Who makes SponsorBlock?
SponsorBlock is an open-source project started by developer Ajay Ramachandran. The extension code is licensed under the GPL v3, and the segment database is publicly downloadable. It is free to use; the Safari version is a paid App Store app.
When we checked on October 8, 2026, the Chrome Web Store listing showed about 2,000,000 users and the Firefox listing about 807,000. Store user counts are installs, not daily viewers.
How does SponsorBlock know where the sponsor is?
People tell it. When a viewer with the extension reaches a sponsor read, they can mark its start and end and submit it with a category. The next person who opens the video gets those timestamps, and the extension seeks past the segment.
- A viewer marks the segment's start and end and picks a category such as Sponsor.
- Other viewers vote. Badly placed segments can be voted down or corrected; well-reviewed ones can be locked.
- When you open the video, the extension looks up its segments and skips the categories you set to skip.
- If no one submitted a segment, there is nothing to skip.
What can SponsorBlock skip besides sponsors?
Sponsors are the default, but the extension supports other categories: unpaid self-promotion, interaction reminders (“like and subscribe”), intros, endcards and credits, previews and recaps, hooks and greetings, tangents, and non-music sections in music videos. For each one you choose skip automatically, show a skip button, or ignore it.
Is SponsorBlock private?
SponsorBlock's lookups are designed to avoid sending the plain video ID: the extension sends a short prefix of a hashed ID and filters the matching results locally. The server still sees a request from you, and optional features send more. The details are in our separate explainer.
Where does SponsorBlock work?
Officially in Chrome and other Chromium browsers, Firefox (including Firefox for Android), Edge and Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad. Many third-party apps and TV clients use its public database. It does not work inside the official YouTube apps for phones and TVs.
What are SponsorBlock's limits?
Coverage is the main one. A brand-new upload, a smaller channel or a long podcast may not have a segment yet, so the sponsor plays. Boundary quality depends on the person who submitted it, which is why some skips start early or end late until someone corrects them.
That gap is why AI sponsor skippers exist. SponsorSkip, for example, reads the captions and finds the sponsor itself, so it does not need a submission. It is paid after the first free videos and currently limited to English; SponsorBlock is free and broader. Many viewers will be well served by SponsorBlock alone.
Common questions
Is SponsorBlock free?
Yes. The browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge are free and open source. The Safari version for Mac, iPhone and iPad is a paid App Store app ($2.99 in the US store).
Does SponsorBlock skip YouTube ads?
No. It skips segments inside the video, such as sponsor reads and intros. Ads YouTube serves before or during the video are a different thing.
Does SponsorBlock use AI?
The core extension uses timestamps submitted by people, not AI detection. Separate projects have trained models on SponsorBlock's public data.
For the videos nobody marked yet
If you often reach a sponsor that SponsorBlock doesn't know about, SponsorSkip analyzes the captions of that video directly. The first 20 videos are free.
Sources
This article is written by SponsorSkip, which offers a paid alternative to SponsorBlock. Facts about SponsorBlock come from its own repository, store listings and translation files; we did not audit its code or servers. External sources were checked on October 8, 2026. Product details describe SponsorSkip as of the update date above.
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