YouTube Comments Off by Dario Cositore

Hides YouTube comments, like counts and live chat. Two switches: one for comments, one for likes. Free, no account, no tracking.

YouTube show the most engaging comments first, and the most engaging comments provoke a reaction. So before you finish the video, you have already read three arguments and been ragebaited. The like count does the same thing, you see 4,200 likes, and your brain thinks the video is "good" even before you have decided anything for yourself. What YouTube Comments Off removes, on every video: • the comments section, including Shorts and channel pages • the like and dislike counts, on videos and on the Shorts rail • live chat on streams and premieres • the comment button itself Nothing else changes. The video, title, description, channel, related videos, and search work exactly as before. Ads play as normal, and creators are unaffected; you still watch, you stop arguing. Two switches, if you want them. Everything turned Off by default. One blocks the comments, live chat and the comment button. The other blocks the likes, on videos and on the Shorts rail, where the like icon disappears next to the comment icon. Both are on by default, so a fresh install behaves exactly like it always has. Some videos you want to know the room temperature on before you press play, some you do not: turn "Block likes" off and the number stays where it is while the comments stay hidden. The second switch is per channel, if you want it. Some channels are worth keeping comments for: a creator whose community is genuinely useful, a language-learning channel where the corrections are the point, a friend's uploads... So, open the pop-up while you are on that channel or video and flip "Except this channel" or "Except this video". That one channel keeps its comments; every other YouTube channel stays blocked. Flip it back, and they go dark again. Free, and it stays free. No account. No ads. No pro version. No upsell. The extension makes zero network requests, no backend, no analytics, no trackers. It asks for exactly two things: permission to run on YouTube pages, and Chrome's own storage to remember your switches. Your allow-list never leaves your browser. About 40 KB of code. No frameworks. One job. It injects a stylesheet and follows YouTube's own navigation, so nothing comes back when you move between videos. It is lighter than most ad blockers by a significant margin. Works on: videos, Shorts, channel pages, live streams, and premieres. Install in about ten seconds: 1. Click "Add to Chrome". 2. Open any YouTube video; comments and like counts are already gone. 3. Want the like counter back? Open the extension's icon and turn "Block likes" off. Want one channel back? Open its video, click the extension's icon, flip "Except this channel". Frequently asked questions Does it slow YouTube down? No. It injects a few CSS rules and one observer, negligible overhead. Does it work on Shorts? Yes. Every youtube.com page is covered. What if I want to see comments on one video? Flip "Except this video" in the popup, one click, one video. Flip it back, and the comments go dark again. Can I keep the like count and still lose the comments? Yes. That is exactly what "Block likes" does. Turn it off and the counts come back on videos and on Shorts. The comments, the live chat and the comment button stay gone either way. Does it collect anything? No. It cannot: there are no network requests of any kind. Your settings live in Chrome's own sync storage. Free. No account. No data. Install once. Watch without the noise. What's new (goes with the 1.3.0 upload) • A second switch, "Block likes", next to "Block comments" in the popup. On, the like and dislike counts go exactly as they went before. Off, they stay on the page while the comments and the live chat stay hidden. It is On by default, so a fresh install behaves like 1.2.0 and nothing changes for anyone until they ask for it. • The like icon on Shorts goes too. Until now the extension hid the comment icon in the Shorts rail and left the like icon alone, so the two screens behaved differently. From 1.3.0 the Shorts rail follows the same switch as the video page, in every language YouTube ships. • Two switches that never fight each other. The comment gates, the channel exceptions and the video exceptions read nothing of the like counter switch, and it reads nothing of them. Flip one, the other stays exactly as it was. With the extension Off, or on a channel you have allowed, YouTube is left completely untouched. • One more setting in Chrome's own sync storage, and still no network requests, no analytics, no data leaving your browser. Still in from 1.2.0: • Per-channel and per-video exceptions. Open the popup on any video or channel page and flip "Except this channel" or "Except this video". That one channel or video keeps its comments; everything else on YouTube stays blocked. The choice lives in Chrome's own sync storage and is never sent anywhere. • The popup now explains itself. If an option cannot be shown, for instance on a non-YouTube tab, or right after an update when an open tab is still running the old copy, it tells you why instead of silently hiding the switch. • New icon. • An optional support button in the popup footer. Never in the way, and the extension stays free either way. • The version badge now links to the full changelog. • Maintenance and stability fixes.