How to Switch from Chrome to Brave Browser

Install Brave next to Chrome

Download Brave from brave.com. It installs alongside Chrome, so you can run both while you move over. Brave is built on Chromium, the same engine Chrome runs on, so it feels identical in daily use. The first time Brave opens it offers to become your default browser; you can accept now or do it later from Settings.

Import bookmarks, history and settings

Open the main menu and choose Bookmarks, then Import Bookmarks and Settings. Pick Chrome from the list of detected browsers, tick the items you want to bring over and click Import. Check that your bookmarks and history arrived before you go further.

Move your saved passwords with a file

Passwords need one extra step. Brave's help center explains that, because of the way Chrome encrypts password data, passwords cannot come across with the importer. In Chrome, open chrome://password-manager/settings and click Download file under Export passwords. In Brave, open brave://password-manager/settings and click Select file under Import passwords. The exported file holds every saved password, so delete it as soon as Brave shows them; Bitwarden's import guide gives the same advice, in case the computer is ever compromised.

Add your extensions from the Chrome Web Store

Brave says any extension in the Chrome Web Store also works in Brave. Open the extension's store page in Brave, click Add to Brave and approve the permissions it asks for. Brave has committed to keep supporting some Manifest V2 extensions, naming AdGuard, NoScript, uBlock Origin and uMatrix, so an ad blocker that Chrome stopped supporting can come back. Brave also warns that it cannot vouch for the security or privacy of third party extensions, so reinstall only the ones you still use.

Set Brave as your default browser

In Brave, open the main menu, choose Settings and click Make Default in the Get Started section. You can also do it from the operating system: on Windows 11 open Settings, then Apps, then Default apps, select Brave and choose Set default; on macOS Ventura or later open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and pick Brave in the Default web browser menu. Links from other apps then open in Brave instead of Chrome.

Configure Privacy Shields

Shields are on for every site by default. The global settings sit in the main menu under Settings, in the Shields section, and apply to every website. For a single site, click the lion icon at the right of the address bar: switch Shields off for a site that breaks, or open Advanced controls to change one protection. Brave remembers those site choices even if you later change the global settings. Blocking of trackers and ads has two levels: Standard, the default, and Aggressive, which blocks more at a higher risk of breaking pages.

Replace Google Defaults

Change the default search engine in the main menu under Settings, then Search Engine. You can pick one engine for normal windows and a different one for private windows, for example Brave Search or DuckDuckGo.

Sync Brave across your devices

Open the main menu and choose Brave Sync, then Start a new sync chain. A phone joins by scanning the QR code; a second computer joins by typing the chain's 24 word sync code, and Brave's help center currently asks for a rotating 25th word as well. Then choose what to sync: bookmarks, passwords, autofill data, history, open tabs, extensions, themes and apps. Brave's privacy policy says synced data is stored encrypted and only your devices hold the key, so Brave cannot recover it if you lose every device on the chain, and unused chains expire after 12 months.

Check the tools that open Chrome by themselves

Making Brave your default does not change tools that drive Chrome directly. Google's Antigravity IDE documents that its agent opens a local Chrome browser inside a separate Chrome profile, and Google's getting started codelab says its /browser command needs Chrome as your default browser. A community setup guide shows a Chrome Binary Path field under Browser Subagent in Antigravity's settings, and a December 2025 developer guide describes making Antigravity use Brave as an unofficial workaround, but Google does not document that route, so an update can break it. Browser automation libraries behave the same way: Playwright and Puppeteer accept an executablePath launch option for another browser binary, and both say that is at your own risk. If you depend on one of these tools, keep Chrome installed for it.

Uninstall Chrome

After a week of daily Brave use, uninstall Chrome, unless a tool from the previous step still needs it. If you keep Chrome on Windows or Linux, look at its setting Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed: Google's enterprise documentation says that in this background mode a Chrome process starts when you sign in to your computer and keeps running after the last browser window closes.