When you open chrome, and it restores all your tabs, this extension unloads all tabs except the active tab
Users
533
+5 in 30 days
Rating
5.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
4
0 in 30 days
Store rank
#42K
#36K among extensions
Version
0.0.3
updated 7 Feb 2025
Users
monthly, 3 years
Latest, 16 Oct 2026:533 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 3 years
Latest, 16 Oct 2026:4 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month
The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.
About OnLoad Unload Tabs
When you open Chrome, start up Chrome... Chrome might restore all your tabs from your last session. This extension will unload all those tabs, so you aren't wasting computer resources loading those webpages.
As soon as you click on an unloaded tab, it will load the webpage as normal.
Firefox browser does this by default, and now, with this extension, you can have this feature in Chrome too.
It was also pointed out to me, that you might want certain websites to never be unloaded. For example, your email. So, there is a settings page where you can add websites that you NEVER want this extension to unload.
Why did I make this?
I didn't like that I would open Chrome and all my tabs would start loading. I don't need all of them to load, I might not even click on most of them. I liked that in Firefox, I didn't need to worry about how many tabs I had open, since I knew when I restarted the browser, none of those tabs would load until I clicked on them (but the tabs were still there, ready to be clicked if I wanted them).
After some research, I found that Chrome does have this feature, but it's only available to extensions. So, I created this extension for myself, so I can once again use Chrome with tonnes of tabs open, and not worry about wasting my computer's resources on those tabs.
Additional Features
Besides unloading all tabs when you open Chrome...
1) Added a right click menu option: you can click this option and it will unload all your inactive tabs immediately.
2) There is a settings page where you can add websites to never be unloaded. For instance, you might want your email to stay loaded.
That's it. This is a very lightweight extension. Enjoy :)
Note:
This extension only unloads tabs:
a) when you open Chrome, or
b) when you click the menu item.
It doesn't unload tabs at any other time.
Permissions Explained:
"Read your browsing history" - this is used for the exceptions list, the extension checks if the tab's web url matches the url you want to be ignored. This extension doesn't look at or use your browsing history.
Credits:
The extension icon, the computer with 3 gears, was created by phatplus on freeicons.io (https://freeicons.io/profile/51091).
Growth
Window
Users
Change
Ratings
Rating
7 days
+33
+6.6%
0
0.00
30 days
+5
+0.9%
0
0.00
6 months
+32
+6.4%
0
0.00
1 year
+255
+91.7%
+1
0.00
Chrome Web Store search rankings
Where OnLoad Unload Tabs appears when people search the store, with the 30 day change