欢迎 What's new in Chrome extensions Get help with Chrome extensions API reference Samples
欢迎 What's new in Chrome extensions Get help with Chrome extensions API reference Samples

chrome.storage

  • Description

    Use the chrome.storage API to store, retrieve, and track changes to user data.

  • Permissions
    storage

Overview

The Storage API provides an extension-specific way to persist user data and state. It's similar to the web platform's storage APIs (IndexedDB, and localStorage), but was designed to meet the storage needs of extensions. The following are a few key features:

  • All extension contexts, including the extension service worker and content scripts have access to the Storage API.
  • The JSON serializable values are stored as object properties.
  • The Storage API is asynchronous with bulk read and write operations.
  • Even if the user clears the cache and browsing history, the data persists.
  • Stored settings persist even when using split incognito.
  • Includes an exclusive read-only managed storage area for enterprise policies.

💡 Can extensions use the WebStorage API?

Even though extensions can access Window.localStorage in some contexts (popup and other HTML pages), it is not recommended for the following reasons:

  • The extension's service worker cannot access Window.localStorage.
  • Content scripts share the Window.localStorage of the host page.
  • Data saved to Window.localStorage is lost when the user clears their browsing history.

Storage areas

The Storage API is divided into the following four buckets ("storage areas"):

storage.local
Data is stored locally, which is cleared when the extension is removed. The quota limitation is approx 5 MB, but can be increased by requesting the "unlimitedStorage" permission. Consider using it to store larger amounts of data.
storage.sync
If syncing is enabled, the data is synced to any Chrome browser that the user is logged into. If disabled, it behaves like storage.local. When the browser is offline, Chrome stores the data locally and resumes syncing when it's back online. The quota limitation is 100 KB approx, 8 KB per item. Consider using it to preserve user settings across synced browsers.
Warning

Local and sync storage areas should not store confidential user data because they are not encrypted. When working with sensitive data, consider using the session storage area to hold values in memory until the browser is shut down.

storage.session
Holds data in memory for the duration of a browser session. By default, it's not exposed to content scripts, but this behavior can be changed by setting chrome.storage.session.setAccessLevel(). The quota limitation is approximately 10 MB. Consider using it to store global variables across service worker runs.
Warning

Before Chrome 112, the quota was approximately 1 MB.

storage.managed
Administrator can use a schema and enterprise policies to configure a supporting extension's settings in a managed environment. This storage area is read-only.

Manifest

To use the storage API, declare the "storage" permission in the extension manifest. For example:

{
"name": "My extension",
...
"permissions": [
"storage"
],
...
}

Usage

The following samples demonstrate the local, sync, and session storage areas:

chrome.storage.local.set({ key: value }).then(() => {
console.log("Value is set to " + value);
});

chrome.storage.local.get(["key"]).then((result) => {
console.log("Value currently is " + result.key);
});
chrome.storage.sync.set({ key: value }).then(() => {
console.log("Value is set to " + value);
});

chrome.storage.sync.get(["key"]).then((result) => {
console.log("Value currently is " + result.key);
});
chrome.storage.session.set({ key: value }).then(() => {
console.log("Value is set to " + value);
});

chrome.storage.session.get(["key"]).then((result) => {
console.log("Value currently is " + result.key);
});

To learn more about the managed storage area, see Manifest for storage areas.

Storage and throttling limits

Don't think of adding to the Storage API as putting things in a big truck. Think of adding to storage as being like putting something in a pipe. The pipe may have material in it already, and it may even be filled. Always assume a delay between when you add to storage and when it is actually recorded.

For details on storage area limitations and what happens when they are exceeded, see the quota information for sync, local, and session.

Use cases

The following sections demonstrate common use cases for the Storage API.

Synchronous response to storage updates

To track changes made to storage, you can add a listener to its onChanged event. When anything changes in storage, that event fires. The sample code listens for these changes:

background.js:

chrome.storage.onChanged.addListener((changes, namespace) => {
for (let [key, { oldValue, newValue }] of Object.entries(changes)) {
console.log(
`Storage key "${key}" in namespace "${namespace}" changed.`,
`Old value was "${oldValue}", new value is "${newValue}".`
);
}
});

We can take this idea even further. In this example, we have an options page that allows the user to toggle a "debug mode" (implementation not shown here). The options page immediately saves the new settings to storage.sync, and the service worker uses storage.onChanged to apply the setting as soon as possible.

