1 · Install
Add Minimal Network from the Chrome Web Store, then pin it so the icon sits in the toolbar. Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi.
YouTube
How to remove YouTube Shorts
YouTube will let you dismiss the Shorts shelf. For about thirty days. Then it comes back, and the sidebar entry never left in the first place. Here is how to remove it and keep it removed.
Add to Chrome
Free · no account · no subscription
Why YouTube's own setting doesn't hold
The three-dot menu on the Shorts shelf has a Not interested option, and it works — temporarily. Google's own help text puts the expiry at roughly a month, after which the shelf reappears without asking. It also only ever addresses the shelf on the homepage: the Shorts entry in the left sidebar, Shorts rows in search results, and Shorts mixed into suggestions are all untouched.
An extension takes a different approach. It doesn't ask YouTube for anything — it hides the elements in your own browser, on every load, with no expiry to run out.
Three steps
2 · Open the YouTube card
Click the icon and expand YouTube in the popup. Every switch on this page is one of the rows inside it.
3 · Turn off what you don't want
Flip Hide Shorts. The tab updates as you click — there is no reload, and no settings page to find.
What each switch removes
Shorts is one row among several. Most people who came to remove Shorts end up turning off two or three of these.
| Switch | What disappears |
|---|---|
| Hide Shorts | The homepage shelf, the left-sidebar entry, and Shorts rows inside search and suggestions |
| Hide recommended | The entire suggestion column to the right of the player |
| Hide end screens | The grid of thumbnails pasted over the last twenty seconds of a video |
| Hide homepage feed | The whole home grid — YouTube opens as a search box and your subscriptions |
| Hide comments | The comment section under the player |
| Hide chat | The live chat panel on streams and premieres |
| Hide merch | Merch shelves and product rows under the video |
| Hide topics | The topic chip bar across the top |
| Hide games (Pro) | The Gaming entries, game shelves and Playables |
No flash of Shorts before they go
The common failure mode of a Shorts blocker is visible: the shelf renders, then vanishes a heartbeat later, and on a site that navigates without reloading you get to watch that happen all day.
Minimal Network injects its rules at
document_start, before the browser's first paint, so
what is hidden was never drawn. YouTube also ships two different
class vocabularies for the same components and rotates its markup
without warning, so a small script re-tags the parts CSS can't
identify on its own, and re-tags them again after each soft
navigation. What you see is a page that simply doesn't contain
Shorts.
Questions
Can you turn off YouTube Shorts permanently?
Not from inside YouTube. Its own dismissal expires after about thirty days and only covers the homepage shelf. An extension removes them on your machine, on every load, with nothing to expire.
Does hiding Shorts also hide recommended videos?
They are separate switches, so you can have either on its own. Hide Shorts covers the shelf, sidebar and search; Hide recommended covers the suggestion column beside the player.
Will Shorts links I click still work?
Yes. A youtube.com/shorts URL you open deliberately
still plays. The extension stops Shorts being handed to you; it
doesn't break links people send you.
Does it work on the mobile site?
It works anywhere a Chromium desktop browser runs, including m.youtube.com in a desktop window. Chrome on Android and iOS doesn't support extensions, so the phone apps are out of reach.
Is removing YouTube Shorts free?
Yes — every YouTube filter, with no account, and the X (Twitter) side too. Pro is one $12 payment for the Design Studio only: no subscription, no renewal.
Same extension, other half: hide the For You tab, trends and reposts on X (Twitter) — that part is free.