Hi DEV community!
I wanted to share a small Chrome / Chromium extension called WebTime.
WebTime shows how much time is spent on websites and individual pages.
It is meant to be a simple local tool for understanding browser habits without using a full productivity platform or sending browsing data to a server.
Recently I also shared another extension called Anti-chaos tabs, which helps organize messy browser tabs. WebTime is a separate project, but it follows a similar idea: simple browser tools that work locally.
What it does
WebTime tracks active browser time by domain and by page.
For example, it can show time spent on:
- a domain, like
github.com - a specific page or URL
- today
- this week
- this month
- a selected date
There is also a dashboard with search, filters, detailed tables, and export/import.
What problem it helps with
A lot of browser time is easy to lose track of.
Sometimes a few quick pages turn into a long session. Sometimes it is hard to tell which sites take the most time during the day. Sometimes it is useful to check whether time was spent mostly on work pages, reading, videos, social sites, or research.
WebTime gives a simple view of that activity.
It is not designed to be a complicated productivity system. It is closer to a quiet browser time log that stays on the local machine.
How it works
WebTime counts time only when a normal web page is active.
Tracking pauses when:
- the browser window is not focused
- another tab becomes active
- the URL changes
- the tab closes
- Chrome reports the user as idle
Browser system pages like chrome://extensions are ignored.
The extension stores data locally in the browser using IndexedDB.
Time limits
WebTime also supports optional time limits for domains.
For example, a limit can be set for:
- 30 minutes per day on one site
- 2 hours per week on another site
- 10 hours per month on a domain
Each limit can have a different action:
- send a notification
- show a warning page
- block the site after the limit is reached
The warning and block pages are local extension pages.
Privacy
WebTime is built to work locally.
It does not use external servers.
It does not collect analytics.
It does not send browsing history anywhere.
The tracked data stays in the browser profile.
Features
- Time tracking by domain
- Time tracking by individual page
- Day, week, month, and selected-date filters
- Dashboard with search and tables
- JSON export and import
- Optional domain time limits
- Notifications, warning pages, and block pages
- Local storage with IndexedDB
- Several languages
- No analytics
- No server
Links
Previous project, Anti-chaos tabs
Feedback is welcome
WebTime is a small project, but it may be useful for people who want a simple way to understand where their browser time goes.
Feedback is welcome, especially about what feels useful, what feels confusing, or what kind of browser time tracking features would be helpful.
Top comments (1)
A related small project I made is Anti-chaos tabs.
It helps organize messy browser sessions by grouping related tabs together, also locally in the browser.
I wrote more about it here