Install the Chrome Extension

About three minutes, five steps. No Chrome Web Store required.

Why the extension. It works right on the Google results you're already looking at — scoring the map pack and organic listings in place, with location spoofing and one-click referring-domain lookups. Because it reads the page you're on, its searches don't spend credits.

Download the extension

Checking for the latest release…

Watch it done

The five steps

Unzip it somewhere permanent

Unzip the download into a folder you won't move or delete — your home directory or Documents is fine. Chrome doesn't copy the extension anywhere; it loads it from that folder every time it starts, so deleting the folder uninstalls the extension.

The unzipped folder. manifest.json sits directly inside it — that's the folder you'll point Chrome at in step 4.

Remove the old Web Store copy first

Only if you had it installed before July 2026. The self-hosted build carries the same extension ID as the Web Store one, so Chrome refuses to load them side by side. Remove the old card and the new install goes through cleanly — your account, credits and saved research all live server-side and are untouched.

On chrome://extensions, click Remove on the old card before loading the new build.

Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode

Chrome blocks pages from linking to chrome:// addresses, so this one you have to paste in yourself:


chrome://extensions

Then flip Developer mode on, top right. This is the switch that lets Chrome run an extension from a folder instead of the Web Store.

The Chrome Extensions page with chrome://extensions in the address bar and the Developer mode toggle switched off in the top-right corner. — The Extensions page with Developer mode still off — the toggle is in the top-right corner. Click any screenshot to enlarge it.

Click "Load unpacked" and pick the folder

Turning on Developer mode reveals a new button row. Click Load unpacked, then select the folder from step 1 — the one with manifest.json directly inside it, not the zip and not the folder above it.

The Chrome Extensions page with Developer mode switched on, revealing a new row of buttons: Load unpacked, Pack extension, and Update. — With Developer mode on, a new button row appears — **Load unpacked** is the one you want.

The macOS folder picker titled 'Select the extension directory', showing the unzipped niche-finder-pro folder in Downloads with manifest.json, background.js, index.html and the assets folder inside it. — The folder picker. Select the unzipped folder itself — the one containing `manifest.json` — not the `.zip` below it.

Confirm it loaded, then pin it

A Niche Finder Pro card should appear, toggled on. Check the ID matches bncipkfkdbdipkeeclbppmehnfjldomi — that's how your existing account and saved data stay attached. Then open the puzzle-piece menu in your Chrome toolbar and pin NFP so it's one click away on any Google search.

The Chrome Extensions page after loading, showing the Niche Finder Pro card with its version, its ID bncipkfkdbdipkeeclbppmehnfjldomi, Details and Remove buttons, a reload icon, and the enable toggle switched on. — The loaded extension card. The toggle on the right must be blue (on), and the circular arrow beside it is the reload button you'll use when updating.

The Chrome toolbar puzzle-piece menu open, listing Niche Finder Pro with a pin icon highlighted and a Pin tooltip showing. — Click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar, then the pin beside Niche Finder Pro to keep it one click away.

Chrome shows a "Disable developer mode extensions" warning each time it starts. That's expected for any self-hosted extension and safe to dismiss — clicking Cancel keeps NFP running.

Updating later

Sideloaded extensions never auto-update, so updates are manual — but the app tells you when one is waiting. When you see the prompt:

Download the new zip from this page.
Replace the contents of your existing folder with the new files — keep the same folder path.
Click the reload icon (⟳) on the Niche Finder Pro card at chrome://extensions.

Keeping the same folder means Chrome keeps the same extension ID, so you stay signed in and nothing needs re-linking.

If something goes wrong

"Manifest file is missing or unreadable" +

You selected the wrong folder — almost always the one containing the extension folder, or the zip itself. Open the folder you picked: if you don't see manifest.json sitting right there, go one level deeper and try again.

Chrome nags about developer mode every time it starts +

Expected, and not a sign anything is wrong. Chrome shows that warning for every unpacked extension. Click Cancel to dismiss it and keep NFP enabled — clicking Disable turns the extension off.

The extension disappeared +

The folder moved, got renamed, or was emptied — Chrome loads the extension from that exact path on every startup. Put the folder back, or unzip a fresh copy and repeat step 4.

Chrome says it's already installed +

The old Chrome Web Store copy is still there. Both builds share one extension ID, so Chrome won't load a second one. Remove the old card first (step 2), then load unpacked again.

"Blocked by your administrator" or the Load unpacked button is missing +

A managed Chrome profile (work or school laptop) can block unpacked extensions outright, and it's not something you can override locally. Use app.niche-finder.pro instead — it does everything the extension does, in the browser, with no install.

I'm not on Chrome +

Edge, Brave, Opera and other Chromium browsers follow the same five steps (Edge uses edge://extensions). Safari and Firefox can't load Chrome extensions at all — on those, use app.niche-finder.pro.

Installed? The getting-started guide covers what to actually do with it.

Read the getting-started guide

Still stuck? Contact support or ask in the NFP Discord.