Download and Save a Chrome Extension as a CRX File

Besides the minimal user interface, the extensions are another reason why many people use the Chrome browser. To install a Chrome extension all you have to do is visit the extension page and click on the “Add to Chrome” button. However, this approach doesn’t allow you to save the chrome extension as a CRX file.

Sometimes you may want to download the extension file so that you can install the extension even if it is not available in the Chrome store, see and analyze how the extension actually works, etc. No matter what the reason is, if you ever want to download and save a Chrome extension as a CRX file, here is how to do it.

Pack the Extension After Installing

If you’ve already installed the extension that you want to download, you can just repack the extension into a CRX file. Before you do anything, you need to know the Extension ID of the extension you want to download. Since you’ve already installed the extension, you can get the extension ID directly from the Chrome extensions settings page.

To start, click on the menu icon, and select the “Extensions” option from the “More tools” options.

The above action will open the Extensions page. Select the “Developer mode” option at the top right corner.

Scroll down, find the extension you want to repack and note the extension ID.

Once you have the extension ID, press Win + E (on Windows) and navigate to the following location in the File Explorer:

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions

Don’t forget to replace “<Username>” with your actual username. Find the folder with the extension ID, and copy it to your desktop.

Note: if you are using other operating systems like macOS (usually inside “~/Library/Application Support/ folder”) or Linux (usually inside “~/.config/” folder), you need to find the relevant application folder.

Back on the extensions page, click on the “Pack extension” button.

This action will open a pop-up. Simply click on the “Browse” button.

In the Browse window, find the folder you copied earlier, expand it, select the folder with the version number and click “Select Folder”.

You can ignore the Private Key field. Click on the “Pack Extension” button.

Now, if you open the extension folder on your desktop, you will see the CRX file.

If you want to keep dabbling in the Chrome browser, then your next port of call should be the Flags section. Check out our regularly updated list of the best Chrome flags to point you in the right direction. Also, Chromebooks are pretty good these days, so to celebrate we’ve compiled a list of the best Chromebook games.