Pause distracting websites before they open. Be mindful and intentional with your browsing using this simple extension.
Pause breaks the cycle of distraction and mindless browsing and helps you be more focused, productive, and intentional with your technology use.
When you open a distracting website, Pause creates a gentle interruption by displaying a calming green screen. After pausing for five seconds (adjustable), you can choose to continue to the site, remain on the green screen with the site temporarily blocked, or close the tab.
The interruption created by Pause gently nudges you to make informed, intentional decisions about how you are spending your time.
- Pause comes pre-seeded with a list of 50 top distracting websites, which you can add to or edit as needed.
- You can also adjust the length of the Pause time (5 seconds is the default.)
Keep Pause enabled in your browser. It’s a simple and powerful tool to help you control distraction and create more mindful browsing habits that will help you stay focused.
Pause is a product of Freedom Labs, where we develop new ways to meaningfully interact with technology. Like our other extensions, Pause is highly privacy-conscious. None of your data is sent anywhere (the cloud, our servers, etc.) It remains secure on your own device. Learn more about Freedom here: https://freedom.to
Latest reviews
- (2023-09-22) Dominik Kopeć: I would have given five stars, but for some time the extension stopped working. Previously, it only launched when the page was first opened. Now it also launches after refreshing or using the "open in new tab" option, or even after opening in the same tab. Sometimes it also doesn't launch at all, or it launches at random times (such as when I click on a youtube video to play it). It is no longer functional for me.
- (2023-08-04) Siavosh Zarrasvand: Amazing plugin, I use it on a daily basis.
- (2023-06-05) Dominik Kopeć: I would have given five stars, but the extension has stopped working for a while now. Previously, it only launched the first time the page was opened. Now it also launches on refresh or using the "open in a new tab" option. It's no longer functional for me.
- (2023-05-08) Erhan Alankus: Works well. It would be better if it didn't affect the currently playing song on youtube when I enable pause.
- (2023-04-21) Elaine Swanson: Hello, I really like this feature. However, instead of making a list of distracting sites to pause on, I wish we could pause for every website other than a list of accepted sites. I'm finding it much too difficult to input a list of all of the sites I mindlessly browse on verses the ones I use all the time and are productive on. When it is the internet versus me, I pretty much lose all the time. lol. This is similar to website extensions feature. Thank you.
- (2023-02-18) Dominik Kopeć: I would have given five stars, but the extension has stopped working for a while now. Previously, it only launched the first time the page was opened. Now it also launches on refresh or using the "open in a new tab" option. It's no longer functional for me. EDIT: Now it is working! You are awesome! EDIT 2: Not working again :(
- (2023-02-14) Oliver Engel: Super Plugin, um dem sinnlosen Surfen zuvor zu kommen. Richtig gut wäre eine Option, dass man auf der Seite warten muss und nicht, dass man parallel wo anders surfen kann.
- (2023-01-26) Sobir Bobiev: Does what it says.. However I would like to see the option to apply this pause on all websites. Also, option to add this on all pages. Allow user to specify exception URLs though. Thanks. Regular expression on URLs would be great too.
- (2023-01-08) Paos Rachid: simple and useful thank you
- (2022-10-31) Qinshi Wang: This plugin basically fit my need. It gives a kind warning when I'm trying to open a distracting website. But I hope there is an option that not to affect tabs that are already opened.
- (2022-10-23) Gary Fischer: Simple and does just what I want...and no more.
- (2022-10-07) Jay Shead: Exactly what I was looking for! Very lightweight and works right off the bat.
- (2022-09-17) Rutalorp: Really helps you be more mindful of your distractions, very nice
- (2022-09-01) Felipe Mello: Hey guys, this extension is awesome! I had the idea to create something similar, so I decided to check whether someone had already thought of it, and I found your app. If I may offer a suggestion, you could also show philosophical messages about better using your time and virtue during the pause screen (the greek and roman philosophers may have some great ones). This could be an energy boost for those wanting to really get rid of mindless browsing. Cheers from Brazil! =D
- (2022-08-22) Alex Xue: I'm not sure if it's just me but, websites that I've placed in myself are not paused. Other than that, I think it is a great way to stop myself from wandering to other websites.
- (2022-08-10) Chi V.: Love the interface and concept! However, I want to change some settings regarding the pause duration. How can I modify this?
- (2022-06-25) Florin Popa: I dislike it having adds on the "pause" page.
- (2022-06-21) Dre Stackems: Doesnt work for 4chan or any of the 4chan boards. Trying to use this to block myself from digesting extreme content that is radicalizing me to be the next shooter but its not working.
- (2022-06-17) Aaron Stanek: Once a user is through the mandatory pause period, there is nothing to stop them from spending hour-upon-hour on a distracting site. It would be useful if the extension also added a pause period between pages of the same website.
- (2022-06-09) 林君翰: This is really lovely. It really stop my urge to distract myself. However, in Pause statistics, it would be more useful if it shows "Pause page hits" verus "Pause page halts". That's where you could visualize your progress.
- (2022-06-09) Дмитро Шостак: Is it possible to remove from pause-list https://music.youtube.com/ but keep https://www.youtube.com/ ?
- (2022-05-25) Mauricio Manattini: Please let me customize the "Pause for a few seconds" message, it will be very helpful if i could change the message to something that refocus me. I'm a freedom subscriber by the way and i would like this extension to be more customizable.