options.html:

<!-- type="module" allows you to use top level await -->
<script defer src="options.js" type="module"></script>
<form id="optionsForm">
<label for="debug">
<input type="checkbox" name="debug" id="debug">
Enable debug mode
</label>
</form>

options.js:

// In-page cache of the user's options
const options = {};
const optionsForm = document.getElementById("optionsForm");

// Immediately persist options changes
optionsForm.debug.addEventListener("change", (event) => {
options.debug = event.target.checked;
chrome.storage.sync.set({ options });
});

// Initialize the form with the user's option settings
const data = await chrome.storage.sync.get("options");
Object.assign(options, data.options);
optionsForm.debug.checked = Boolean(options.debug);

background.js:

function setDebugMode() { /* ... */ }

// Watch for changes to the user's options & apply them
chrome.storage.onChanged.addListener((changes, area) => {
if (area === 'sync' && changes.options?.newValue) {
const debugMode = Boolean(changes.options.newValue.debug);
console.log('enable debug mode?', debugMode);
setDebugMode(debugMode);
}
});

Asynchronous preload from storage

Since service workers are not always running, Manifest V3 extensions sometimes need to asynchronously load data from storage before they execute their event handlers. To do this, the following snippet uses an async action.onClicked event handler that waits for the storageCache global to be populated before executing its logic.

background.js:

// Where we will expose all the data we retrieve from storage.sync.
const storageCache = { count: 0 };
// Asynchronously retrieve data from storage.sync, then cache it.
const initStorageCache = chrome.storage.sync.get().then((items) => {
// Copy the data retrieved from storage into storageCache.
Object.assign(storageCache, items);
});

chrome.action.onClicked.addListener(async (tab) => {
try {
await initStorageCache;
} catch (e) {
// Handle error that occurred during storage initialization.
}

// Normal action handler logic.
storageCache.count++;
storageCache.lastTabId = tab.id;
chrome.storage.sync.set(storageCache);
});

Extension examples

To see other demos of the Storage API, explore any of the following examples:

Summary

Types

AccessLevel

Chrome 102+

The storage area's access level.

Type

"TRUSTED_CONTEXTS"

, or

"TRUSTED_AND_UNTRUSTED_CONTEXTS"

StorageArea

Properties

  • onChanged

    event

    Chrome 73+

    Fired when one or more items change.

    The onChanged.addListener function looks like: (callback: function) => {...}

    • callback

      function

      The callback parameter looks like: (changes: object) => void

      • changes

        object

  • clear

    function

    Promise

    Removes all items from storage.

    The clear function looks like: (callback?: function) => {...}

    • callback

      function optional

      The callback parameter looks like: () => void

    • returns

      Promise<void>

      Chrome 88+

      Promises are supported in Manifest V3 and later, but callbacks are provided for backward compatibility. You cannot use both on the same function call. The promise resolves with the same type that is passed to the callback.

  • get

    function

    Promise

    Gets one or more items from storage.

    The get function looks like: (keys?: string | string[] | object, callback?: function) => {...}

    • keys

      string | string[] | object optional

      A single key to get, list of keys to get, or a dictionary specifying default values (see description of the object). An empty list or object will return an empty result object. Pass in null to get the entire contents of storage.

    • callback

      function optional

      The callback parameter looks like: (items: object) => void

      • items

        object

        Object with items in their key-value mappings.

    • returns

      Promise<object>

      Chrome 88+

      Promises are supported in Manifest V3 and later, but callbacks are provided for backward compatibility. You cannot use both on the same function call. The promise resolves with the same type that is passed to the callback.

  • getBytesInUse

    function

    Promise

    Gets the amount of space (in bytes) being used by one or more items.

    The getBytesInUse function looks like: (keys?: string | string[], callback?: function) => {...}

    • keys

      string | string[] optional

      A single key or list of keys to get the total usage for. An empty list will return 0. Pass in null to get the total usage of all of storage.

    • callback

      function optional

      The callback parameter looks like: (bytesInUse: number) => void

      • bytesInUse

        number

        Amount of space being used in storage, in bytes.

    • returns

      Promise<number>

      Chrome 88+

      Promises are supported in Manifest V3 and later, but callbacks are provided for backward compatibility. You cannot use both on the same function call. The promise resolves with the same type that is passed to the callback.

  • remove

    function

    Promise

    Removes one or more items from storage.

