How to Turn Off Chrome Notifications on a Mac in 2026

To turn off Chrome notifications on a Mac, head to Chrome's More menu (the three dots) → Settings → Privacy and security → Site Settings → Notifications, then block the sites you don't want or stop all sites from sending them. To silence Chrome completely, go to System Settings → Notifications on your Mac, click Google Chrome and turn off Allow notifications.

Chrome notifications have a way of arriving from places you forgot about: a news site you allowed years ago, a Gmail tab, a web app you installed once and never opened again. They land in the corner of the screen like any Mac app's alerts, which makes it hard to tell who sent them. This guide sorts that out. It covers the per-site switches inside Chrome, the macOS switch that mutes Chrome as a whole, the newer rule for installed web apps, and why some alerts keep coming back after you thought they were gone.

Which Chrome notification setting do you need?

Chrome on a Mac is controlled from two places: Chrome's own Site Settings decide which websites may notify you, and macOS System Settings → Notifications decides whether Chrome may show anything at all. Pick the row that matches what's bothering you.

How to turn off notifications from one website in Chrome

The quickest way to stop a single site is from the site itself: click View site information to the left of the address and switch Notifications off. That's the same control Google's Chrome help page points to for turning a site's notifications on, used in reverse.

When you don't want to visit the site again, do it from Chrome's settings instead:

1. In Chrome, open the three-dot More menu at the top right and choose Settings.
2. Click Privacy and security, then Site Settings.
3. Under Permissions, click Notifications.
4. Find the site under Allowed to send notifications, click the three dots beside it and choose Remove, as this university IT guide shows.
5. To keep it from asking again, click Add next to Not allowed to send notifications, type the site's address and click Add, per Google.

The allowed list is worth reading slowly. When I went through mine, it had a handful of sites I couldn't remember ever saying yes to, and a couple I hadn't opened in a long time. Anything you can't place goes. If you remove a site you actually needed, it will ask again the next time you visit, so there's little risk in being strict.

How to stop all websites from sending notifications in Chrome

To block every website at once, change Chrome's default in Settings → Privacy and security → Site Settings → Notifications. Google's help page describes this as choosing your default option on that page. Pick the one that doesn't allow sites to send notifications. In some Chrome versions the same choice is a switch called Sites can ask to send notifications, which you turn off, as this IT guide shows.

With that set, sites stop asking, and the sites you add under Allowed to send notifications are the only ones that can still reach you. That's the setup I'd pick for a work Mac: block by default, then allow the two or three web apps whose alerts you actually act on, such as your calendar.

A gentler option: quieter messaging

If blocking everything feels too blunt, choose to let sites ask, then select Use quieter messaging. The request no longer pops up over the page. A bell icon appears next to the address instead, and you click it only if you want to allow that site, per Google. It suits people who do want a few new sites to notify them but are tired of being asked on every news article.

How to turn off all Chrome notifications in macOS System Settings

macOS can mute Chrome completely: in System Settings → Notifications, click Google Chrome under Application Notifications and turn off Allow notifications. Chrome's own site settings stay as they are, but macOS stops showing anything Chrome sends. Apple's notification settings guide covers the options on that page.

1. Choose Apple menu → System Settings.
2. Click Notifications in the sidebar (scroll down if you don't see it).
3. Under Application Notifications, click Google Chrome.
4. Turn off Allow notifications.
5. If the list also shows Google Chrome Helper (Alerts), click it and turn that off too.

That second entry is easy to miss. Chrome ships a small helper app just for alert-style notifications, because the main app can only show banners, as the Chromium change that added it explains. So macOS may list two Chrome entries, and switching off only one can leave some alerts getting through.

Keep Chrome's notifications, but make them less loud

Turning Chrome off in macOS also kills the alerts you want, like a meeting reminder from Google Calendar in a tab. The same Google Chrome page in System Settings has softer controls, listed in Apple's guide:

• Alert Style: send Chrome's alerts to Notification Center only, so they wait in the list instead of sliding onto your screen, or keep desktop banners Temporary rather than Persistent.
• Play sound for notification: off, if the chime is what gets you.
• Show previews: When Unlocked or Never, so the text of a message doesn't show on a shared screen.
• Badge application icon: off, to remove the red count on Chrome's Dock icon.

