Google Discontinues Paid Chrome Extensions After Temporary Suspension in March

Free trials will also be disabled from December 1.

Advertisement
By Tanishka Sodhi | Updated: 23 September 2020 14:09 IST
Highlights
  • Google is disabling paid Chrome extensions
  • Developers can no longer monetise their extensions from Chrome Web Store
  • This service had temporarily been disabled from March 2020
Google Discontinues Paid Chrome Extensions After Temporary Suspension in March

Developers will no longer be able to monetise their extensions from Chrome Web Store

Google is discontinuing paid Chrome extensions. Developers looking to monetise their extensions can no longer do so via Chrome Web Store payments. Google had temporarily suspended paid extensions earlier this year, and now announced that it would be making this change permanent. The tech giant has shared a timeline on the phasing out of paid Chrome extensions. Free trials will also be disabled later this year.

Google announced that developers using Chrome Web Store payments to charge for their extensions or in-app purchases will need to migrate to other payments platform in the near future. The tech giant said that when it launched the Chrome Web Store in 2010, it wanted to provide a way for developers to monetise their Web Store items. Now, it said, developers had access to various other payment-handling options they could use.

Developers will no longer be able to create new paid extensions or in-app items. From December 1 this year, free trials will also be disabled. Users will no longer be able to view the ‘Try Now' button in Chrome Web Store and requests for in-app free trials will result in an error. Google said that from February 1, 2021 onwards, existing items and in-app purchases will no longer be able to charge money with Chrome Web Store payments.

Developers using the licensing API to keep track of who has made the payments will also need to implement another way of tracking user licenses. They will be able to use the Licencing API to determine if users are currently licensed, but that too will shut down at some point, announced Google, urging developers to migrate their license tracking.

Advertisement

For exporting users licences, Google said that there was no way to bulk export existing user licenses, so developers would have to have users' help for this part of the migration. Google recommended handling license migration in the back-end system, using the Chrome Web Store API. Developers would need to use OAuth 2.0 with the consent of users to access these APIs.

Google had temporarily suspended publishing paid extensions in March due to resource constraints due to the coronavirus, but it was a follow up from January, when Google had noticed fraudulent transactions aiming to exploit users. In February, Google had removed over 500 malicious extensions from the Chrome Web Store over ad fraud.

Advertisement


Should the government explain why Chinese apps were banned? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Canva Code Review: Vibe Coding Meets Creative User Experience Design
  2. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Pre-Orders Reportedly Outpace the Galaxy Z Flip 7
  3. CMF Watch 3 Pro Launched With Up to 13 Days Battery Life: Price, Features
  4. BSNL Rs. 197 Prepaid Plan's Validity Reduced: Old vs. New Benefits
  5. [Exclusive] Oppo K13 Turbo Series to Launch in India in Early August
  6. Honor Pad GT 2 Pro With 10,100mAh Battery Goes Official
  7. ViewSonic X1-4K Pro, X2-4K Pro and SP7 Projectors Launched in India
  8. iQOO Neo 11 and Neo 11 Pro Key Specifications Tipped
  9. OnePlus 15, OnePlus Ace 6 Launch Timeline Leaked, Could Debut Together
  10. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Price in India Slashed After Galaxy Z Fold 7 Launch
  1. Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Gets One UI 8 Watch Update With Wear OS 6 Features
  2. AMD Unveils Stable Diffusion 3 Medium Model With Support for 4-Megapixel Image Generation on Ryzen AI Laptops
  3. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Reportedly Outpaces Galaxy Z Flip 7 in Pre-Orders in South Korea
  4. Lava Blaze Dragon 5G Price Range, Key Features Revealed Ahead of July 25 Launch in India
  5. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Price in India Slashed After Galaxy Z Fold 7 Launch
  6. Honor Pad GT 2 Pro With Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 10,100mAh Battery Launched: Price, Specifications
  7. CMF Watch 3 Pro Launched With 1.43-Inch AMOLED Screen, Up to 13 Days Battery Life: Price, Features
  8. Netflix Reportedly Testing Runway’s AI Video Tools in Content Production
  9. Vivo V60 Could Launch in India on August 12; Key Specifications and Price Tipped
  10. iOS 18.6 Release Candidate Beta Released Alongside macOS 15.6 RC and More for Both Public and Developers
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.