The best new tab extensions for Chrome in 2026, tested

We make Dashy, so it goes first in this list and you should know that before you read a word of it. Of the ones we do not make: Bonjourr is the best free new tab page for Chrome right now, Momentum is the most polished if you pay, Live Start Page wins on ambience, Tabliss on restraint, Toby on saved tabs. Below are ten options with their store numbers, their prices and their free-tier limits, each one checked today.

Last checked 2 September 2026. Every user count, rating, version, date and price in this piece comes from the product's own Chrome Web Store listing or its own pricing page, read on that date and linked where it appears.

How we compared them

We opened every listing and every public pricing page on the same day, then ranked on three questions. What does the page do before you configure anything? What does the free tier hold back? What does it cost to remove the limits?

Ratings and install counts are evidence, not proof. A four-year-old extension with 385 ratings can still be the right answer for someone who wants nothing but a clock and a photo. Where a number is missing from this piece, it is because we could not find it on a primary source today, and we would rather leave a gap than guess.

The order is not a league table. Dashy is first because we make it. The nine after it are in the order we would hand them to a friend, and that order did not move because of who wrote this page: where another product is the better answer, the entry says so in the same words we would use about our own.

The table

1. Dashy, ours: the one in the store today, and the one arriving in October

We make this, so discount it accordingly. There are two Dashys, and the difference is the whole reason this entry is longer than the others.

The original Dashy is in the Chrome Web Store now. Its listing shows 10,000+ users, 4.7 stars from 273 reviews and a Featured badge, at version 6.0 shipped 7 January 2026 and 14.6 MiB. It has been on the store since 2023. What it does well today, and what those reviews are for: 36 widgets built one at a time over three years, wallpaper collections, ambient soundscapes on the tab itself, profiles so you can keep more than one dashboard, and sync between computers once you sign in. Soundscapes are the line worth weighing against this list: Momentum puts them behind Plus, Tabliss and Bonjourr list no audio at all, Live Start Page's ambient mode arrives with ads and sponsored tiles until you switch them off, and the original Dashy has had sound on the page for years.

Where it is dated, in one line: it is a 2023 design, a dense grid you have to configure before it looks like anything, which is exactly the complaint that sent us back to the drawing board.

The new Dashy is a ground-up rebuild, arriving October 2026 on its own listing, with the original left running and nothing removed. The tab opens on a curated wallpaper that moves with the time of day, and the page moves with it, so 7am and 9pm are not the same tab; you can upload your own. Soundscapes are included: rain, ocean, forest, fireplace, cafe and more. Clock, greeting and date come first, and weather locates itself before you set anything. Notes, tasks and a calendar are built in, with Google Calendar, Todoist and Google Tasks as connections. You can keep several dashboards and switch between them, add, move, resize and restyle anything, or start from a template that lays out a whole tab in one tap: Focus, Productive, Curious, Aesthetic. Your tasks, notes and timer also sit in Chrome's side panel, beside whatever page you are on.

Two things are worth naming plainly. The new Dashy is an MCP server, so an AI assistant that speaks that protocol can build and rearrange the tab for you: add a widget, set a wallpaper, draft a task list. Consent is granted per client and separates reading from writing, every change is written to an audit you can read, and anything the assistant drafts, including a custom widget it writes for you, stays inactive until you approve it. Here is how the AI connection works. And customization stays free: adding, moving, resizing and restyling the page needs no account, and nothing leaves the device until you connect something. Sync across devices and the connected services are the paid Pro plan, and no price is published yet.

What it does not have is a store number of its own, and that is the fair way to read this entry: nothing here has been rated by 273 people or installed by 10,000, so it cannot be ranked against a product you can install this afternoon. The two Dashys, side by side sets out which is which, and the early access form is the only way into the new one before October.

2. Bonjourr, the best free new tab

Bonjourr is what happens when two people build one thing carefully and refuse to charge for it. Its Chrome Web Store listing shows 300,000 users, 4.9 stars from 23.9K ratings, version 22.3.0 last updated 9 July 2026, and a download of 1.38 MiB. That is the highest rating in this list, level with Infinity's Pro listing, and it comes from the second-largest pile of ratings here.

