How do I block Hacker News on Chrome for free?

Install a free blocker like Focuh from the Chrome Web Store, add news.ycombinator.com to your blocklist, and start a challenge. It takes under a minute and needs no account. After that, any HN tab redirects to a quiet local page instead of the front page, and a counter logs how many times you tried to open it, so the refresh-the-front-page reflex becomes something you can actually see and shrink.

What domains do I need to block for Hacker News?

The main one is news.ycombinator.com, which covers the front page, /newest, /ask, and comment threads. If you also read HN through a third-party reader or mirror in the browser, add those hosts too. A blocker that matches on the hostname catches news.ycombinator.com in a single entry. The Algolia search frontend at hn.algolia.com is separate, so add it as well if that's another door you open.

Will a Chrome extension block Hacker News in the terminal or other readers?

No. A Chrome extension only controls Chrome. If you read HN in Safari, in a native reader app, or through a command-line client that hits the Firebase API directly, the extension does nothing. That's the usual reason a browser-only block leaks. To block HN across every browser and app on a Mac, you need system-level blocking like the free Focuh desktop app during a focus session.

Can I block Hacker News without an extension?

Yes. On macOS or Linux you can edit the hosts file to point news.ycombinator.com at 127.0.0.1, which blocks it in every browser at once, not just Chrome. It needs admin access and a terminal, and it's easy to forget you set it months later. For most developers a free extension is faster and reversible, though the hosts file wins if you want one block that covers Safari and Chrome together.

Won't I miss something important on the front page?

Almost never, and that's the honest part. The genuinely important stories resurface — through a colleague, a newsletter, or a link in chat — within a day. The fear of missing out is what keeps the tab open, not the actual rate of must-read posts. Blocking HN during deep work and checking it once in the evening captures the signal without the all-day refresh loop that eats your focus.

Can I unblock Hacker News when I'm off the clock?

Yes. Any Chrome extension can be turned off from chrome://extensions, so you can disable the blocker, read HN on a break, and re-enable it. This is by design. A free extension is meant to interrupt the autopilot reflex during work, not to be unbreakable. If you want HN reachable only outside work hours, schedule those windows or tie blocking to a focus session with the Mac app rather than toggling it by hand all day.

Does this work in Brave, Edge, and Arc?

Yes. Focuh is a Chromium extension, so it runs in any Chromium-based browser that takes Chrome Web Store extensions — Brave, Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, and Opera. You install it separately in each browser because extension storage is per-browser. Firefox uses a different format, so a Chrome extension won't load there; on Firefox you'd block Hacker News at the operating-system level instead with the hosts file or a desktop app.

How long should I block Hacker News for?

Long enough to break the refresh reflex. Focuh runs challenges of 30, 91, or 180 days, or a custom range, rather than a single afternoon. Compulsively checking the HN front page between tasks is a habit built over months, so a couple of hours of blocking rarely sticks. A 30-day challenge gives the reflex time to fade, and the attempt counter shows you how often the urge actually fires during a workday.

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How to Block Hacker News on Chrome (Free) — 2026

June 24, 20269 min readFocuh

Hacker News is the procrastination that feels like professional development. You tell yourself you're staying current, but you've refreshed the front page four times in an hour and read a 200-comment thread about a database you'll never use. This guide shows you how to block Hacker News on Chrome for free, in about a minute, with no account — and how to close the gaps that let HN sneak back in.

The fast answer

To block Hacker News on Chrome for free, install Focuh from the Chrome Web Store, add news.ycombinator.com to your blocklist, and start a challenge. Every HN tab then redirects to a quiet local page instead of the front page, and the extension counts each attempt so you can see the refresh habit shrink. No account, no 3-site cap, no telemetry. Setup takes less time than reading a single thread.

How to block Hacker News on Chrome step by step

Open the Chrome Web Store and search for Focuh, or go straight to the Focuh extension page.
Click Add to Chrome, then Add extension. No email, no signup.
Click the Focuh icon in your toolbar and add news.ycombinator.com to your blocked sites.
Pick a challenge length — 30, 91, or 180 days, or a custom number — and start it.

