Sell a Chrome extension that adds one missing feature

Who pays

Regular users of a big site like LinkedIn, YouTube or Amazon pay for a feature the site doesn't offer. gregisenberg says most successful extensions give basic features away and charge $5-15/month for advanced ones. Some charge a one-time $20-50 for lifetime access, and others charge $0.10 per action. No source reports revenue from a single new extension, so treat these prices as a suggestion.

How to build it

1. List what a big site lacks

   Pick a site with millions of users, such as LinkedIn, YouTube or Amazon. Write down what annoys users, what they repeat by hand, which features are hidden, and what power users piece together themselves.

2. Build the extension with AI

   Describe the extension to Claude in plain words, for example 'save LinkedIn profiles to a Google Sheet when I visit them', and it will write the code. Use Cursor or Claude Code to fix bugs and keep improving it.

3. Split free and paid features

   Keep the basic feature free so people install it, and put the advanced features behind a paid plan.

4. Add payments to the extension

   Add payments inside the extension with ExtensionPay or Stripe, as a monthly plan, a one-time unlock or a charge per action.

5. Write a store listing that ranks

   Publish to the Chrome Web Store with a title and description built around the words people search for. The store listing also links back to your website.

6. Put up a simple landing page

   Host a one-page site on Vercel that shows the feature in a short demo and links to the store listing.

Sources on X

• gregisenberg · Jul 2, 2025

  gregisenberg suggests going to any major platform and asking what it's missing, since the biggest websites can't build every feature. He points to VidIQ, Grammarly (which he says sold for $13B) and Honey (which he says sold for $4B), and says most successful extensions use free basics with advanced features at $5-15/month. Others charge $20-50 for lifetime access or $0.10 per action. He says you can ask Claude or ChatGPT to write the whole extension.

• mehrab_build · Mar 8, 2026

  mehrab_build argues for building a Chrome extension instead of another free tool. The poster says you get a free backlink from a DR 99 domain, can rank for competitive keywords just by tuning your title and description, and can turn some paid features into the extension to win engaged users.

• AndreasKatzmann · Sep 24, 2026

  AndreasKatzmann says he missed his Figma tools while designing in the browser, so he built Squints, a free Chrome extension. It brings those tools over and adds some Figma doesn't have, like slowing animations down and scrubbing through them.

• WhyCaptainY · Sep 25, 2026

  WhyCaptainY says they made a Chrome extension that shows a score and rank on the OpenSea grid, a feature the site itself doesn't show, and submitted it to the Chrome Web Store.