- (2022-02-25) Eavy Eavy: Work on youtube, somehow doesnt work in google itself https://www.google.com/chrome/?&brand=
- (2022-02-20) Erdem Özoğlu: Better than time limiting extensions
- (2022-02-18) A K: Unfortunately, doesn't work in incognito regime properly (with permission to work in this regime): sites are just blocking by the extension, but not pausing. For example: https://skr.sh/sCZP1GocIWj
- (2022-02-06) Yusuf Yusuf: Love this extension. I find it better than the actual freedom app because I am in control of what to do next ! Would be great if PAUSE is implemented into Freedom so it works across all aps not just for chrome .
- (2022-02-01) Omer Rott: Really enjoy using it! problem is it can't pause everything for some reason, tried having it block my slack workgroup and I can still access it
- (2022-02-01) Anusha Tripathi: I'm loving this extension! The green background is very soothing and I really liked with this idea of self reflection rather than someone else blocking it for you. It will prove a good practice for self control and mindful actions which is the root of concentration and focus. Thank you for this
- (2022-01-17) Peter Bachman: Simple and effective. It would be 5 stars if I could choose to block in specific time ranges (like 9am-5pm).
- (2022-01-10) Frode Opdahl: It does what it needs to do, but it has an obnoxious button that promotes their main product that is bigger then the continue button. If it was possible to disable this promotion (I have already decided not to use the other products) this would get a 5 star.
- (2022-01-09) Priyansh Chauhan: app is amazing .... its timesaver ... feedback for developers , plz keep this app free and like mini version of freedom ... if people love this extension , they come and gonna buy freedom premium .. .that was the case for me ....... i buyed it after using this app .. i didnt even know freedom name app exist if i hadnt found this extension on article ...
- (2021-12-09) Cash Flow: Good app, would be better if it worked properly in incognito mode. It currently just blocks you from accessing a site without pausing in incognito.
- (2021-11-19) Elliot K: So so good, would definitely recommend. I just wish there was a way to add gmail to it. I've tried various URLs and none seem to work.
- (2021-11-04) Pedro Meza Quintanilla: This is it! I've tried all the website-blocking extensions and this is the one that works best for me. Extensions that completely block access to websites or allocates a fixed amount of time for them are not as useful since sometimes you do need to access social media for productive reasons. This one gives you time to reflect if you really need to use it or not.
- (2021-11-03) Karat: боже это то что я искал, всегда ждал 20 секунд перед тем как зайти на отвлекающий сайт, это расширение точно мне поможет делать так больше 👍
- (2021-10-19) Claire Mahusay: I love this app! It's very simple but is helpful and does what it says it does. Thank you for you work!
- (2021-09-25) David Sposito: Have been using this forever on another browser, but when I went to download it again I thought I'd show it some love. It's really great--exactly what I was looking for. I see that a product person is in these reviews, and so I do want to say sincerely, thank you. The only thing is, it's a bit of a pain to UNBLOCK all the sites it has pre-installed. I'd appreciate if there was a way to mass-select/de-select different schedules of blocks. The only sites I need blocked are chess.com and lichess.org--but with the work I have to do, I really can't have it blocking all these news websites. And so it was a bit of a pain to de-select everything at first, but that's really only a minor gripe. If it were possible to just click all the sites and THEN confirm delete, that'd be nice. But it prompts the confirmation after clicking each site, which led me to awkwardly sitting with my wrists crossed as I hit enter and clicked to remove all the sites they had at first. But that's not a big deal at all.
- (2021-09-25) Frederik De Bleser: I love Pause and recommend it to everyone! I also own a Freedom subscription, but I actually prefer Pause! Would be nice for Pause to have a time schedule (e.g. only operate 9-5 or on weekdays).
- (2021-09-14) User 1: Good, it works, but it would be nice if you could block specific URLs within a page, eg facebook messaging but not marketplace
- (2021-08-14) Emma Puente: Such a simple thing but it does make you more mindful of time wasting! I'm using Freedom, Limit and Insight too. I would love a feature where I could set Pause to operate within a certain time window rather than it being always on or always off, e.g. on for 9-5 weekdays, off evenings and weekends or other custom time blocks depending on what I'm doing
- (2021-08-12) Mehul Gautam: I THINK IT IS THE BEST APP TO INCREASE THE PRODUCTIVITY
- (2021-08-09) dr kannan: This is the best productivity extension i have ever used!! Regreting that I discovered this soo late !! The world need this !!
- (2021-07-18) aryaman jaiswal: it's a really helpful extension especially with all these classes that have gone online
- (2021-06-08) Ryan Arias-Perez: FANTASTIC! One thing I like about this app over others is just being able to start and stop it easily. Some other extensions make that so difficult to do for some reason but this one does it simply and perfectly
- (2021-05-19) Zohaib Arsalan: This extension is very good. It has a family friendly interface and works really well. Whenever you try to go to a blocked site it gives a very nice and friendly image. I really like this extension and will use it for forever. :)
- (2021-03-31) Moshe Teplitsky: Superb application, supports blocking many sites, clean and effective
- (2021-03-17) Josh Hosj: noice
- (2021-03-01) Susmita Paul: Excellent extension. It's helped me so much during the WFH quarantine. Really great trigger for mindfulness, as it reminds me when I've deviated off task. And the green screen and the verbal reminder to pause is a good opportunity for my to breathe. Love this, will recommend it to all of my family & friends. Keep you the great work, team!
- (2021-02-17) Javier Quiroz: It is a good extension but, Only 5 mins max time pause? That is too little time
- (2021-02-14) 3413 4524: Exactly what I want