You get dynamic backgrounds that shift through the day, quick links, a search bar, notes with checkboxes, a Pomodoro timer, custom fonts, custom CSS and dark mode. The site is direct about the money: "Since Bonjourr is free, respects your privacy and doesn't collect or sell your data, donations are the only way we're able to keep it running." The store listing says the developer will not collect or use your data. The code is open source under GPL-3.0.

Two honest limits. There is no calendar and no ambient sound. And the README now says plainly, "The Safari extension is no longer supported," so treat it as a Chrome, Firefox and Edge product. If you want a fuller side-by-side, we wrote one: Dashy vs Bonjourr.

3. Momentum, the most polished, and the most paywalled

Momentum is the extension most people mean when they say new tab extension. Its listing shows 2,000,000 users and 4.5 stars from 13.7K ratings, version 2.27.4 updated 18 August 2026, at 17.93 MiB. Its own site claims "3+ million active users", which is a good reminder that a marketing page and a store listing rarely agree. On Firefox it has 30,513 users and 4.4 stars from 811 reviews.

The daily photo, the greeting and the single focus line are genuinely calming, and after a decade the photography is still the best in the category. The listing's free feature list covers that photo, a quote, a limited Focus Mode, to-dos, shortcuts, weather and search. Momentum's own Plus page also lists weather features on the paid side, so read the free weather as the plain version.

Then the wall arrives. The listing puts Soundscapes, Tab Stash, unlimited Focus Mode, the vision board, Notes AI, Ask AI, metrics, countdowns, world clocks and every task integration behind Plus. Momentum's Plus page lists 3.33 USD a month billed annually, or 4.95 USD "billed monthly". If the ambient half of a new tab matters to you, note that ambient sound is on the paid side of that line.

4. Live Start Page, the most ambient

Live Start Page is the closest thing here to a screensaver you can work from. The listing shows 200,000 users, 4.7 stars from 8.6K ratings, version 40.5.10 updated 20 August 2026, and 35.37 MiB, the heaviest download we recorded. It is a wall of live video wallpapers with a "meditation mode" the listing describes as 10 to 15 minutes of live wallpapers set to the sounds of nature, plus a series made with professional psychologists.

Be clear about the trade. The listing discloses built-in monetization through ads and sponsored bookmark tiles, an Amazon tile being its own example, and says you can switch them off in settings. It also says premium functionality is sold by subscription billed monthly or annually, without publishing the price. You are paying with attention, money, or a settings toggle.

5. Tabliss, the lightest, and the oldest

Tabliss asks for nothing. Its listing states that the extension "does not require any permissions" and is "100% free", and the whole thing is 204 KiB. It has 100,000 users at 4.7 stars from 385 ratings on Chrome, and 72,866 users at 4.6 from 2,442 reviews on Firefox, where it has always been more popular.

Here is the catch, and it is a big one. Version 2.6.0 was published on 25 April 2022. Four years without an update is not automatically dangerous for something this small and this permission-free, but nothing new is coming, and nothing broken is getting fixed. Choose it because you want a photo, a clock and a greeting and nothing else, ever.

6. Infinity New Tab, the speed dial that stuck around

Infinity is two listings, which confuses people. The free one has 400,000 users and 4.6 stars from 11.8K ratings, version 11.0.43 updated 26 August 2026. The Pro one has 300,000 users and 4.9 stars from 24.9K ratings, version 11.0.41 updated 7 July 2026. Added together that is the second-largest audience here, though the same person can be counted on both listings.

The product is a tidy grid of icons, 365 curated HD wallpapers, cloud sync with one-click recovery, Gmail alerts, a to-do list and a notepad. It does the speed-dial job well and has barely changed shape in years, which is either reassuring or dated depending on what you want from a tab. Neither listing publishes a price for Pro, so budget on the assumption you will have to find one after you install.

7. Homey, cosy, with ads on the free tier

Homey is the warm one: live wallpapers, bookmark tabs, notes and weather, at 100,000 users and 4.8 stars from 6.5K ratings, version 4.27.7 updated 25 August 2026, with a Featured badge. It is refreshingly upfront about its model. The listing says, "The free version of Homey may display clearly labeled ads marked as 'Sponsored' on the new tab page," and Premium removes them.

Its site lists Premium at 2 USD a month or 18 USD a year with a 14-day free trial, and caps the free plan at three bookmark tabs. That is the cheapest paid tier we could verify here. Chrome and Edge only.

