Claude In Chrome: The Browser Extension That Clicks Buttons While You Sleep
Most AI browser just answer questions. This one takes action. Here's how.
I’ve been deep in Claude Code for months.
Building workflows. Connecting systems through MCP. Automating the thinking work.
But here’s what I kept hitting: all that AI power lives in the terminal and chat interfaces. Meanwhile, I’m still manually clicking through dashboards, web forms, and browser tabs.
That’s the gap the AI browser race is trying to solve. Dia. Comet. Atlas from OpenAI.
Everyone’s building browsers from scratch.
Anthropic did something different.
They built an extension. Claude in Chrome launched as a research preview in August 2025—not a new browser, just a plugin for the one you already use.
What makes it interesting to me is that instead of trying to replace Chrome like its competitors, Claude is doing something different: it’s trying to control it.
It clicks. It schedules. It runs tasks while you do other work.
The interesting part? It’s tied to your Claude subscription. Same context. Same capabilities. Just now it operates websites instead of generating text.
Today’s guest post is from Ilia Karelin, who writes Prosper - the newsletter about AI and software that gives you an unfair knowledge advantage. This is Ilia’s third time as a guest writer in AI Maker. You might want to check out his two other posts on when not to use AI and how to improve context memory when using AI.
You also can explore what Ilia writes in his newsletter—some of those issues are my favorites:
I Stopped Scrolling for AI News - How I use Perplexity and Grok to filter hundreds of posts down to what matters.
Commands vs Skills vs Agents in Claude Code: What Nobody Explains.
The Dumbest Prompting Trick That Actually Works - Google Research found a technique that wins 47 out of 70 AI benchmarks - with zero losses and zero downsides.
Ilia’s spent weeks testing what Claude in Chrome actually does well versus what just sounds impressive in demos.
The automation isn’t the interesting part.
It’s what you get to focus on when repetitive web tasks run themselves.
Here’s what Ilia found.
Hello, Ilia here 👋🏻
Most browser AI extensions do one thing: summarize what you’re reading.
Claude in Chrome clicks buttons while you sleep.
It handles apartment searches. Customer support negotiations. Dashboard data extraction. The repetitive web work that normally eats 20 minutes.
You describe the outcome. It handles the clicking.
How to Get Claude in Chrome
Availability: Paid plans only (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise). Not available on the free tier, unfortunately.
Installation takes 3 steps:
Go to the Chrome Web Store (Link to Install) and click “Add to Chrome”
Sign in with your Claude account credentials when prompted
Pin the extension by clicking the puzzle piece icon in Chrome, then the pin next to “Claude”
That’s it! The extension opens in Chrome’s side panel. It sees what you see and takes actions when you ask.
What Model It Uses
Claude in Chrome runs on Haiku 4.5.
Fast. Efficient. Built for multi-step browser tasks without the token cost of Sonnet or Opus.
You can’t switch models in the extension. It’s Haiku all the way. For most browser automation like clicking, extracting, navigating - Haiku handles it fine.
Important Limitations
The extension works in Dia and Comet. I tried opening the extension in Arc, but it didn’t work for me.
I had to install Chrome back, even though I use Arc in my day-to-day life. The reason why was because ‘/chrome’ slash command inside of Claude Code only works with Google Chrome and other browsers are not supported at this moment.
5 Real-World Use Cases (With Receipts)
These aren’t hypotheticals. People are using Claude in Chrome for actual work. Here’s what they’re automating.
1. Apartment Hunting on Real Estate Sites
What happened: User opened PropertyGuru. Claude applied filters (3-bedroom HDB under $4,000/month in Tampines), scrolled through listings, and summarized top matches with rent, specs, build year, status, and contact info.
Why it works: Multi-step navigation that would take 20+ minutes manually. Claude does it faster and by itself.
It reads structured listings, extracts data, and formats it into a comparison table.
2. Negotiating Refunds in Support Chats
What happened: Claude took over an AT&T support chat. Escalated politely, cited service restrictions, secured a higher refund (~$100+), then prepped an FCC complaint form as backup.
Why it works: Claude reads chat context, responds contextually, and handles back-and-forth negotiation without you typing.
It stays on-message and doesn’t get frustrated when the agent stalls.
You describe what you want (”I need a refund for the outage last week”). Claude runs the conversation. You approve the final action.
3. Analyzing X Profiles from Tweets
What happened: User pointed Claude at an X profile. Claude loaded recent tweets and answered: “What are this person’s best strategies for making money online?” Output: summarized themes (core fundamentals, pain points, traffic generation tips).
