How to force Chrome to show sites in dark mode

Google Chrome’s dark mode gives you an experience that’s far easier on the eyes for those late-night Google searches, allowing you to customize your browser. But, the process for switching over to that black background isn’t always an obvious one. For starters, the process is different on a smartphone and a computer. To complicate things further, iPhone users can’t switch Chrome into dark mode without switching over every app to the darker appearance. Thankfully, once you learn how to turn on dark mode in Chrome for your particular device, the process is straightforward.

If you want to go a step further, you can even force websites with a light theme to display inverted colors, giving you a dark background and light-colored text. If you’re looking to conserve battery life on your mobile, reduce the glare from your desktop monitor, or just want a fresh new look, here are some step-by-step instructions on how to enable it on Windows, macOS, Android, and iPhone.

How to turn on dark mode in Chrome on a computer

Adjusting your Chrome settings can activate dark mode for many websites

Adjusting your Chrome settings on a computer is a quick and simple process that will adjust the colors of your toolbars and will also make some, but not all, websites appear with a dark background. Here’s how.

1. Open Chrome.
2. Click the plus icon to open a new tab.
3. On the bottom right corner of the new tab, click the pencil icon.
4. The Customize Chrome toolbar should now appear on the right of the screen. Under appearance, select dark. Or, to tell Chrome to match the color mode of your device, select system.

How to force dark mode for all Chrome sites

Change the appearance of web content using an experimental Chrome feature

While adjusting the settings above will switch many websites to a dark background, it doesn’t work for all websites. Chrome has an experimental feature that may work on more websites, if the above steps don’t switch that frequently visited website to dark mode.

1. Open a Chrome browser, then enter the following address in your URL bar: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark
2. This will bring up a hidden Chrome settings menu and the Force Dark Mode option. This menu is a long one, so if the URL doesn’t bring you right to the Dark Mode setting, use the Control/Command F shortcut then type dark mode into the search bar to find it on the page.
3. Go to the drop-down menu next to Force Dark Mode and select Enabled.
4. At the bottom, hit the Relaunch button to restart your browser.

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How to turn on Chrome dark mode on Macs

Go to Appearance in System Preference to choose Dark

1. Open System Settings.
2. Then select Appearance.
3. Click on the Dark option. Similar to Windows, all apps with a native dark mode will switch over.

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How to turn on Chrome dark mode on Windows

Go to Personalization in Settings to change interface and menu colors

1. Click on Start, then the Settings menu.
2. Click Personalization.
3. Choose Colors.
4. Scroll down to the switch marked Choose your color, or on Windows 11, Choose your mode.
5. Change this to Dark to enable dark mode on all apps with native support, including Google Chrome.

This will only affect the browser’s interface and menus. To turn on more dark backgrounds in Chrome, use the settings above inside the Chrome browser.

How to turn on Chrome dark mode on Android

Previously an experimental feature, Android users can now turn on dark mode for the Chrome app

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Dark mode on Android used to be enabled the same way as web content on the desktop. It was an experimental feature, but now official support has rolled:

1. Open Chrome on your Android device.
2. Tap More (three dots) at the top right, then go to Settings > Theme.
3. You’ll find three options:
   • System Default: Chrome will use the Dark theme when Battery Saver mode is activated or if your device is set to Dark theme in the system settings.
   • Dark: Enables Chrome’s Dark theme.
   • Light: Keeps Chrome in Light theme.

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How to turn on Chrome dark mode on iPhone

Go to Settings to choose Dark Mode

Since the launch of iOS 13, Apple has offered a dark mode option for the whole operating system on both iPhone and iPad. However, there isn’t an option to turn only Chrome dark — iOS users can only turn on the system-wide dark mode that applies to every applicable app. Selecting this option will automatically switch Chrome into dark mode..

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on Display & Brightness.
3. Tap to place a check mark under Dark Mode.
4. Optional: To automatically enter dark mode at sunset and revert back to light mode in daylight hours, tap the “automatic” toggle.
5. When you next open Chrome, it should reflect these changes.

Should you use dark mode in Chrome?

There are lots of good reasons to use dark mode, especially on a battery-powered device with an OLED screen, as displaying black pixels draws less power than displaying white. As we’ve mentioned, it’s much easier on the eyes in dimly lit situations. If you need to check something on your phone at night quickly, you can do so without waking up your partner or melting your eyeballs with a glowing white home screen.

There are downsides, however. Not so much with having the Chrome interface in dark mode, but if you use the forced dark mode option, it can often make websites look a bit strange — and in extreme cases, it may make them completely unreadable. Thankfully, disabling forced dark mode only takes a few seconds. You’ll quickly figure out whether you like it and can continue from there.

If you want to know more handy tips and tricks for Google Chrome, we have some great guides that can tell you everything you need to know. Maybe you’d like to customize your browser, you could try adding some awesome Chrome Extensions, or you could search the web with Google Lens right from your browser.