After that, any tab pointed at HN redirects before the front page renders. There's no flash of the top story to pull you in; the navigation is intercepted first. Each attempt bumps a counter, which is the quietly motivating part: most developers are surprised how many times they reach for HN on day one and how fast that number drops by day five.

Which Hacker News addresses do you block?

The front page, /newest, /ask, /show, and every comment thread all live under news.ycombinator.com, so that single host covers the main site. The two extra doors worth knowing about are hn.algolia.com, which powers HN search, and any third-party reader or mirror you open in the browser. Add those if they're part of your habit.

Focuh matches on the hostname, so adding news.ycombinator.com covers the site in one entry. If you use a blocker that matches literal strings, add each address you actually open. The aim is to shut the side doors before your distracted brain goes hunting for them.

What a Chrome extension can and can't block

A Chrome extension blocks Chrome. That's the whole sentence. For most people whose HN habit is browser tabs on one machine, that's enough. But developers have more side doors than most, so be honest about the edges:

It can't block HN in a native reader app or a command-line client that hits the API directly.
It can't block HN in Safari, Firefox, or any non-Chromium browser.
It can't stop you from disabling the extension in two clicks.

None of that makes a free extension useless. It makes it a tool with a known limit. If you've got a terminal HN client aliased to a two-letter command, the extension won't touch it — and that's worth knowing before you trust it. For the full picture of where each layer wins, see system-level vs browser blocking.

Free ways to block Hacker News on Chrome, compared

Method	Free?	Blocks subdomains	Blocks other browsers	Blocks apps & CLI	Setup time
Focuh extension	Yes	Yes (hostname)	No	No	~1 min
LeechBlock NG	Yes	Yes (with patterns)	No	No	~10 min
StayFocusd	Yes	Yes	No	No	~3 min
Hosts file edit	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	~10 min
Focuh Mac app	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	~3 min

The two rows that block everything — the hosts file and the Mac app — aren't Chrome extensions at all. That's the trade-off in one table: an extension is the fastest way to block HN in Chrome, but it can only ever block Chrome. For a developer with a terminal client, that gap matters more than it does for most users.

How do I block Hacker News everywhere on my Mac?

If HN follows you into Safari, into a reader app, or into your terminal, you need to block it below the browser. On a Mac, the free Focuh desktop app does this with macOS Accessibility APIs. During a focus session it blocks news.ycombinator.com across Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Arc, and the hosts-file route it can manage also catches the Firebase API many CLI clients use. Because the block ties to a session rather than a per-browser toggle, it's harder to flip off mid-focus.

The setup that holds is both layers: the free Focuh Chrome extension for your browser, plus the free Focuh Mac app for everything else. Both are free. If you want a fuller focus stack built for engineers, the best focus apps for developers guide goes deeper, and the developer focus use case covers blocking plus deep-work timing together.

Why blocking beats willpower

Willpower is a weak firewall because it has to win every time, and the HN reflex only has to win once. You don't decide to procrastinate; your hand opens a new tab and types n while your conscious mind is still on the bug. A block intercepts that motion before it becomes a forty-minute comment-thread detour.

The attempt counter is the underrated part. Seeing that you reached for HN twenty-six times on Monday isn't a scold — it's a profiler for your own attention. It tells you the urge is a reflex, not a choice, and that the reflex is already fading by Wednesday. A note taped to your monitor can't give you that signal.

Which option should you pick?

You just want HN gone in Chrome, fast — install the Focuh extension, add news.ycombinator.com, start a challenge.
HN follows you into other browsers, apps, or your terminal — add the free Focuh Mac app for system-level blocking.
You want HN open only after hours — schedule those windows or tie blocking to a focus session.
You want the whole engineering focus setup — start with the best focus apps for developers guide.

No blocker fixes focus on its own. But the one you'll actually keep is the one that installs in a minute, doesn't ask for an account, and closes the side doors. Install Focuh free, or get the free Mac app if Hacker News keeps escaping the browser.