ExtensionPay is the Chrome Web Store Payments Replacement

Chrome Web Store Payments was a Google service that allowed Chrome extension developers to take payments for their extensions for a 5% transaction fee. Unfortunately, Google shut it down on February 1, 2021, leaving developers stranded and making it much harder to monetize Chrome extensions.

We released ExtensionPay around the same time as the improved replacement for Chrome Web Store payments. ExtensionPay is open-source, allows one-time and subscription payments, is free to start using, and works across all browsers.

As developers ourselves, we knew how hard it was to code your own payment system for extensions and wanted a simple way for other developers to monetize their Chrome extensions without weeks of tedious effort. ExtensionPay is the Chrome Web Store Payments replacement we wish we had for our own extensions.

And you may be wondering: can Chrome extensions really be monetized? The answer is yes! Here are 8 Chrome extensions with impressive revenue (by Indie Hackers).

How did Chrome Web Store payments work?

Chrome Web Store payments was essentially an API to monetize Chrome extensions. Developers could sign up to use the API and then make HTTP requests from their extensions for one-time and subscription payments, licenses, free trial information, and in-app purchases.

To accept payments in extensions, developers could set a price tier that would charge users in their local currency. When it came time to pay, users would pay and their payment information would be associated with their Google account. Google took a 5% fee from these transactions.

Unfortunately, Chrome Web Store payments only worked with Chrome extensions. Developers that wanted to reach more users and monetize their extension in other browsers (like Firefox, Edge, Safari, etc) couldn't use the service.

Also, Chrome Web Store payments only worked with Google accounts. Many users don't have Google accounts or don't want to associate their Google accounts with payment information, so this limited the users that could pay for extensions.

And of course, like many Google projects, Chrome Web Store payments was unceremoniously shut down and no longer works, leaving developers to find other ways to monetize their extensions.

ExtensionPay replaces Chrome Web Store payments

Like Chrome Web Store payments, ExtensionPay is a free-to-use service that lets extension developers monetize their extensions by taking payments. It uses a simple JavaScript API directly in browser extensions that's even easier to use than Chrome Web Store payments.

Here's some sample JavaScript extension code that detects if a user has paid and opens a payment window if they haven't:

const extpay = ExtPay('sample-extension')

extpay.getUser().then(user => {
    if (user.paid) {
        // ...
    } else {
        extpay.openPaymentPage()
    }
})

Unlike Chrome Web Store payments, ExtensionPay is open source, works across all browsers (not just Chrome), and isn't tied to a user's Google account. It works using Stripe to accept payments from around the world and allows for one-time, monthly, and yearly subscription payments.

It supports free trials as well as a smooth login flow for users wanting to use extensions on multiple devices. And because ExtensionPay is made by extension developers, it won't be shut down suddenly. All these features make ExtensionPay the improved replacement for Chrome Web Store payments.

We think ExtensionPay is one of the best ways to monetize Chrome extensions and hope that you do, too. If ExtensionPay doesn't quite meet your needs, feel free to contact us and we'd be more than happy to talk.