YouTube Clean: Block Shorts, Filter Recommendations & Skip Ads

Distraction-free YouTube: hide comments and watched videos, change playback speed and shrink thumbnails. 70+ free controls.

Block YouTube Shorts, clean up recommendations and watch with fewer distractions. YouTube Clean brings feed filters, comment hiding, experimental ad skipping and playback controls together in one free Chrome extension. Keep the videos you want, remove the clutter around them and make the site work for you. Choose from 70+ settings in a side panel beside your video. Start with an editable preset or customize individual elements: your home feed, subscriptions, search results, watch page, player and left navigation. Free and open source, with no account, subscription or tracking. A QUICK LOOK AT WHAT YOU CAN DO • Remove short-video shelves and their navigation entry. • Filter out watched videos, mixes, playlists and members-only content. • Hide comments, live chat, end screen cards and promotional panels. • Make thumbnails smaller with a compact feed and search layout. • Adjust playback from 0.25x to 3x with an in-player speed slider. • Switch your cleanup settings on or off with a keyboard shortcut. BLOCK SHORTS AND REDUCE ENDLESS SCROLLING Looking for a Shorts blocker that lets you keep using regular videos? Hide short-video shelves in the feed, remove matching search results and clear their entry from the left menu. The feed and navigation settings work together to remove common entry points into vertical scrolling. Use a ready-made cleanup preset or enable the relevant switches individually. You can keep long-form videos, subscriptions and search available while removing the short-form content that interrupts your viewing. These controls change what appears in the interface; direct video links remain accessible. HIDE WATCHED VIDEOS FROM YOUR FEED Tired of scrolling past videos you have already seen? Remove watched videos independently from Home, Subscriptions, channel pages and watch-page recommendations. Keep the filter on in your subscription feed but off on a channel you like to revisit, or use all four settings together. Detection uses the watch-progress indicator displayed on video thumbnails. It filters the visible page without deleting your watch history or marking videos as watched. Videos without a matching progress indicator may remain visible. CLEAN UP RECOMMENDATIONS, MIXES AND PLAYLISTS Make room for useful suggestions by filtering specific kinds of content. Hide mixes and playlists, remove members-only videos and clear Explore or News blocks. Combine these options with the watched-video filter to reduce repeat suggestions and feed clutter. This gives you control over what remains visible while preserving discovery. The extension filters selected content types; it does not replace the recommendation algorithm or blank the entire home feed. HIDE COMMENTS, LIVE CHAT AND END SCREEN CARDS Watch a lecture without the discussion below it competing for your attention. Hide comments on video pages, remove live chat during streams and clear end screen cards or card teasers over the player. You can also remove merchandise and ticket shelves, like and dislike controls, action buttons and channel pictures. Each setting is independent, so a cleaner watch page can still keep the description, captions button or other elements you use. SKIP ADS AND REMOVE SPONSORED FEED CONTENT Clear advertising clutter by hiding banners, sponsored video cards and ad information panels. These controls work separately, so you can choose which promotional elements disappear from your browsing and viewing pages. An optional ad skipper attempts to skip video ads automatically. Auto-skip is experimental: its behavior depends on the current player and advertising format. Enable it separately when you want to try automatic ad skipping. It is not a network-level ad blocker and does not guarantee an ad-free experience. DISABLE AUTOPLAY PREVIEWS ON HOVER Stop moving thumbnail previews from starting when your pointer passes over a video. Turn off hover previews to browse a quieter, more static feed and read titles without a preview competing for your attention. This setting controls thumbnail behavior. The separate option to hide the autoplay switch only removes that button from the player; it does not disable next-video autoplay. SMALLER THUMBNAILS AND A COMPACT LAYOUT Want more videos per screen instead of oversized thumbnails? Compact mode reduces visual bulk in the home feed, search results and watch-page suggestions. Smaller previews, tighter spacing and a denser arrangement make it easier to scan titles and compare results. Use the compact grid to browse tutorials, find the next episode of a series or work through search results with less scrolling. The layout is a preset arrangement, so you do not need to edit CSS or configure individual column widths. VIDEO SPEED CONTROL: SLOW DOWN OR