# ungoogled-chromium: Chromium with Google web services removed > ungoogled-chromium patches Chromium to cut background requests to Google services and to strip prebuilt binaries, while keeping the browser close to stock. It is a source-first project, so most users install a distribution build rather than compile it. **ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium** — Google Chromium, sans integration with Google - Repository: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium - Stars: 27,828 · Forks: 1,257 - Language: Python - License: BSD-3-Clause - Published: 2026-09-21 · Updated: 2026-09-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/ungoogled-software-ungoogled-chromium ## What ungoogled-chromium removes and who needs that Chromium already behaves reasonably without a Google Account, as the README itself concedes. What remains is a set of dependencies on Google web services and prebuilt binaries, plus a design bias toward convenience over transparency. ungoogled-chromium targets exactly that residue: background requests to web services, code specific to Google services, and pre-made binaries that get replaced with user-provided alternatives where possible. The stated objectives are ordered, and the order matters. Removing Google web service dependency comes first, keeping the default Chromium experience second, and privacy, control and transparency tweaks third. When those conflict, the higher objective wins, which is why the project calls itself a drop-in replacement rather than a browser with its own vision. The audience follows from that: people who want Chromium's engine and extension ecosystem but not the service calls, and who accept that the privacy features are mostly off until enabled. The README is explicit that almost all of these features must be manually activated. ## Domain substitution, binary pruning and the qjz9zk fail-safe The mechanism is a build-time pipeline, not a runtime settings toggle. Two source file processors do the heavy lifting. Domain substitution rewrites many Google web domains in the source tree to non-existent alternatives ending in qjz9zk, and a patch then makes Chromium block its own requests to those domains, so no connection is attempted. Binary pruning strips prebuilt binaries out of the source code. On top of that, the project disables functionality tied to Google domains such as the Google Host Detector, Google URL Tracker, Google Cloud Messaging and Google Hotwording, which includes turning off Safe Browsing. The domain substitution step is described as a fail-safe: if Google changes or introduces a component the patches do not disable, the rewritten domain still cannot be reached. That is a genuinely different posture from a blocklist. A blocklist can be bypassed by a new hostname; a substituted hostname that does not resolve cannot. The cost is that the same rewrite breaks things that depend on those domains, which the project accepts as the price of the first objective. The repository layout reflects this: domain_regex.list and domain_substitution.list drive the rewriting, patches/ holds the Chromium changes, pruning.list drives binary removal, and downloads.ini, chromium_version.txt and revision.txt pin what gets fetched and which Chromium revision is targeted. ## Installing ungoogled-chromium from a distribution build The README points users at maintained builds rather than a single download page. Arch is served through the AUR with instructions in ungoogled-chromium-archlinux, Debian through OBS, Ubuntu through the XtraDeb PPA, and Fedora through COPR as wojnilowicz/ungoogled-chromium, also available in RPM Fusion. Because these are distribution channels, the exact command depends on your system, and the README defers to the distribution-specific instructions instead of publishing one universal command. The README's downloads section does not include a clone or build command, so there is no command to copy here; follow the instructions in the linked distribution repository for your platform. Once installed, you get a browser binary that behaves like Chromium but without the Google service integration. The first real use is to open chrome://flags and look for the extra entries the project adds, since the README states that new command-line switches and chrome://flags entries are disabled by default and must be enabled manually. If you want search suggestions to work with a non-Google engine, the project adds a Suggestions URL text field in the search engine editor at chrome://settings/searchEngines. For a fully no-search setup, there is an Omnibox search provider called No Search. Expect the first launch to look unremarkable; that is the point of the drop-in objective. ## Safe Browsing is off, and captive portals still work but detection does not The most consequential limitation is stated plainly in the feature list: Safe Browsing is disabled, and the README links to an FAQ for the rationale rather than treating it as an oversight. If you depend on Google's phishing and malware list to warn you before you open a link, this browser does not provide it. That is a real security trade-off, and it is the direct consequence of the first objective outranking the others. The second limitation is narrower but easy to hit on a laptop: the intranet redirect detector is disabled to avoid extraneous DNS requests, which the README says breaks captive portal detection, though captive portals themselves still work. In practice that means a hotel or airport network may not pop up its login page automatically, and you would navigate to it yourself. A third constraint is the