How to turn off notifications from Chrome web apps on a Mac

Web apps you install from Chrome now get their own entry in macOS notification settings, so you mute each one under its own name in System Settings → Notifications. The change arrived in Chrome 152: alerts from installed web apps show the app's name and icon instead of Chrome's, and their controls moved to macOS, according to the Chrome developer blog.

1. Open System Settings → Notifications.
2. Under Application Notifications, click the web app (it appears under its own name, not as Chrome).
3. Turn off Allow notifications, or change its Alert Style.

The same post says a newly installed web app asks for permission with the macOS system prompt rather than Chrome's, so declining that prompt is enough to keep it quiet. If you no longer use the app at all, uninstall it: open the app, click More, choose Uninstall with the app's name, then Remove, per Google's web apps page.

How to stop Gmail and Google Calendar notifications in Chrome

Gmail and Google Calendar have their own notification settings, and changing them there is usually better than blocking the sites in Chrome, because you choose which alerts stay. Both sets of steps come from Google's help pages.

• Gmail: click Settings → See all settings, scroll to Desktop notifications, pick Mail notifications off (or Important mail notifications on to keep only the ones Gmail marks important), then click Save Changes, per Gmail Help.
• Google Calendar: click Settings → Settings, then under General click Notification settings and choose how you want to be notified from the Notifications drop-down, per Calendar Help. The Notify me only if I have responded Yes or Maybe box cuts the alerts for invites you haven't accepted.

I switched Gmail's tab alerts off the day I noticed the same email arriving twice, once from Chrome and once from the Mail app. If Apple Mail already checks that inbox, one alert is plenty, and our guide to Mail notifications on Mac shows how to narrow Mail's alerts to the senders that matter. For Calendar reminders, setting sensible default alerts helps more than muting; automating Google Calendar covers that.

How to silence Chrome for a while with Focus

A Focus can mute Chrome during set hours without changing any Chrome setting, which is handy when you want the alerts most of the day but not while you're writing or presenting. You set it up in System Settings → Focus, as Apple's Focus guide explains.

1. Open System Settings → Focus and click the Focus you want, such as Work, or add a new one.
2. Click Allowed Apps, open the Notifications pop-up menu and choose Silence Some Apps.
3. Click the Add button, select Google Chrome (and any web apps you want muted) and click Add.
4. Under Set a Schedule, click Add Schedule and choose Time, Location or App, so the Focus switches itself on.

My writing Focus works this way. Chrome is silenced, and the Calendar app is still allowed, so a meeting reminder gets through while a news site's breaking alert waits. For a quick break from everything, hold Option and click the date and time in the menu bar to turn on Do Not Disturb, per Apple.

Why do Chrome notifications keep coming back on my Mac?

Chrome notifications usually come back because a second source is still allowed to send them: another Chrome profile, an extension, an installed web app or a site you allowed again. Go through these in order.

1. Another Chrome profile. Each profile keeps its own settings, per Google's profiles page, so a site blocked in your personal profile can still notify you from your work profile. Repeat the steps in each one.
2. An installed web app. In Chrome 152 and later, web apps have their own entry in System Settings → Notifications, so muting Chrome doesn't mute them. Check the list for app names you recognize from Chrome.
3. An extension. Extensions can send notifications too, Google notes. Open More → Extensions → Manage extensions and switch off or Remove any you don't use, per Chrome Web Store Help.
4. Chrome never actually quit. Closing every window doesn't quit Chrome on a Mac. A member of the Chrome Mac team explains that it keeps running, like all Mac apps, until you quit it, so press Command-Q when you want it fully closed.
5. You allowed the site again. If Chrome's default still lets sites ask, a quick click on Allow brings one back. Blocking by default ends that.

The Command-Q one caught me out. I'd closed every Chrome window for the evening, alerts kept arriving, and then I noticed the small dot under Chrome's icon in the Dock that means the app is still open.