8. start.me, a link desk rather than a dashboard

start.me is for people whose work is a wall of links. The listing says start.me "turns your Chrome New Tab page into a beautiful personal dashboard", with bookmarks, RSS feeds from your sites, notes, to-dos, backgrounds, embedded video, sharing with a team, and "over 3,500 widgets" including calendar, stock quotes and weather. Nothing else here touches that breadth.

The numbers are more sober: 100,000 users, 4.3 stars from 1.4K ratings, the lowest rating in this list apart from Toby, and version 7.3.0 last updated 26 January 2024. Its own site returned a 403 to every check we ran, and the listing publishes no price and names no paid tier, so we are printing neither a start.me price nor a plan list. Pick it for density and RSS, not for calm.

9. Toby, for people with 200 tabs open

Toby is a different job. It saves and organises open tabs into collections that sync, and it happens to sit on your new tab while it does it. The listing calls it "Your productivity hub. Save and organize your browser tabs from anywhere," and shows 300,000 users, 4.2 stars from 3.3K ratings, version 1.13.1 updated 3 June 2026, at 19.49 MiB.

Toby's pricing page caps the free Starter plan at "Up to 60 saved tabs". Productivity is "4.5 usd per member / month billed yearly", which the same page prints as 54 USD a year, or 6 USD month to month. Team is 8 USD a member yearly, 10 USD monthly. If sixty saved tabs sounds like a Tuesday, budget for the upgrade. If you want wallpaper, weather and a calendar, this is the wrong shelf.

10. Chrome's own new tab, the free baseline

Do not skip this one. Chrome's built-in page costs nothing, installs nothing, asks for no permissions and syncs with your Google Account. Google's help page says you can customize it with "Your shortcuts" and "Different themes", and that is honestly the whole story: a background, a row of links, the search box, and cards when you are signed in.

It is the right answer if all you want is a search box that is already there. It cannot hold your notes, your calendar, your tasks or a soundscape, and there is no setting for pointing a new tab at your own URL. If that is what you are after, we wrote the full set of workarounds in how to change your new tab page in Chrome.

The best free picks

Three of these cost nothing and mean it.

• Bonjourr if you want the best free page overall. Nothing to buy, nothing collected, 4.9 stars from 23.9K ratings.
• Tabliss if you want an extension that asks for no permissions and weighs 204 KiB. Accept that it stopped changing in 2022.
• Chrome's own page if you want nothing to install and nothing to set up, and you do not need the tab to hold anything.

Three more are free to start and will ask for money or attention. Momentum's free tier is generous until you want sound or integrations. Homey's free tier shows ads marked Sponsored. Live Start Page's free tier shows ads and sponsored tiles until you turn them off.

Who should pick what

• You want the tab to hold your day, with sound, wallpaper that moves with the clock, and an assistant that can arrange it. Dashy. The original is installable today with soundscapes and widgets already in it; the rebuild lands in October and you can ask for early access. We make it, so read the entry above before you take our word for it.
• You want calm and you want it free. Bonjourr.
• You want the daily photo and one focus line, and you will pay. Momentum.
• You want moving wallpaper and nature sound. Live Start Page, with the sponsored tiles switched off.
• You want the lightest possible page and no permissions. Tabliss.
• You want a grid of every site you visit. Infinity New Tab, or Homey if you prefer it warmer.
• Your work is links, feeds and a team page. start.me.
• You have too many tabs and they are the problem. Toby.

What we could not check

Three gaps, stated plainly. start.me's own site returned a 403 to our checks and its listing publishes no price, so no start.me price is in the table. Infinity publishes no price on either of its store listings. Live Start Page confirms a subscription billed monthly or annually without naming the amount. In all three cases you find out after you install, which is worth knowing before you do.

We also did not run a lab test of render times. The size figures above come from the listings and are a rough proxy, nothing more.

If you only read this far

If you want the tab to carry sound, light and your day, install the original Dashy and put your name down for the new one in October; it is ours, and the entry above says where the current version shows its age. If you want one recommendation from someone with nothing at stake, install Bonjourr. If you want the famous one and do not mind paying, install Momentum and expect to pay for sound. If you want your tab to do very little, Tabliss and Chrome's own page both do very little, beautifully.

And check back on these numbers. Ratings move, prices move, and a listing that has not been updated since 2022 will still be sitting there tomorrow, looking exactly as trustworthy as it did today.