You read it last week. Chrome cannot find it. Browsertrail can.
Chrome only remembers page titles. Browsertrail remembers the words that were on the page, across your open tabs, closed tabs, bookmarks and history, so the thing you half-read on Tuesday is one search away. Private and local: your browsing never leaves your device.
chrome, brave, edgeYour browsing never leaves your deviceIncognito never recordedFree forever for the last 7 days
Chrome searches titles. You remember words.
Run the same search against a small sample memory. The left side is what Chrome's history page can see. The right side is what Browsertrail kept.
A small sample memory of 9 pages so you can feel the difference. Locked rows are how Free shows anything older than 7 days: still found, still ranked, never blurred, one click from unlocking.
What it remembers, and when it starts
Tabs and bookmarks are searchable the moment you install. The two things that make the memory deep, your existing history and the text of the pages you read, are separate permissions you grant from the onboarding tab when you are ready. Decline both and it still works.
Incognito is never recorded, whatever you have allowed.
| Source | What is remembered | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| Open tabsThe moment you install | Every tab in every window, updated as you open, switch and close them | None extra |
| Closed tabsThe moment you install | Its own log of what you closed, kept after Chrome restarts and forgets its own list | None extra |
| BookmarksThe moment you install | Title, URL and the full folder path, so folder names work as search terms | None extra |
| Chrome historyWhen you allow it | The last 90 days of pages you have already visited, imported in the background | History, asked once during onboarding |
| Page textWhen you allow it, per site or everywhere | The readable text of pages you visit, up to about 3,000 words each. Banking, payment, login and password-manager pages are skipped | Read page content, per site or all sites |
What is in it
All of it is in Free. Pro only changes how far back the memory reaches.
Built for hands that stay on the keyboard
Search opens from anywhere, results arrive as you type, and you never have to reach for the mouse to get back to a page. Typos are forgiven and prefixes match, so the first few letters are usually enough.
Open it
- Open the search palette on any pageCtrlShiftK
- Open the side panelCtrlShiftY
- Search from the address barbkSpace
Cmd instead of Ctrl on a Mac. Every shortcut can be changed in chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
Inside the palette
- Move through results↑↓
- Open, or switch to the tab if it is already openEnter
- Open in a background tabCtrlEnter
- Continue in the side panelShiftEnter
- Copy the URLCtrlC
- Forget this pageCtrlD
- Forget the whole site and stop remembering itCtrlShiftD
- CloseEsc
Narrow it down
"exact phrase"Only pages where those words appear together
-wordLeave out pages that mention it
site:github.comOnly one site
is:openOnly open tabs. Also is:closed and is:bookmark
in:titleMatch titles only. in:content for page text only
after:last weekSeen after a date. before: works the same way
All of these are also available as a form in the side panel if you would rather not remember the syntax.
A record of everything you read is only acceptable if nobody else can read it
So it is not a promise in a policy. It is how the extension is built.
- It cannot talk to the internet
- The extension's own content security policy forbids network requests, and the release build fails if one slips in. There is no server for your browsing to reach.
- Sensitive pages are skipped before capture
- Banking, payments, webmail, password managers, login, checkout and anything on localhost are on a built-in skip list. You can add any site to it.
- Forget is one keystroke
- Forgetting a site removes every page and visit from it and stops remembering it. Pause stops everything, with a badge on the toolbar so you can see it is paused.
- It leaves when you do
- Export the whole memory as JSON any time, on Free or Pro, and restore it on another machine. Delete everything with one button.
- The account holds nothing about your browsing
- A free Syntaximos account activates the extension and carries a Pro licence between machines. It never sees a page, a URL or a search.
- Old visits age out on their own
- Page text is kept for 180 days by default and visits for a year. Both are adjustable, including forever.
Free remembers this week. Pro remembers everything.
There is no trial clock and no stripped-down tier. Free is the whole product with a seven-day memory. Pro is the same product with no limit on how far back you can look.
Pick how you want to pay
Monthly, yearly, or one payment for good. The first 500 lifetime licences are $19.99 instead of $29.99.
Before you install
Privacy, permissions, what Free includes and what happens to your memory when you upgrade.
The pages you read this week are the ones you will need next week
Pro Lifetime is $19.99 for the first 500 licences, with 499 left. Monthly is $5.99.
Browsertrail keeps your index on your own device. Exactly what it stores, and the little it sends, is written out in the Browsertrail privacy policy.