Why it works: Claude ingests unstructured social media data and extracts patterns.
You get signal without reading 50 tweets manually. Perfect for competitor research, partnership vetting, or understanding an audience before reaching out.
4. Organizing Files in Google Drive
What happened: Claude scanned a messy Google Drive (Downloads, Shared with Me, root folders). Proposed a folder structure by project and year. Moved files accordingly. Flagged duplicates and outdated docs for review.
Why it works: Claude sees file names, types, and dates. It categorizes logically and asks for approval before finalizing.
Nothing gets deleted without your permission. Monthly automated scans keep it organized long-term.
5. How I Use Claude in Chrome (Extracting Substack Analytics + Comments)
I thought about showing one of the examples for you guys how I use Claude in Chrome too. I tell Claude in Chrome to navigate my Substack dashboard, open all my posts, record open rates and engagement stats, then visit each comment section and extract every comment with context. I use Claude in Chrome in combination with Claude Code to analyze the data and update my “retrospectives.md” file.
Why it works: I track newsletter performance weekly. This turns 45 minutes of tab-switching and note-taking into a 5-minute automated .md file locally sitting in my computer.
But here’s where it gets useful. I don’t just collect the data - I feed it into a system.
The full loop: Claude in Chrome extracts the metrics → Claude Code processes the patterns and updates my “retrospectives.md” file → I spot what’s actually working → my next post gets better (hopefully).
The prompt was simple:
I need you to go into Chrome, open my Substack (https://substack.com/@prosperinai?), go to my dashboard, and find my “Official Claude Prompting” newsletter post and retrieve the analytics for that post. This is the structure that you should follow:
### YYYY-MM-DD - “Issue Title”
**What worked:**
-
**What didn’t:**
-
**Metrics (rough is fine):**
- Opens:
- Clicks:
- Replies/comments:
- New subscribers:
**Reader feedback (quotes or paraphrases):**
-
**Rules learned:**
-The two tools talk via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Context stays synced across browser and terminal sessions. The browser extension pulls the metrics. The terminal tool analyzes patterns and updates my tracking file. Claude opened 2 more tabs to see the stats for a newsletter post I asked for, so it’s not as clean yet, but still did what I asked it to do.
It’s become a weekly loop I run after publishing. Browser automation feeds data to local systems. Knowing which topics drive engagement vs. opens helps me balance my editorial calendar without guessing.
You can extend this to Substack Notes too - pull engagement data on your Notes, see which topics get traction, adjust your strategy. Same principle: automate the extraction, systematize the analysis.
6. Claude In Chrome Is Debugging My Website/App
I wanted to share my final example that I think could be useful for a lot of us. I have a project that I worked on a long time ago, but haven’t touched it in a while, it looks like this:
This is something to do with SEO writing, so maybe I’ll pick it up later in this year, but this screenshot is basically just the dashboard of the tool. What I wanted to do with “Claude Code + Claude In Chrome” combination is this - I wanted to check the UX journey of the dashboard and different sidebar buttons and header buttons, so I opened up Claude Code and I asked:
Go to "http://localhost:5173/dashboard" and figure out how to create an SEO-optimized blog post. Try out all the features and buttons you encounter. Let me know what works and what doesn't work. It went out, opened up Chrome and clicked on all the buttons that I had available. Maybe took 8-10 minutes. Then, it gave me a pretty comprehensive report back:
Perfect! I've completed the full UX testing. Here's my comprehensive report:
UX Testing Report
What I Tested:
✅ Complete blog generation workflow (topic input → keyword research → keyword selection → blog generation)
✅ Header functionality (search, notifications, new button)
✅ Sidebar navigation and account menu
✅ Action buttons (Copy, Export, New Generation)
✅ Console errors
---
🔴 BROKEN FEATURES (Non-Functional)
1. Header Buttons - All Non-Functional
- Search Bar (Header.tsx:20-28): Accepts text input but pressing Enter does nothing. No search results, no page change, no feedback.
- Notification Button (Header.tsx:31-36): Shows a blue badge indicator but clicking it does nothing. No dropdown, no modal, no action.
- "New" Button (Top right): Large prominent button but completely non-functional. Doesn't navigate or trigger any action.
2. Copy/Export Buttons - No User Feedback
On the blog result page:
- Copy Button: Clicked with no visible feedback. Should show "Copied!" confirmation.
- Export Button: Clicked with no response. Unclear if it worked or what format it exports to.