    The remove function looks like: (keys: string | string[], callback?: function) => {...}

    • keys

      string | string[]

      A single key or a list of keys for items to remove.

    • callback

      function optional

      The callback parameter looks like: () => void

    • returns

      Promise<void>

      Chrome 88+

      Promises are supported in Manifest V3 and later, but callbacks are provided for backward compatibility. You cannot use both on the same function call. The promise resolves with the same type that is passed to the callback.

  • set

    function

    Promise

    Sets multiple items.

    The set function looks like: (items: object, callback?: function) => {...}

    • items

      object

      An object which gives each key/value pair to update storage with. Any other key/value pairs in storage will not be affected.

      Primitive values such as numbers will serialize as expected. Values with a typeof "object" and "function" will typically serialize to {}, with the exception of Array (serializes as expected), Date, and Regex (serialize using their String representation).

    • callback

      function optional

      The callback parameter looks like: () => void

    • returns

      Promise<void>

      Chrome 88+

      Promises are supported in Manifest V3 and later, but callbacks are provided for backward compatibility. You cannot use both on the same function call. The promise resolves with the same type that is passed to the callback.

  • setAccessLevel

    function

    Promise Chrome 102+

    Sets the desired access level for the storage area. The default will be only trusted contexts.

    The setAccessLevel function looks like: (accessOptions: object, callback?: function) => {...}

    • accessOptions

      object

      • accessLevel

        The access level of the storage area.

    • callback

      function optional

      The callback parameter looks like: () => void

    • returns

      Promise<void>

      Promises are supported in Manifest V3 and later, but callbacks are provided for backward compatibility. You cannot use both on the same function call. The promise resolves with the same type that is passed to the callback.

StorageChange

Properties

  • newValue

    any optional

    The new value of the item, if there is a new value.

  • oldValue

    any optional

    The old value of the item, if there was an old value.

Properties

local

Items in the local storage area are local to each machine.

Type

StorageArea & object

Properties

  • QUOTA_BYTES

    5242880

    The maximum amount (in bytes) of data that can be stored in local storage, as measured by the JSON stringification of every value plus every key's length. This value will be ignored if the extension has the unlimitedStorage permission. Updates that would cause this limit to be exceeded fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

managed

Items in the managed storage area are set by the domain administrator, and are read-only for the extension; trying to modify this namespace results in an error.

session

Chrome 102+ MV3+

Items in the session storage area are stored in-memory and will not be persisted to disk.

Type

StorageArea & object

Properties

  • QUOTA_BYTES

    10485760

    The maximum amount (in bytes) of data that can be stored in memory, as measured by estimating the dynamically allocated memory usage of every value and key. Updates that would cause this limit to be exceeded fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

sync

Items in the sync storage area are synced using Chrome Sync.

Type

StorageArea & object

Properties

  • MAX_ITEMS

    512

    The maximum number of items that can be stored in sync storage. Updates that would cause this limit to be exceeded will fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

  • MAX_SUSTAINED_WRITE_OPERATIONS_PER_MINUTE

    1000000

    Deprecated

    The storage.sync API no longer has a sustained write operation quota.

  • MAX_WRITE_OPERATIONS_PER_HOUR

    1800

    The maximum number of set, remove, or clear operations that can be performed each hour. This is 1 every 2 seconds, a lower ceiling than the short term higher writes-per-minute limit.

    Updates that would cause this limit to be exceeded fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

  • MAX_WRITE_OPERATIONS_PER_MINUTE

    120

    The maximum number of set, remove, or clear operations that can be performed each minute. This is 2 per second, providing higher throughput than writes-per-hour over a shorter period of time.

    Updates that would cause this limit to be exceeded fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

  • QUOTA_BYTES

    102400

    The maximum total amount (in bytes) of data that can be stored in sync storage, as measured by the JSON stringification of every value plus every key's length. Updates that would cause this limit to be exceeded fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

  • QUOTA_BYTES_PER_ITEM

    8192

    The maximum size (in bytes) of each individual item in sync storage, as measured by the JSON stringification of its value plus its key length. Updates containing items larger than this limit will fail immediately and set runtime.lastError.

Events

onChanged

chrome.storage.onChanged.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

Fired when one or more items change.

Parameters

  • callback

    function

    The callback parameter looks like: (changes: object, areaName: string) => void

    • changes

      object

    • areaName

      string

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