How to Block Website Notifications in Chrome and Edge

1Revoke permission straight from the alert that appeared

This is the quickest route and it solves the single annoying site case on the spot. When the bubble appears on screen, it carries a shortcut to that specific site's settings, with nothing to hunt for. The advantage is that you do not need to know the site address: the alert itself identifies the sender.

1. As soon as the alert appears in the corner of the screen, hover over it without clicking the ad content.
2. Look for the gear or the three dots in the corner of the bubble and click there.
3. Choose the option to turn off notifications for that site, or to open the notification settings.
4. On Windows, alerts you missed are kept in the notification centre, which opens by clicking the date and time next to the clock: you can revoke from there too.

2Use the padlock in the address bar on the offending site

If you know which site is sending the alerts and can open it, this is the most direct way to cut the permission. The icon to the left of the address gathers every permission that site holds, and the change applies immediately, with no browser restart. It works the same in Chrome and Edge.

1. Open the site that sends the alerts.
2. Click the icon to the left of the address in the browser bar. It is usually a padlock, a slider control or an information icon.
3. Find the Notifications line in the panel that opens and switch it to Block.
4. If there is an option to reset permissions, it clears everything that site was ever granted, including camera, microphone and location.

3Clear the allowed sites list in Chrome

This is the solution that fixes most cases, because it goes to the root: the list of sites already granted permission. Plenty of people turn off the requests, see the alerts continue and conclude the browser is broken. It is not: blocking new requests does not touch anyone already allowed. Here you see the whole list and remove it in one go.

1. Paste the address below in Chrome's address bar and press Enter.
2. Scroll to the section of sites allowed to send notifications.
3. Click the bin or the menu next to each site to remove the permission. Remove them all, including the ones that look harmless.
4. While you are there, check the blocked sites list just above: it shows what you have already barred and can be adjusted the same way.
5. If you use more than one Chrome profile, repeat it in each profile, because the lists are separate.

chrome://settings/content/notifications

4Clear the allowed sites list in Edge

Edge has the same structure as Chrome, with the internal address starting with edge. The list is independent as well: clearing it in Chrome changes nothing in Edge, and it is common for someone to fix one browser and keep receiving alerts from the other without understanding why.

1. Paste the address below in Edge's address bar and press Enter.
2. Find the list of allowed sites and remove each one.
3. On the same screen, turn on quieter notification requests, which replace the request box with a discreet icon in the address bar.
4. If you use Edge signed in to an account, also check in Settings whether permission syncing is on.

edge://settings/content/notifications

5Turn off permission requests altogether

With the list cleared, this is the setting that stops the problem coming back. It silences nothing already allowed, which is why it comes after the cleanup rather than before. Both browsers offer two options: block completely, so sites never ask, or use the quieter mode, which keeps the door open to allowing a site without a box popping up mid-read.

1. Go back to the same notification settings screen you used in the previous solutions.
2. At the top, choose the option not to allow sites to send notifications, if you want nothing from any site.
3. If you would rather keep the door open for some sites, choose the option to use quieter requests instead of a full block.
4. After that, when you want to allow a specific site, click the bell icon or the padlock in the address bar and allow it manually.

6Block it on Android, in two separate places

On a phone there are two layers of permission, and touching only one of them explains why the alerts keep coming. The first is Chrome's, which controls which sites may send. The second is Android's own, which controls whether Chrome may show any notification at all. Turning the second one off silences everything at once, including downloads and useful browser alerts, so it is usually better to work on the first.

1. In Chrome on Android, tap the three dots in the top right, open Settings and look for the notifications section.
2. Go into the site list and switch off any that are allowed, one by one.
3. On the same screen, leave the general site notifications option off so no new requests arrive.
4. If alerts still appear, open Android settings, go to Apps, choose Chrome and open its notifications: there you can disable notification channels one by one.
5. In Edge on Android the route is equivalent, inside the app's own settings.

7Find out whether the alert comes from an installed program

If the alerts continue with the browser closed, they are not site notifications: they come from a program installed on the computer or from an extension still running. Many of those programs arrive alongside installers for free things and imitate the browser notification format on purpose, including fake virus alerts. Uninstalling is the only way to stop them.

1. Look at the name shown at the bottom of the alert: if it is a program name rather than a site address, the culprit is installed on the computer.
2. On Windows, open Settings > Apps > Installed apps, sort by install date and look for anything you do not recognise or remember installing.
3. Uninstall whatever looks suspect and restart the computer.
4. In Chrome, open the three-dot menu, go to Extensions and disable the ones you do not use. Extensions can display their own alerts too.
5. If you prefer, use the option to reset browser settings, available at the end of the settings page. It undoes changes made by unwanted programs without deleting your passwords and bookmarks.

8Silence the browser from the operating system

This is the plan B for anyone who does not want to hunt site by site, or who needs immediate silence during a meeting or a presentation. The operating system can mute the whole browser regardless of what is configured inside it. The trade-off is that you also stop seeing the useful alerts, such as a download finishing.

1. On Windows, open Settings > System > Notifications, find the browser in the app list and switch it off.
2. On the same screen, the focus feature lets you silence everything for a set period, which is handy for meetings.
3. On macOS, the equivalent list is in System Settings, in the Notifications section, with the browser listed among the apps.
4. Remember to switch it back on afterwards, or you may miss alerts for video calls and messages that come through the browser.