3. Keyword Selection Bug (Critical UX Issue)
- First attempt: Clicking a keyword button completely reset the flow back to the initial topic input screen instead of selecting the keyword
- Second attempt: After re-entering "artificial intelligence" and resubmitting, keyword selection worked correctly
- Impact: This could frustrate users who lose their progress
---
✅ WHAT WORKS WELL
Blog Generation Flow
- Topic input with helpful placeholder examples ✓
- Keyword research loading state (1.2s) with spinner ✓
- Keyword display with rich metrics (Volume, Difficulty, Intent, CPC) ✓
- Keyword selection with visual feedback (checkmarks, borders) ✓
- Selected keywords panel updates in real-time ✓
- "Generate Blog →" button enables/disables based on selection ✓
- Blog generation loading state (2.5s) ✓
- Full blog post rendered with proper formatting ✓
Navigation
- Sidebar navigation works perfectly ✓
- Active page highlighting ✓
- Account menu dropdown (Settings, Billing, Sign out) ✓
- Sidebar collapse/expand animation smooth ✓
- All routing works correctly ✓
Visual Design
- Clean, professional interface
- Good use of color-coded badges (difficulty, intent)
- Responsive keyword cards with metrics
- Proper loading states with spinners
---
📋 PLACEHOLDER PAGES
These pages exist but have no content:
- Settings - "Configure your account and preferences"
- Planner, Analytics, Keywords, Templates - All navigate but show empty screens
---
🐛 CONSOLE ERRORS
None found - No JavaScript errors or warnings in console
---
💡 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FIXES
High Priority:
1. Fix keyword selection bug that resets the flow
2. Implement search functionality or remove the search bar
3. Add visual feedback to Copy/Export buttons ("Copied!", "Exported!")
4. Connect "New" button to Generator or define its purpose
Medium Priority:
5. Implement notification system or remove the notification button
6. Build out placeholder pages (Settings, Planner, etc.)
Pretty amazing, right? To be honest, what I have built so far is pretty simple, I didn’t really work much on the keywords stuff, there’s no API to any other AI models or anything like that. So far, it’s a pretty simple “v1” of what I built, but look how much stuff it found in about 8 to 10 minutes, without me really doing anything besides just writing out a couple of English sentences.
How to Actually Use Claude In Chrome
Step 1: Start with simple, repetitive tasks
Don’t try to automate your entire workflow on day one. Pick one annoying 10-minute task and watch Claude handle it.
Examples:
Finding restaurant menus and adding items to cart
Comparing prices across 5 e-commerce sites
Once you see it work, you’ll spot more opportunities.
Step 2: Describe outcomes, not steps
Bad: “Click the filter dropdown, select 3 bedrooms, then sort by price ascending”
Good: “Find 3-bedroom apartments under $4,000/month in Tampa, Florida and summarize the top 5”
Claude figures out the steps. You verify the result.
The more you micromanage, the slower it gets. Describe what you want, not how to do it.
Step 3: Approve before irreversible actions
Claude asks permission before submitting forms, making purchases, or sending messages. First, choose “Ask before acting” here:
Then, if there’s an action that needs to be taken, it would pop up a message like this below:
Choose whatever you prefer and feel comfortable with.
You stay in control. Nothing happens without explicit approval.
Step 4: Let it run while you work on something else
Claude doesn’t need you watching. Start the task, switch tabs, come back when it’s done.
Perfect for research-heavy workflows (scraping competitor sites, extracting data from dashboards) where you’d otherwise sit there clicking for 20 minutes.
Integration with Claude Code
If you’re using Claude Code like I do, the browser extension also unlocks a build-test-verify loop for development.
How it works:
Build in Claude Code with best models in world (Sonnet or Opus)
Test in the browser with Claude in Chrome (extension navigates, fills forms, UX tests, reports issues)
Verify results, iterate back to Claude Code
Real example: Claude Code builds a signup flow. You tell Claude in Chrome: “Test the signup and report any validation errors.” It navigates, fills the form, identifies broken fields, reports back. You fix it in Claude Code. Repeat.
The two tools talk via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Context stays synced across terminal and browser sessions.
The Bottom Line
Claude in Chrome isn’t “AI that browses for you.”
It’s an agent that operates websites the way you would - but faster, more consistent, and without the mental fatigue of repetitive clicks.
The use cases above aren’t demos. They’re what people are actually building. Most took under 10 minutes to set up.
If you spend more than an hour a week on repetitive web tasks - booking, researching, extracting, comparing - this extension pays for itself immediately.
The real value isn’t automation. It’s getting repetitive decisions off your plate so you can focus on creative work and complex problem-solving.
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Super excited to see what you guys think!
I love the detailed prompt here. I had below par experience when I first tried the extension. But seems like I have got to go back to it :)