Skip YouTube ads and creator sponsor reads, and block ads & trackers across the web. A calm, capable sensei that handles the noise so you don't have to.
What it does
Start with web-wide ad and tracker blocking — then add the ads filter lists can't reach: the ones sites serve from their own domains, including YouTube's in-stream video ads.
Filter-list ad & tracker blocking on every site, with cookie-notice, popup, social, and URL-tracking lists — pick a Balanced or Max level at install, pause any site from the popup.
The ads sites serve themselves, which filter lists miss — sponsored pins, promoted products, feed ads, and YouTube's in-stream video ads. Hidden or removed automatically.
On YouTube it also clicks “Skip” the instant it appears and uses AI to skip creator sponsor and self-promo reads — pre-roll, mid-roll, overlays, and the anti-ad-blocker wall.
Where it works
Different surfaces need different tactics — and some have hard limits no extension can cross. Here's exactly what happens where.
Web players only — no extension can reach the desktop or mobile apps. Spotify skipping is experimental: Spotify changes its player often, so muting stays on as the reliable fallback.
No black box
One status card in the popup tells you what's happening on the page you're on — and when a site pushes back, the fix is a single tap, right there.
First-party blocking backed off automatically — ads are still skipped normally.
Clear YouTube cookies & reloadClearing this site's cookies usually restores access.
Clear this site's cookies & reloadThe moat
Crowdsourced ad-block databases can't see a creator's sponsor read or an ad a filter list never learned. Ad Sensei uses AI — free on-device by default, or your own key — to handle exactly those.
Understands the video's actual content to find paid reads — precision-first, so it never cuts real content.
When YouTube changes its layout and breaks skipping, the AI re-finds the button and caches the fix. No update needed.
Catches ads the filter lists miss on a site, learns them once, and hides them on every return visit.
Hides annoyance popups but keeps logins and consent dialogs — and clicks “reject all” on cookie prompts for you.
By design
No accounts, no tracking profile. Blocking and analysis run in your browser, not on a server. Optional diagnostics report the domain where ad detection went wrong so we can fix it — one click turns them off, and Local-only mode silences every network call.
All blocking, all analysis, all your settings live in your browser. Nothing you watch, type, or read is uploaded — and if our server vanished, blocking would keep working.
On-device AI needs no key and no card. Bring a free Gemini or Groq key for extra speed — or run fully local with Ollama.
Built-in Chrome AI, Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, local Ollama, your OpenClaw, Claude, or OpenAI — with automatic fallback to on-device if a key hits its limit.
And more
The small stuff that makes an ad blocker feel invisible — built in, not bolted on.
If YouTube throws its ad-blocker wall, Ad Sensei backs off, clears the right cookies, and gets playback going again.
Filter lists refresh themselves between releases — verified, data-only updates, no waiting on a new version.
Pause everything on one site, or tune popup, cookie, and social blocking site-by-site from the popup.
The skip engine runs before YouTube's player finishes loading and clicks “Skip” the same instant it renders.
Session and all-time counts of what was actually skipped and blocked — real ad slots, not inflated request tallies.
YouTube Music ads are skipped like YouTube's. Spotify web-player ads are muted for exactly as long as they play — the player delivers them in-stream, so they can't be blocked or skipped, but you never hear them. Web players only: no extension can reach the desktop or mobile apps.
Balanced blocking on every site from the first page load — dial it down to YouTube-only or up to Max whenever you like.
Get started
No account, no sign-in. Install from the Chrome Web Store — that's the whole setup.
The welcome page opens on install — choose Essential, Balanced, or Max blocking (and optionally add free AI keys).
Open YouTube: skipping starts automatically. Everything else is handled quietly in the background, and updates arrive on their own.
Add Ad Sensei and get back to what you came to watch.