account creation and following instructions found in emails or web pages, and some sensitive actions always need your approval.

What happens when Claude hits a login page?

Claude pauses at login pages and CAPTCHAs and asks you to handle them yourself, then carries on with the task.