Claude in Chrome is the feature that turns Claude from something that answers you into something that goes and does it. It lives in a side panel of your own Chrome browser, it can see whatever page you are on, and on a paid plan it can click, type, fill forms and move between tabs inside the accounts you are already logged into. You watch it work, it narrates what it is doing, and it stops and asks before anything that costs money.
I use it for the boring web admin that has no app and no shortcut: checking a booking, pulling numbers out of a dashboard, filling in the same form on five sites, chasing an upgrade. Setup takes about five minutes, and there is one step almost everyone misses, so read the whole thing once before you start.
The plan · 5 minutes, 4 steps
Before you start
A paid Claude plan
Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. The free plan can install the extension but Claude will not act on pages for you.
Google Chrome on a computer
it does not run on other browsers or on your phone yet.
The Claude desktop app
not required for Chrome itself, but it is where the alternative built-in browser lives.
Install the extension
In Chrome, open the Chrome Web Store, search for Claude in Chrome, and click Add to Chrome. Sign in with the same Claude account you use everywhere else. Then pin it: click the puzzle piece icon at the top right of Chrome and hit the pin next to Claude, so the icon stays visible and you can open the side panel with one click.
Turn it on in Claude
In Claude, on the left side, choose Customize, then Connectors (the same page is under Settings, then Connectors). Find Claude in Chrome in the list, click Configure and switch it on. This is the account-level switch. It only needs doing once.
Enable it in the chat
Back in your conversation, open the connectors menu (the plus or tools button next to the message box) and turn on Claude in Chrome for that chat. It is off by default in every new conversation, and this is the step most people miss. If you give Claude a browsing job and it just writes you a paragraph instead of opening anything, this switch is almost always why.
Rick's tip
Start the chat in the Claude side panel inside Chrome rather than in a separate window. Claude can see the page you are on straight away, and you can watch it click without switching between windows.
Log in first, then give it the job
Open the site you want Claude to work in and sign in yourself before you send the prompt. Claude works inside your logged-in session, so it never needs your password and you should never paste one into the chat. Then tell it what you want, in plain words, and be specific about where it should stop and check with you.
Claude opens the page in the side panel, narrates what it sees, and either finishes the job or pauses at the point you told it to.
What It Can Do
Every action goes through a safety check before it happens, and Claude scans the pages it reads for hidden instructions planted by someone else (the trick is called prompt injection, and it means a page trying to hijack what Claude does). Financial and banking sites are blocked by default. If you would rather approve every click yourself, there is a setting for that inside the extension.
Five Jobs To Give It First
If Claude Opens Nothing
If it says it cannot see the page, refresh the tab and check the extension is allowed on that site (click the extension icon and look at the site permission). If it will not connect to the Claude apps, update the extension from the Chrome Web Store and confirm the Claude in Chrome switch is on under Connectors. If it wrote you an answer instead of browsing, go back to Step 3.
Rick's tip
Prefer that Claude uses its own browser instead of yours? The desktop app has one built in for Cowork. Go to Settings, then Cowork, then under Preferred browser choose Built-in browser. Claude gets an isolated browser in a side panel, asks before acting on each new site, and can import your saved logins if you let it. Same prompts, same results, and nothing it does touches the tabs you are working in.
The Honest Part
Claude in Chrome is good at jobs with a clear finish line on a site you already know. It is slower than you on a page you could do in ten seconds, it can get lost on sites that fight automation with popups and CAPTCHAs, and it counts against your normal usage limits, so a long browsing session is not free. Give it the jobs you keep putting off, watch the first few runs, and keep the "show me before you click anything that costs money" line in every prompt.
Set it up now, then go run the booking check. That one takes two minutes and it is the moment most people get why this exists.