WATCH FASTER Adjust playback speed directly inside the video player. Use a slider from 0.25x to 3x, fine-tune in 0.05x steps, or choose a preset such as 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x or 3x. Your selected speed is saved in the extension settings. Slow down pronunciation during language practice, follow a detailed demonstration at your own pace, or speed up a familiar lecture. The speed controller is available for regular watch-page videos. You can also hide the miniplayer, theater or subtitles buttons for a simpler set of player controls. H.264, 60 FPS AND ENHANCED BITRATE SETTINGS Advanced playback controls let you force H.264 by blocking VP9 and AV1, or block 60 fps streams when you prefer lower-frame-rate video. This can be useful on older laptops and devices with limited codec support. Hardware decoding, CPU load and available quality depend on your device and the streams offered for each video; forcing H.264 can limit available resolution. Premium subscribers can prefer Enhanced Bitrate when that option is available. This setting selects an existing playback option and does not unlock paid features. An additional experimental setting adjusts the bandwidth estimate used by the player; actual connection speed is unchanged. HIDE THE SIDEBAR AND SIMPLIFY NAVIGATION Remove the left navigation sidebar completely or trim individual menu entries. Choose what stays visible among History, Playlists, Watch later, Liked videos, Downloads, subscriptions, Trending, Music, Gaming, News and other sections. Clear footer links when you want less navigation around your content. Simplify the top bar too: hide notifications, the upload button, voice search, the virtual keyboard button or search tags. These are visibility settings; they do not delete your playlists, subscriptions or account content. CLEAN SEARCH RESULTS AND CHANNEL PAGES Make search results easier to scan by hiding channel result cards, related-search suggestions, information cards or channel video shelves. Pair those controls with compact mode when you want a denser results page. On channel pages, hide the banner and channel trailer. Browse the videos you came to find with fewer large decorative elements and fewer interruptions from the featured trailer. KEEP ONLY THE VIDEO DESCRIPTION SECTIONS YOU NEED Hide the whole description or choose individual sections. Options cover the AI summary, transcript, mentioned people, related videos, channel card, "How this was made", and chapters or episodes. Keep transcripts and chapters visible for learning, or remove them when you prefer a shorter description. These controls hide existing page sections; they do not generate summaries, rewrite transcripts or alter the creator's content. DISTRACTION-FREE YOUTUBE FOR STUDY AND DEEP WORK Build a focused viewing setup around how you use the site: • Students: reduce feed clutter while watching lessons or preparing for exams. • Developers and researchers: keep tutorials and demonstrations within reach during deep work. • Language learners: combine a quieter page with precise speed adjustments. • Regular viewers: make subscriptions easier to browse and reduce repeat suggestions. • Digital minimalists: remove visual noise and make intentional viewing part of a digital detox routine. Choose Light for a smaller cleanup or Balanced for a broader set of filters. Both presets can be edited and reset. Custom starts with cleanup switches off, letting you build your own configuration. A Balanced preset is selected by default on installation. Switch individual settings as your needs change, or use the extension's keyboard shortcut to turn the whole configuration on and off. There are no mandatory focus timers, usage quotas or locked study sessions. FREE, OPEN SOURCE AND PRIVATE All extension settings are available without payment or registration. There is no subscription, trial countdown or automatic usage tracking. Preferences are stored locally in your browser. If you choose to send feedback, your message and extension version are sent to the developer via PostHog. No browsing history or account details are attached. The full source code is available on GitHub under the MIT license. Designed for the desktop website in Chrome, with an interface available in 52 languages. It does not modify the mobile app. Most interface cleanup uses CSS; playback and other interactive features use local JavaScript. GET STARTED IN THREE STEPS 1. Add YouTube Clean to Chrome and open the website. 2. Click the extension icon to open its side panel. 3. Choose a preset, then adjust the feed, navigation and playback settings you want. Interface visibility changes apply as you toggle them. Pin the extension to your toolbar to keep its controls easy to reach. If a page element changes and a filter stops matching it, report the issue so it can be checked. Source code, support and feature requests: https://github.com/lenadweb/yt-clean