manual activation model. Features that promote control and transparency are added but almost always disabled by default, so a fresh install is closer to stock Chromium than the feature list suggests. Anyone expecting the privacy tweaks to be on out of the box will be disappointed. The project also does not document rollback in the README, so reverting a build is a distribution-level concern. ## How it differs from Brave and from other Chromium forks The README draws a line between ungoogled-chromium and Chromium forks that have their own visions of a web browser. Brave is the clearest example of the other approach: it ships its own features, its own ad and tracker blocking, and its own service relationships, which means a user is trusting Brave's choices instead of Google's. ungoogled-chromium makes the opposite bet. It removes Google service integration and otherwise tries to stay out of the way, so the trust question becomes whether you trust the patch set and the distribution maintainer who built your package. That is a different kind of trust, not an absence of it. The project also borrows selectively from Inox patchset, Bromite, Debian and Iridium Browser, so it is not built in isolation. The practical difference for a user is what you get after install: Brave arrives with its own defaults and services, while ungoogled-chromium arrives close to Chromium and expects you to turn things on. If you want a browser that makes privacy decisions for you, this is the wrong tool. If you want Chromium's behaviour with the Google service layer removed and you are comfortable configuring the rest, the approach lines up. ## Maintenance cadence, licence and what upgrading costs The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-17. Releases track Chromium closely: 153.0.8010.52-1 on 2026-09-17, 153.0.8010.47-1 on 2026-09-15 and 153.0.8010.36-1 on 2026-09-13. That cadence is the maintenance cost in miniature. Because the project is a patch set over a moving upstream, each Chromium security release creates pressure to rebase the patches, and the gaps between those three releases are two days and two days. If you build from source, you inherit that rebase schedule, plus the toolchain work implied by downloads.ini, chromium_version.txt and revision.txt changing. If you install from Arch AUR, Debian OBS, Ubuntu XtraDeb PPA or Fedora COPR, the distribution maintainer absorbs that work, and your upgrade cost becomes waiting for their package. Either way, the delay between a Chromium security fix and your browser receiving it is the number that matters, and it is set by whichever channel you chose. The licence is BSD-3-Clause for this repository. That covers the project's own code and patches; Chromium itself carries its own licensing, and redistribution of a built browser involves Chromium's terms as well. This is not legal advice, and anyone redistributing builds should read the LICENSE file and Chromium's own licensing rather than assuming the BSD-3-Clause grant settles the whole binary. ## Conclusion Adopt ungoogled-chromium if you want Chromium's engine without background Google service calls and you are willing to install from a distribution build or compile it yourself. Do not adopt it if you rely on Safe Browsing, captive portal detection, or a signed-in Google account inside the browser, because the project disables Safe Browsing and the intranet redirect detector breaks captive portal detection. Before committing, check docs/platforms.md for your platform, docs/flags.md for the switches you would need to enable manually, and whether your distribution's package tracks the current release, since the latest releases here are 153.0.8010.52-1, 153.0.8010.47-1 and 153.0.8010.36-1. ## FAQ ### What does ungoogled-chromium do? It is Google Chromium with dependency on Google web services removed. It disables Google-specific functionality, blocks internal requests to Google domains at runtime, and strips prebuilt binaries from the source code. ### How safe is ungoogled-chromium? The project disables Safe Browsing, which is Google's phishing and malware protection, so that layer is absent. The README links to an FAQ explaining the rationale, and the trade-off follows from removing Google service dependency. ### How to get ungoogled-chromium? The README lists maintained builds in software repositories: Arch via the AUR, Debian via OBS, Ubuntu via the XtraDeb PPA, and Fedora via COPR as wojnilowicz/ungoogled-chromium, also in RPM Fusion. Building from source is the other route. ### How do I add Google to ungoogled-chromium? The project removes code specific to Google web services and blocks requests to substituted Google domains, so adding Google services back is not a supported setting. The README's objectives put removal of that dependency first. ### How to install ungoogled-chromium on Windows? The README's downloads section lists software repositories for Arch, Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora, and points to docs/platforms.md for supported platforms. Windows appears in the project's cross-platform build and packaging wrapper, and the README notes a Windows-specific change of not setting the Zone Identifier on downloaded files. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium/issues) - [License: BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium/blob/master/LICENSE) - [README](https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium/releases) - [ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium on GitHub](https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/ungoogled-software-ungoogled-chromium