Limit your YouTube and Shorts time with smart blocking, per-day limits and bonus time.
Users
25
+5 in 30 days
Rating
5.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
2
0 in 30 days
Store rank
#138K
#115K among extensions
Version
1.2.0
updated 2 Aug 2026
Users
monthly, 7 months
Latest, 15 Oct 2026:25 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 7 months
Latest, 15 Oct 2026:2 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 YouTube Soft Limit
Most YouTube blockers kill the video you are in the middle of. YouTube Soft Limit waits for it to finish, then blocks the next one. It is a daily screen time limit that never cuts you off mid-video.
Built for anyone cutting down on YouTube screen time, doomscrolling Shorts, or an evening lost to autoplay.
How the soft block works
Set a daily limit for YouTube. The timer runs while a video plays, background tabs included. Go over your limit and nothing happens: the video keeps playing to the end. The block screen shows up once it finishes, or when you open the next video.
Shorts get their own limit
Shorts loop forever, which is what makes doomscrolling so easy, and it means there is no end to wait for. So Shorts have a separate counter and a separate daily limit, and they stop the moment it runs out. Videos and Shorts never share time: burning through your Shorts minutes leaves your videos alone.
A different limit for every day
Keep one global limit, or set a value per weekday. Ninety minutes Monday to Thursday, three hours on Saturday, whatever fits your week. Videos and Shorts each get their own value per day.
Hide Shorts entirely
One switch removes Shorts from the home feed, search results, subscriptions, the sidebar and channel pages. Shorts links redirect to the home page before the page loads.
Friction where it matters
Lowering a limit applies instantly. Raising today's limit costs a one minute wait plus a small arithmetic problem, usually long enough for the urge to pass. The add-time buttons work the same way: solve the equation to add 15 or 30 minutes, and the bonus expires with the day.
The day ends at 4 AM
Counters reset at 4 AM instead of midnight, so a session that runs past bedtime still counts against the day it started in.
Nothing leaves your browser
There is no account and no sign in. Your limits and counters live in local browser storage, and the extension only runs on youtube.com.