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Permission · sidePanel

What the sidePanel permission means for a Chrome extension

Live Chrome Web Store extensions that declare sidePanel: 27 568, which is 10% of the 270 859 whose permissions we have read. Counted after our catalog pass of 2026-10-10.

What it lets an extension do

Open a panel beside the page sidePanel

Routine for an extension

Routine for an extension: on its own it does not reach your browsing data or the pages you open.

What Chrome says when you add one

We know of no install warning Chrome shows for this permission on its own. Chrome may still warn about the site access an extension declares alongside it.

How common it is in each category

How common it is in each category
CategoryShare of extensionsExtensions
Productivity · Education13%1 537 of 11 516
Productivity · Communication13%944 of 7 120
Productivity · Tools13%13 487 of 106 510
Productivity · Workflow11%5 104 of 45 721
Productivity · Developer11%3 101 of 28 348
Lifestyle · Travel10%89 of 855
Lifestyle · Shopping7%612 of 8 708
Lifestyle · Household7%34 of 493
Lifestyle · News7%111 of 1 631
Lifestyle · Social6%461 of 7 160
Lifestyle · Entertainment6%372 of 6 363
Lifestyle · Well Being5%158 of 2 878
Lifestyle · Art5%191 of 3 519
Make Chrome Yours · Privacy5%273 of 5 449
Make Chrome Yours · Functionality4%436 of 11 127
Make Chrome Yours · Accessibility4%296 of 8 075
Lifestyle · Games3%229 of 6 897
Lifestyle · Fun2%133 of 8 489

Counted over the live extensions of each category after our latest full pass of the store. A share is context, not a verdict: what is normal depends on what the extension is for.

Widely installed extensions that ask for it

  1. Adobe Acrobat: PDF edit, convert, sign tools Access to every site · 15 permissions, 1 site pattern 343.0M users ★ 4.4
  2. Grammarly: AI Writing Assistant and Grammar Checker App Access to every site · 7 permissions, 2 site patterns 41.0M users ★ 4.5
  3. Claude Access to every site · 16 permissions, 1 site pattern 18.0M users ★ 2.9
  4. MetaMask Access to every site · 12 permissions, 6 site patterns 12.0M users ★ 2.7
  5. Capital One Shopping: Save Now Access to every site · 10 permissions, 1 site pattern 11.0M users ★ 4.7
  6. Bitwarden Password Manager Access to every site · 16 permissions, 2 site patterns 8.0M users ★ 4.3
  7. ChatGPT Access to every site · 18 permissions, 1 site pattern 6.0M users ★ 2.8
  8. Quillbot: AI Writing Assistant with Humanizer, Paraphraser & AI Detector Access to every site · 8 permissions, 3 site patterns 6.0M users ★ 4.7
  9. Video Download Helper Access to every site · 12 permissions, 1 site pattern 6.0M users ★ 4.5
  10. Phantom Access to every site · 9 permissions, 2 site patterns 5.0M users ★ 3.7

Each links to what that extension can access and how its permissions have changed.

How to check your own extensions

  1. Type chrome://extensions in the address bar and find the extension in the list.
  2. Open its details. The Permissions section lists what Chrome granted it, in Chrome's own words.
  3. Open its details. The site access setting shows where it can run; set it to run only on click and it reaches a page only after you press its icon.
  4. To uninstall it, choose Remove on the same page.

Other permissions

Figures come from the public Chrome Web Store, which our own crawler reads up to 2 times a day. We do not install or audit extensions and publish no contact details for their developers. Catalog pass of .

Browse the catalog

Where the data comes from: how the catalog is built