Santiago Mallea
Content Writer At Gradehacker
Table of Contents
As you will spend so much time with the computer, why not take full advantage of the best chrome extensions to improve your productivity and effectiveness?
Because yes, nowadays, it seems impossible not to study without a computer; and it’s even more necessary if you are an online student.
You need to access your student portal, use Word or Google Docs to write your assignments, get in touch with your professors or fellow students through Gmail, and search in the neverending source finder that is Google for any important information or statistics you need to support your essays.
Thinking of earning a degree without ever touching a computer is straight impossible. Google Chrome (or your chosen browser) will be your loyal partner throughout your journey, so it would be wise to use all of its assets to improve your experience.
How? With the best chrome extensions you’ll find in this list.
Here at Gradehacker, we are the non-traditional student’s most trusted resource. We know that Google Chrome is a vital tool for students, as it can make our life easier by taking care of tiresome tasks in just a few clicks.
That’s why we are sharing 12 Chrome Extensions for Students that will definitely make your college experience simpler.
Chrome Extensions For Writing
Grammar Checking Tool
Grammarly is one of the best grammar checkers and writing apps you’ll find. It checks for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling mistakes and helps you improve your writing style with accurate suggestions that make your text easier to read.
Thanks to its many advanced features, Grammarly has become one of Gradehacker´s favorite editing tools.
It is a super complete app, and with its Google Chrome extension, you can use all of its features on all the websites you need. Grammarly works in not only Google Docs but also Gmail, Youtube, Linkedin, and many more!
And the best is that you can download and use it for free!
While the free version includes basic writing suggestions to correct grammatical mistakes, with the premium plan, you’ll be able to use all of their advanced features.
You can learn more about Grammarly’s features and pricing plans by reading our in-depth review or watching our video:
Free Citation Generator
MyBib is a free citation maker that automatically creates accurate citations for your bibliography in just one click. It formats in over 9,000 different citation styles, including APA 7th Edition, MLA 8th Edition, Chicago, and Harvard.
Plus, it tells you if the site you want to cite is credible or not. A super helpful feature, right?
And using it is as easy as it gets. Simply go to any page or PDF, and click on the extension button. There you’ll see the reference in the writing style you need, and then copy it directly into your paper or save it to your MyBib bibliography for later.
If you want to see other citation generator alternatives, you can read our list of best citation machines for college students!
Splits Your Screen's Layout
Tab Resize is the perfect tool to open simultaneously multiple browser windows in one click.
If you don’t have two monitors and constantly have to shift from one window to the other, with Tab Resize, you can choose between different templates to change the layout of your tabs so you can have on sight as many as you need.
It’s an excellent tool for when you are writing and need to have your source at hand or when you have to cite a YouTube video and constantly pause it to write the sentence.
Of course, doing this manually is not a complex task, but being able to do it in one second, with zero effort, and for free certainly makes Tab Resize a super helpful Google Chrome extension.
Synonyms Finder
Power Thesaurus is an editing tool that helps you find the word you are looking for. You give them a word, and they give you synonyms, antonyms, its definition, related and similar terms, and even rhyming words!
In short, you won’t have to worry about repetitions anymore!
It can be super helpful whenever you are writing, and you know that you’ve been repeating the same word over and over, or when you have that perfect word at the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t remember which was it.
They have a Premium membership that gives you more content with infinite results and more filters to use, but its free account is more than enough to help any student avoid word repetition.
Chrome Extensions For Organization
Tab Manager
Workona is a productivity extension that helps you organize your workspace by managing your tabs and projects and bringing them together in your browser.
You can create your own custom workspace for each specific project with all the websites and files you need to work on.
You can import files from common apps like Google Docs, Google Drive, Asana, and Zoom; create personal to-do lists, bookmark tabs, and save entire windows as a workspace. They also constantly make a secure backup, so you don’t have to worry about losing work in case of a browser crash.
But one of Workona’s standout features is their tab suspender, which reduces memory usage dramatically and keeps your computer running faster.
And you get all of their advanced tools just by creating an account and for free!
Now, they do have a premium plan for $9 per month or $84 per year, but this only gives you access to duplicating workspaces, creating templates, and archiving projects once you finish them.
So you can go ahead and use their free version as much as you want.
Annotations and PDF Editor
Kami is a complete online editing tool where you can create and edit files alone or with your fellow students.
As one of its main features is to be integrated with Google Classroom, Kami is primarily an app designed for teachers and their students. However, because it has so many editing features, there is no reason why you can’t make good use of it.
In Kami, you can either start a blank page from scratch, import a document from Google Drive or your desktop, or use one of their templates. In your file, you can write, highlight, add comments, and even draw!
They also have a Text Recognition tool that scans PDFs and images and lets you interact with them.
These are excellent tools, but there isn’t much of a difference with the features you can find in Word or Google Docs. And while they have more advanced features that truly make them stand out, the bad news is that these are only available with their premium plan, which costs $10 per month or $50 per year.
