Every extension on this site — ClickMee, FontMee, JustCopy, all of them — started the same way: a small annoyance I kept running into on the web, and a decision to just fix it myself. What changed a lot over the last couple of years isn't the ideas. It's how long it takes to turn an idea like that into something real that other people can actually install and use.
What a Chrome extension even is, in plain words
A Chrome extension is a tiny program that adds one small feature to your browser — a button that copies text, a panel that shows you a font, something like that. To build one, you write code that tells the browser "when this happens, do that." It's not a whole app with its own window; it's a small add-on that lives inside Chrome. Small doesn't mean simple to build, though — even a tiny extension needs several files working together correctly before it does anything at all.
The old way: writing every line yourself
Before AI tools got good at writing code, building an extension meant sitting down and typing out every single piece yourself — the file that tells Chrome what the extension is called and what it's allowed to do, the script that actually runs on the webpage, the little popup window, and the logic connecting all three. Even for someone who already knows how to code, that's a lot of typing, a lot of looking things up, and a lot of small mistakes to catch along the way.
Honestly: I've never built one of these extensions fully by hand from scratch, so I won't pretend to have a personal number for that. But talking to other developers and looking at how these projects normally go, a simple extension built the traditional way — writing the code yourself, testing it, fixing what breaks — usually takes anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks for someone experienced. For a beginner, it can take quite a bit longer, since most of that time goes into learning how the pieces fit together, not just typing them out.
The way I actually build them: with AI
Here's the honest number from my own experience: with AI doing most of the actual typing, a new extension has taken me about two days to go from idea to a working first version. I describe what I want in plain language — "a button that copies whatever word you click on" — and the AI writes the actual code. My job becomes describing the idea clearly, testing what comes back, and asking for changes when something isn't quite right.
Some extensions took longer than two days — not because the first version was harder, but because I kept adding things afterward. FontMee, for example, started simple and picked up features like inspecting fonts and uploading your own font files over time, each one its own small round of "describe it, test it, fix it." That ongoing part — deciding what to add next and making sure it actually works well — takes real time no matter how fast the first version came together.
Why the gap is so big
The two days I spend with AI aren't magic — the AI is fast at the part that used to eat the most time: writing correct, working code from a description. What it doesn't do for you is decide what the extension should actually do, notice when a feature feels clunky to use, or catch every weird case a real website throws at it. That part is still entirely on me, and it's the same amount of thinking either way — it just used to come wrapped in days of typing, and now it comes wrapped in days of testing and describing instead.
Worth knowing: "two days" means a working first version, not a finished, polished product forever. Every extension on this site has been updated many times since it first launched — new features, small fixes, things users asked for. The two-day number is how fast you can get from nothing to something real; it's not the end of the work.
What this actually means if you want to build one
You genuinely don't need to already know how to code to get a working extension out of an idea. What you do need is patience to describe clearly what you want, and the willingness to test it, notice what's wrong, and ask for it to be fixed — over and over, until it actually works the way you pictured it. That loop is the real skill now, more than typing syntax ever was.
FAQ
Not to get a working first version — you describe what you want in plain language and the AI writes the code. Knowing a little about how websites work helps you describe things more precisely, but it's not required to start.
It depends on how clearly you describe what you need and how much you test and ask for fixes. It's not automatically perfect the first time — the back-and-forth of testing and correcting is where the real quality comes from, same as with any code.
No — that's just the time to reach a working first version you can test yourself. Submitting it to the Chrome Web Store and waiting for it to be reviewed and approved is a separate step that takes additional time on top of that.
Deciding what the extension should actually do, noticing when something feels awkward to use, and catching the weird edge cases real websites throw at it. That thinking and testing takes just as long as it ever did — AI speeds up the typing, not the judgment.
Yes — every one of them has picked up new features and fixes since its first version. The two-day number is how fast a first working version comes together, not a finish line.
8 Free Extensions, All Built This Way
Every tool on GetPlugzz started as one of these two-day builds.
