Screenshot extensions for Chrome, and the built-in alternative

Chrome captures full pages natively, with no extension. Most capture extensions exist because that feature is hidden in developer tools.

Updated 15 September 2026

Chrome does this already#

1. Press F12 to open developer tools.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on a Mac) for the command menu.
3. Type screenshot.
4. Choose Capture full size screenshot.

The whole page downloads as a PNG. It renders once at full height rather than stitching sections, so there are no seams, no repeated sticky headers, and text stays sharp.

The same menu has Capture node screenshot, which captures a single element — select a div in the Elements panel and you get exactly that component, cropped to its bounds. Nothing in the extension market does this as cleanly.

Four steps is more than one click, which is the only real argument for an extension.

When an extension is genuinely better#

• You need it constantly. Four keystrokes versus one click, fifty times a day, is a real difference.
• You want annotation in the browser. Capture, draw an arrow, copy — without leaving the tab.
• You need a shareable link immediately. Capture and get a URL on your clipboard.
• You're capturing scrolling content inside an app, such as a long thread in a web client, where the developer tools method struggles with virtualised lists.

The permissions problem#

Of everything on this page, this is the part that matters.

A screenshot extension needs to read page content, which means requesting access to all sites. That permission also allows reading everything you view — including your webmail, your banking session and anything behind a login.

Most extensions with that permission are honest. Some have been sold to new owners who added tracking to an established user base, and the extension updated silently. This has happened repeatedly, across categories.

Before installing any capture extension:

• Check the permissions on the install prompt. "Read and change all your data on all websites" is what to expect, and what to be thoughtful about.
• Check the developer. A named company with a website and a privacy policy beats an anonymous listing.
• Check the review dates. A tool with good reviews from three years ago and recent complaints about ads has probably changed hands.
• Prefer extensions that work only when clicked. Chrome can restrict an extension to on click rather than on all sites, in its details page under Site access. Capture extensions work perfectly with this setting, and it eliminates most of the risk.

Extensions to be sceptical of#

Not naming specific products, because ownership changes and today's recommendation becomes next year's warning. Instead, the patterns:

• Free tools that upload every capture to their own server by default.
• Anything requiring an account for local capture.
• Extensions that also install a desktop application.
• Anything with a name closely mimicking a well-known tool.

Firefox, as a comparison#

Right-click any empty area of a page, choose Take Screenshot, then Save full page or Save visible. No extension, no developer tools, no keystrokes to remember.

It's a better implementation of the same feature, and worth knowing if you have Firefox installed for occasional use.

For capture beyond the browser, the wider tools comparison is the better starting point.