Chrome Extension Statistics 2026: Store Size, Adoption and Updates
Direct Answer
Exstats counted 178,299 active Chrome Web Store extensions in March 2026, but the median extension had only 18 users and 70.4% had 100 users or fewer. Chrome added 38,015 listings and removed 7,890 in Q1 2026, a net gain of 30,125 after a large cleanup in late 2025. Only 2.63% of Chrome listings exceeded 10,000 users. The distribution is the main finding: publishing an extension is common; reaching a material audience is not.
| Metric | Chrome Web Store figure | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Active extensions | 178,299 | March 2026 |
| Year-over-year listing growth | 22.70% | March 2025 to March 2026 |
| Median users | 18 | Public usersCount field |
| Listings with 100 users or fewer | 70.4% | Q1 2026 adoption buckets |
| Listings with more than 10,000 users | 2.63% | Q1 2026 adoption buckets |
| Updated within 90 days | 30.80% | As of March 31, 2026 |
| Updated within 365 days | 62.58% | As of March 31, 2026 |
Why This Dataset Is Narrower Than the Old Page
This page now measures the extension ecosystem, not the Chrome browser as a whole. The prior dataset mixed browser market share, privacy browsers, uninstall commentary and corrupted sentence fragments. Those rows could not support the page’s extension-specific search intent.
The replacement contains 19 source-locked claims from Exstats’ Q1 2026 extension-store census. Each row carries a stable claim ID, the original source, the measurement method, a caveat and an audit date. Browser usage belongs in a browser-market report; extension monetization belongs in the extension monetization dataset.
Top Citable Chrome Extension Statistics
178,299 active Chrome extensions
Exstats reported 178,299 active Chrome Web Store extensions in March 2026. The count is based on daily parsing of public extension-store data. Source
22.70% year-over-year listing growth
Chrome extension listings grew 22.70% year over year from March 2025 to March 2026. Firefox listings grew 74.16% and Edge listings grew 21.55% over the same interval. Source
30,125 net new listings in Q1 2026
Chrome added 38,015 extensions and removed 7,890 during Q1 2026, producing net growth of 30,125 listings. Listing growth is a supply measure, not evidence of user demand. Source
Median Chrome extension: 18 users
The median Chrome extension had 18 users in the Q1 2026 Exstats dataset. Public usersCount is an adoption signal, not a measure of active or paying users. Source
70.4% have 100 users or fewer
Exstats reported that 70.4% of Chrome extensions had 100 users or fewer. A small visible audience can still represent a private, enterprise or specialist tool, so the bucket should not be read as a failure rate. Source
2.63% exceed 10,000 users
Only 2.63% of Chrome listings appeared in the more-than-10,000-users bucket. The store is therefore highly concentrated: a small share of listings captures a large public audience. Source
Store Size and Listing Churn
Exstats reported 178,299 Chrome extensions, 83,465 Firefox add-ons and 28,741 Edge add-ons in March 2026. The store totals are not perfectly comparable because each ecosystem exposes different public fields and applies different listing rules.
Chrome’s supply changed sharply across two quarters:
| Period or event | Chrome listing change |
|---|---|
| Q4 2025 | Net loss of 27,249 listings |
| October 2025 | 47,288 removals |
| Q1 2026 | 38,015 additions, 7,890 removals |
| Q1 2026 net | +30,125 listings |
The total fell from 175,423 in September 2025 to 134,888 in October, then recovered to 178,299 by March 2026. A removal wave can reflect policy enforcement or cleanup; the dataset does not establish one cause for every deletion.
Chrome Extension User Distribution
The user distribution shows why store count alone overstates commercial opportunity.
| Public user bucket | Share of Chrome listings |
|---|---|
| 0 users | 14.10% |
| 1 to 10 users | 28.15% |
| 11 to 100 users | 28.17% |
| 101 to 1,000 users | 20.66% |
| 1,001 to 10,000 users | 6.29% |
| More than 10,000 users | 2.63% |
These buckets describe the Chrome Web Store’s visible usersCount. They do not reveal retention, paid conversion, revenue or whether a listing serves a private organization.
Cross-store medians are also definition-sensitive. Exstats reported a median of 62 active installs for Edge and one average daily user for Firefox, but those fields are not equivalent to Chrome’s usersCount.
Categories, Ratings and Reviews
Chrome’s largest categories by listing count were:
| Category | Listings |
|---|---|
| Tools | 65,135 |
| Workflow & Planning | 32,175 |
| Developer tools | 17,551 |
Exstats found that 49.8% of Chrome listings had at least one rating and 43.0% had at least one review. Among rated listings, the average Chrome score was 4.56, versus 4.27 on Edge and 4.15 on Firefox. Rated-only averages exclude every unrated listing and should not be treated as overall satisfaction scores.
Update Cadence
As of March 31, 2026, 30.80% of active Chrome extensions had been updated within 90 days and 62.58% within 365 days. The average interval between updates was 103 days, compared with 127 days for Edge and 111 days for Firefox.
Update recency is useful during due diligence because an abandoned extension can create security and compatibility risk. It is not a revenue proxy: stable products can require few updates, while weak products can update frequently.
What the Numbers Mean for Extension Builders
- Distribution is the binding constraint. The median of 18 users is more informative than the 178,299-listing headline.
- The 70.4% long tail makes a precise niche and an owned acquisition channel important.
- Ratings and reviews are absent on about half of listings, so early proof of trust can be differentiating.
- A recent update history supports buyer confidence, particularly for extensions that request sensitive permissions.
- Revenue cannot be inferred from public user counts. Use the extension monetization statistics page for business-model and store-policy analysis.
Methodology and Limitations
- Primary dataset: Exstats, Chrome vs Firefox vs Edge: Browser Extension Market in Q1 2026.
- Collection method: Exstats says it parses public extension-store data daily.
- Measurement date: March 2026; maintenance freshness is stated as of March 31, 2026.
- Audit date: August 4, 2026.
- Scope: active listings, listing churn, visible adoption buckets, categories, ratings, reviews and update cadence.
- Exclusions: browser market share, unsupported uninstall-rate claims, extension revenue estimates and cross-store comparisons that treat unlike adoption fields as equivalent.
Last verified: August 4, 2026.
Cite This Research
Tugelbay Konabayev. “Chrome Extension Statistics 2026: Store Size, Adoption and Updates.” Konabayev.com. Updated August 4, 2026. https://konabayev.com/blog/chrome-extension-statistics-2026/
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<p>Source: <a href="https://konabayev.com/blog/chrome-extension-statistics-2026/">Chrome Extension Statistics 2026 - Konabayev.com</a></p>Frequently Asked Questions
How many Chrome extensions are there in 2026?
Exstats reported 178,299 active Chrome Web Store extensions in March 2026. Counts can differ between crawlers because definitions, availability and crawl coverage differ.
How many users does the average Chrome extension have?
The more useful published statistic is the median: 18 users. The distribution is heavily skewed, so an arithmetic average would be dominated by a small number of very large extensions.
What share of Chrome extensions have fewer than 100 users?
Exstats placed 70.4% of Chrome extensions in the 100-users-or-fewer buckets. That includes 14.10% with zero users, 28.15% with 1 to 10, and 28.17% with 11 to 100.
How often are Chrome extensions updated?
Exstats reported an average update interval of 103 days. As of March 31, 2026, 30.80% had been updated within 90 days and 62.58% within one year.
Do Chrome Web Store user counts show revenue?
No. Public user counts do not reveal active users, paid users, subscription price, enterprise contracts, affiliate revenue or churn.
Related: browser extension monetization statistics, Chrome extension pricing models, and how to build a Chrome extension.
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