It’s not super expensive, especially if you go for the annual plan, but it’s a letdown.
Still, if you choose to become a premium user, you’ll get access to advanced tools like:
- Voice-typing tool
- Text-to-speech converter
- Add audio, images, and videos to your file
- Calculator that writes equations
- Dictionary
CRM for Gmail
Streak is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app that manages your interactions with your contacts within Gmail and Google Drive.
It was designed to be a Google Chrome extension for companies and working teams, but you can use it for your study group!
With Streak, you can easily collaborate, share emails and notes, and access pipeline data to have more context on your reading email.
But their standout feature is that you can track whenever your email is viewed.
You will now know when your professor reads your email with questions about an essay or find out if that classmate who isn’t answering your texts is just avoiding you and the group assignment you are preparing.
Block Ads on Websites
Well, the name says it all. If you’ve never heard of AdBlocker, you’ve been missing one of the best extensions out there.
This is a straightforward extension; it blocks ads and pop-ups everywhere on the internet. Say goodbye to those annoying unskippable commercials on YouTube or that unbearable flyer that flashes on your screen right after you enter a website.
Plus, AdBlock also protects you from malware and stops advertisers from getting your browsing history and personal information.
And everything for free! Still, be aware that while it will work on every website, some may ask you to turn it off to access; and there is nothing you can do to avoid that.
Now, you might be wondering why this is a chrome extension for students. Well, the truth is that it’s actually an app that everybody should use, but as a student, it will make faster and simpler your research process when you are about to write an essay.
It’s overall an excellent tool that we highly recommend.
Chrome Extensions For Studying
Text-to-Speech Tool
Speechify reads any text or website in a human non-robotic voice. It was created as an advanced tool to help dyslexic students who couldn’t focus on reading, but it can be a great choice if you are an auditory learner.
You can listen to documents, PDFs, articles, emails, and even entire websites!
Just go to any page you want, click on the extension button, and push play on the small box that will appear in the corner. And if you are also using Speechify’s desktop version, if you click on the save button, the website you are at will be saved as a separate document.
Speechify lets you choose the reading speed and the voice sample, but with the free version, you will only have limited choices. Still, it will be more than enough for any auditory learner to use while moving from one place to another, having breakfast, or doing anything else!
If you want to learn more about Speechify’s premium features, its mobile and desktop version, and pricing plans, you can read our review or watch our video:
Read Faster
SwiftRead is a browser extension that makes you read at least two to three times faster. It’s a powerful productivity tool that saves you valuable time by maximizing your reading experience and giving you full control of everything to improve your focus, comprehension, and comfort.
Through their Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) technique, they reduce sub-vocalization, unconscious re-reading, and eliminate eye movements, which are the elements that slow down the reading.
While the average reading speed is about 300 words per minute, with SwiftRead, you can read 400, 500, or as many as you wish (even though more than 500 would be almost impossible and pointless).
The RSVP consists of having only one word on the screen that rapidly changes into the following and so on. It may look hard at first, but after a while of using it, you catch up with the pace and get a faster reading experience.
SwiftRead works on any website, but to access PDFs, ePUBs, and Kindle books, you´ll need the Pro subscription, which costs $2.99 per month or $29 for the lifetime plan. This premium version also gives you more customizable features and prioritized support, but that’s pretty much it.
Even if you have doubts about this technique, we highly recommend you at least try SwiftRead for free and see if it helps you read faster.
Text Enhancer
Have you ever entered a website with valuable information that was hard to read because of its ugly design or poorly structured layout? Well, AlphaText will let you change the appearance of these online articles so they can be easier to read!
This extension has customizable features to improve how a badly formatted article looks, making you more productive and reducing the strain on your eyes you get when you force your sight more than what it can take.
You can create a simple interface by editing font color, size, and style and changing the website’s line spacing. Pick one of their templates, or do it manually and create your own reading style.
It may not be a complex extension or have multiple advanced features, but it’s a simple app that will turn all those hard-to-read websites into understandable texts.
Text Highlighter
As its name says, Auto Highlight is a simple highlight tool that flags the most important content on a website.
If you are reading a long article with lots of information and would like to know which is the part that has essential material, just click on the extension button, and it will automatically show you where is that valuable data.
Auto Highlight uses an algorithm that picks meaningful sentences based on term frequencies in the article you are reading. And every time you click on the expansion button, it will highlight more content on the page.
The downside is that it only works in HTML documents, meaning PDFs are off the table, but still, it’s a great help for scholarly articles that you find online.
Add These Chrome Extensions And Improve Your Productivity!
Chrome extensions can be really helpful allies when we are surfing the net, and these are only some of the most useful apps you can find to improve your college experience. With a bit of luck, you are finishing this list with a few more free extensions installed in your browser.
Even though all of these are free, and there is no limit to how many you can download, you don’t necessarily have to download them all. Just stick to the ones you know will be more helpful, and give a try those you are not sure about! All are free to use, so you don’t lose anything by trying them.
If you are looking for more of the best tips for college students, check out our related articles:
