Hi Opera users!

We’ve had a lot of questions about Chromium’s transition to Manifest V3, and specifically how your Opera experience with extensions and functionality like ad blocking will be affected. Good news: We plan to continue supporting Manifest V2 extensions in Opera independently of what will happen to other browsers. This means that users of Opera’s browsers should expect to continue to use non-graded versions of their favorite ad blocker extensions.   

Opera will, of course, also continue to offer robust built-in ad blocking regardless of what happens to ad blocker extensions. We have done so since 2016, when we were the first browser to offer this functionality.

What is changing

The framework under which browser extensions run in Chromium is moving from the current Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. This means that a lot of extensions built on the previous framework are expected to stop working on browsers like Chrome. Many already have.

What Opera is doing about this

Opera is built on Chromium, the open-source code that also powers Chrome. This means that changes in Chromium usually affect Opera as well. It also means that we can still make our own modifications on top of this shared codebase. 

While we want to be able to offer the best possible support, our focus will be on maintaining a safe and secure experience for users, both within our Add-ons Store and with extensions that come from outside sources. In the coming days and weeks, we will be reaching out to selected extension developers to determine the best and safest way forward.

For you, this means that you will be able to keep using extensions such as uBlock Origin uninterrupted, instead of switching to the more bare-bones version of uBlock Origin Lite.

Opera users will always have native ad blocking

A lot of you have expressed concern about the future of privacy-preserving extensions and functionality such as ad blocking. We’re happy to share that Opera’s native Ad Blocker is not affected by these changes at all. It will continue to be available beyond the expected June 2025 cutoff of Manifest V2.

Opera’s built-in Ad Blocker is available out of the box, needs no additional extensions or installations, and can be customized according to your wishes. It makes your browser cleaner, safer, and more private – not to mention faster, since web pages load up to 90% faster without the additional clutter of bulky ads.

For everyone who, for the last eight years, has benefited from our native ad blocking to speed up their browsing and keep intrusive ads at bay, absolutely nothing will change – except for refinements and updates to continue improving your experience.

As things develop, we will continue updating you on the status of extensions in Opera. In the meantime, you can continue enjoying your extensions just like before.

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