Greasemonkey and Tampermonkey enhance a web browser’s capabilities. These add-ons let you choose from thousands of user scripts that modify web page behavior and appearance. With Greasemonkey and Tampermonkey scripts, you can download Facebook and Instagram albums in one click, revamp Pandora’s look and feel, and more.
Browsers don’t vet user scripts the same as most extensions. So, use scripts at your own risk. The scripts featured here have a significant user base and have proven to be relatively safe. However, there’s no guarantee when it comes to overall safety.
Install and Use Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is only available for Firefox. To download it, visit the Greasemonkey download page on the Mozilla add-ons website.
After Firefox restarts, a new button in the form of a smiling monkey appears in the browser’s address bar. Select the monkey toggle switch to enable and disable the Greasemonkey extension. Select the down arrow accompanying the toggle to modify the Greasemonkey settings and open the Firefox User Scripts management interface.
Install and Use Tampermonkey
Tampermonkey is available for a range of web browsers. Similar to Greasemonkey, you manage Tampermonkey using a toggle switch on the address bar. This toggle turns its functionality off and on, checks for updates, creates your user script, and opens a dashboard where you manage the Tampermonkey settings and the installed scripts.
To install Tampermonkey on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, visit the Tampermonkey website and follow the instructions specific to your browser.
The Top User Scripts
Here are some of the best scripts, listed in alphabetical order.
This configurable script automatically closes YouTube video ads after a time delay that you choose. It also offers an option to mute these advertisements as soon as the ad launches.
Lifewire
What We Like
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Fast and light.
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No ads.
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Easy installation.
Many websites either recommend or force you to disable ad-blocking software such as Adblock Plus. This script overrides that restriction in some cases and allows your ad blocker to function as expected. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.
Zen Rial / Getty Images
What We Like
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Frequent updates.
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Works on popular sites.
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Supports subdomains.
Many websites display a warning and require user interaction when you click a link that redirects to another site. This script disables that functionality on many popular domains, including Google, YouTube, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter).
What We Don’t Like
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No recent updates.
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Buggy in Firefox.
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Can be slow to load.
The Feedly Filtering and Sorting script adds some useful features such as advanced keyword matching, auto-load, filtering, and restricting to the popular news-aggregation site.
Oleksiy Maksymenko / Getty Images
Block certain websites or entire domains from appearing in search engine results with this script. The title is a bit misleading, as it supports Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and other search engines in addition to Google.
It works best with Chrome or Firefox.
What We Don’t Like
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Can’t change button locations.
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Doesn’t work with all browsers.
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Only works with Google search.
This script adds useful buttons to Google’s engine. These buttons include tools to search for PDF documents and search for results from user-specified time intervals, including days, weeks, months, years, and hours.
What We Like
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View full-size content.
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Uses keyboard shortcuts.
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Direct image downloads.
View and download full-size images and videos from Instagram by pressing a keyboard shortcut with this script.
This script works with all browsers, but the direct-download feature only works with Chrome.
This script converts text URLs and IP addresses into links to the respective destinations. It makes almost any text link a clickable link.
Image Source / Getty Images
Use this script to translate selected text on a web page to the language of your choice with the Alt key and the cursor.
Programmers find this script useful. It resizes all GitHub repository pages for a better look and feel.
This script lets you browse image collections on Pinterest without creating an account on the site. However, it doesn’t work as expected on all pages.
Find More Greasemonkey and Tampermonkey User Scripts
When you’re ready to search for scripts, the following sites are the best starting points. Not every script works across all browsers, so verify the corresponding description and notes before installation.
- Greasy Fork: Greasy Fork is a terrific source for user scripts. It offers a rapidly growing compendium of over 10,000 scripts, a well-maintained and easy-to-use interface, and an active forum. The Greasy Fork Bull**** Filter script makes searching the site effortless. It hides scripts for games, social networks, and those with non-English characters in the Greasy Fork description.
- OpenUserJS: OpenUserJS offers a wide range of scripts. It provides a user-friendly repository with a continually expanding selection.
- Userscripts.org (mirror): At one time, Userscripts.org was the only place to find the best scripts. It went offline and is now available as a mirrored site on a different domain. You’ll find thousands of scripts on this mirror site, and many of these are not safe. Use discretion when downloading from the Userscripts.org mirror.
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