Chrome Extension That Suspends Inactive Tabs to Save Memory
Automatically suspend tabs you haven't used in N minutes. Free up memory without losing your tabs.
Build a Chrome extension called "Tab Suspender" that automatically suspends inactive tabs to save memory. The extension should: (1) track when each tab was last active, (2) suspend tabs that have been inactive for more than N minutes (user-configurable, default 30), (3) suspended tabs should be replaced with a placeholder page showing the original tab's title and favicon, plus a "Restore" button, (4) provide an options page where the user sets the inactive timeout and adds domains to an exclusion list (never suspend these), (5) show a count of currently suspended tabs in the extension's badge. Permissions: tabs, storage, alarms. Manifest V3 with service worker and tabs API.
What this extension does
Suspends Chrome tabs that have been inactive for a configurable number of minutes. Suspended tabs free up memory but stay in the tab bar — clicking them restores the original page. Domain exclusion list lets users protect important tabs.
How it works
A service worker listens for tab activation events and tracks last-active timestamps in chrome.storage. A periodic alarm checks for tabs exceeding the inactive timeout and replaces them with a placeholder page using chrome.tabs.update. The placeholder remembers the original URL for one-click restore.
Permissions used: tabs, storage, alarms
Who builds this
For users who keep dozens of tabs open and want to reduce Chrome's memory footprint without losing tab state. Especially useful on laptops with limited RAM.
How to build it in 3 minutes
- Sign in to PlugThis and open the chat input.
- Copy the prompt above and paste it into the chat.
- PlugThis generates the full Manifest V3 extension in 60-90 seconds.
- Download the zip, extract it, and load it via
chrome://extensionsdeveloper mode.
Build it now, free.
Paste the prompt above into PlugThis and ship your extension in 3 minutes.