What Chrome’s “Change back to Google?” prompt means, and which button to pick

Updated 18 October 2026

Chrome asks “Change back to Google?” the first time you open a new tab after an extension has replaced Chrome’s new tab page. If you installed that extension on purpose, choose Keep it. Change it back turns the extension off.

What the prompt says

The dialog names the extension, “This page was changed by the ‘[extension name]’ extension”, and offers two buttons: Change it back and Keep it. If Google isn’t your default search engine, or something other than Chrome’s own page would take over without the extension (another extension, or a policy), the title reads “Did you mean to change this page?” with the same two buttons.

What each button does

Why Chrome asks

Extensions can change your new tab page, home page and search engine, but only with your permission, and this prompt is how Chrome confirms it. Google’s malware help lists a home page or search engine that keeps changing as a sign of unwanted software, which is the kind of change the check is there to catch. The prompt appears on Windows, Mac and ChromeOS, and only until you answer it for that extension. Extensions that an administrator force-installs don’t trigger it.

Which button to pick

• Keep it if you just installed a new tab extension you want, such as a bookmarks board, a dashboard or a wallpaper page. Stackboard users see this prompt too: choose Keep it and Stackboard stays as your new tab.
• Change it back if you don’t recognize the name or don’t remember installing it. Then remove it in chrome://extensions and follow our guide to a new tab page that changed by itself.

Changed your mind?

• Clicked Change it back by mistake: open chrome://extensions and switch the extension back on. Chrome may ask again after a restart; choose Keep it.
• Kept it, and now want Chrome’s page back: switch the extension off or remove it in chrome://extensions. Chrome’s own new tab returns straight away.

The footer that names the extension

From Chrome 138, an extension’s new tab page can also carry a small Chrome footer naming the extension, so you can always see who controls the page. To hide it, right-click it and choose Hide footer on New Tab page, or turn off Show footer on New Tab page under Footer in Customize Chrome. On a work or school browser, the administrator may decide this for you. One warning if you open Customize Chrome from there: picking a background in it turns the extension off (more in our background guide).

Two extensions, one new tab

Only one extension can control the new tab at a time, and Chrome gives it to the one installed most recently. Switch that one off and the next one takes over, which can bring the prompt back for it. A related prompt, “Change back to Google Search?”, appears when an extension changes your default search engine.