Best Dark Mode & Reader View Tools for Chrome

Updated October 2026

How to choose a dark mode or reader view extension

These ten picks solve two related problems. Dark mode tools restyle every website you visit. Reader view tools strip one article down to clean text. A few do a bit of both. Stylus is a different kind of tool: it applies CSS styles that you install or write. Start with the job you need done, then look at how much control and which extras you want.

• Dark theme everywhere or a clean reading view. Dark Reader, Night Eye and Midnight Lizard darken whole sites. Reader View, Just Read and Clearly Reader remove ads, sidebars and clutter from articles.
• How customizable it is. Midnight Lizard adjusts brightness, saturation and contrast and has a blue-light filter. Dark Reader offers brightness, contrast and sepia controls, and Night Eye sets rules per site. Stylus lets you install or write CSS styles for any site, so it can change more than color.
• Reading extras. Reader Mode, Reader View and Clearly Reader list text-to-speech. Reader Mode adds dyslexia support and highlighting.
• Export and saving. Clearly Reader lists export to PDF, Word and Markdown. Reader View can save a page as HTML, and the Chrome Reader Mode listing mentions offline saving.
• Video dimming. Only Turn Off the Lights dims the page around a video player.
• Cost. Some picks are free to install, but several have free plans with limits and paid plans: Night Eye, Reader Mode, Just Read and Clearly Reader. Check each vendor's current plans before you pay.

Our picks at a glance

Comparisons and alternatives

• Dark Reader alternatives: dark mode for PDFs, custom colors or video

Which is the best dark mode extension for Chrome?

For most people, Dark Reader is the best dark mode extension for Chrome. It is open source (MIT), and its developers say it shows no ads, and its privacy policy says it has never collected personal data. It generates a dark theme for each page and gives you brightness, contrast and sepia controls, with a per-site off switch.

If you want more control per site, try Night Eye, which has a PDF dark mode. If you want to tune your own colors, we would look at Midnight Lizard.

Which is the best reader view extension for Chrome?

Reader View is a good first reader view extension for Chrome. It is built on Mozilla’s Readability library, the same engine behind Firefox’s reader view. It opens an article in a clean page, strips ads and clutter, and offers fullscreen reading and text-to-speech. A separate open-source listing shares the name, so check the publisher.

Choose Just Read for a reader built for article pages only. Choose Clearly Reader if you want an AI assistant and accept paid plans.

Which reader mode extension can read articles aloud?

Three picks list text-to-speech. Reader Mode has it alongside dyslexia support and highlighting, on a free plan with limits. Reader View and Clearly Reader list it too. Clearly Reader’s AI features have limits and paid plans, so check the vendor’s current limits before you rely on them.

Can one extension give me both a reader view and dark mode?

Not that we could confirm. Reader tools reformat one article, while dark mode tools recolour whole sites. Reader Mode lists a custom theme, but we found no source for a dark theme in any reader pick. The simple route is to pair a reader view with a dark mode tool such as Dark Reader.

Can I restyle websites with my own CSS?

Yes, with Stylus. It applies CSS themes, also called userstyles, that you install or write, and a style manager page keeps them in one place. It is not a one-click dark mode, so for that see Dark Reader. It is open source under GPL-3.0. Styles run on pages you visit, so use only styles you trust.

How do I dim the page around videos in Chrome?

Use Turn Off the Lights. Its original feature darkens everything around an active video player so the video stands out. You can set the dimming opacity with shortcuts. It also has a separate Night Mode that turns white backgrounds black. Its site coverage is the vendor's own claim, so test it on your sites.