Passing Chrome Web Store review

Written By Udaya Prakash

Last updated 7 days ago

PlugThis includes a Chrome Web Store Readiness checker. It generates the assets reviewers expect and flags the things that get extensions rejected, before you submit rather than after.

The seven things a submission needs

The checker tracks all of them and tells you which are still missing:

  • Extension icon, 128x128

  • Short description, 25 to 132 characters

  • Detailed listing description

  • Single purpose description

  • At least one promo screenshot, from the Store assets tab

  • Permission justifications, one for each permission you request

  • Privacy disclosures, analysed against what your extension actually does

Two more are optional depending on your extension. A CWS category, and a privacy policy URL, which becomes required if you handle user data.

It reads your manifest, not just your listing

This is the part most people miss. Google reviews the code you submit, so a perfect listing does not save an extension whose manifest asks for too much.

The checker flags those problems directly. Two common ones:

Broad host access. If your extension requests *://*/* it can reach every site a user visits. That forces a slow manual review and is often rejected unless you have justified it clearly. Narrowing host_permissions to the specific domains you need, or switching to activeTab, usually removes the problem.

Sensitive permissions. Some permissions need a written justification. The tabs permission is the usual one. In many cases activeTab does the same job without triggering a manual review.

This is advice, not a gate

You can publish with flags outstanding. The checker is telling you what a reviewer is likely to object to, so you can decide whether to fix it or justify it. Fixing it before you submit is almost always faster than arguing after a rejection.

What is still on you

A Chrome developer account, a one-off five dollars to Google. And the judgement calls: which permissions your extension genuinely needs, and whether the generated listing copy says what you want it to say. Review usually takes a few days.