How to Update Chrome and Check Your Chrome Version (Every Device, Every Fix)

To check your Chrome version and update it on a computer, open Chrome, select the three-dot menu > Help > About Google Chrome, or type chrome://settings/help in the address bar. Chrome shows its version number, checks for updates and downloads any it finds. When it says Relaunch, select it to finish; Chrome reopens your tabs. On Android, update Chrome from the Google Play Store; on iPhone and iPad, from the App Store. For the full version and build details on any device, type chrome://version. Chrome releases a new major version every four weeks and security fixes every week, so a browser that has not been relaunched in a while is often behind. If updates fail, the usual causes are a pending relaunch, a firewall or antivirus blocking the updater, an administrator policy, or an operating system Chrome no longer supports.

Ethan's laptop ran Chrome all day and never closed it; he put the computer to sleep each night and opened it each morning with forty tabs waiting. When a news story said Google had rushed out a fix for a security flaw already being used by attackers, he asked Jake whether he needed to do anything. Jake opened the About Chrome page on Ethan's laptop. The update had downloaded more than two weeks earlier, but it had been waiting all that time for a relaunch that never came, because Chrome had never been closed. One click on Relaunch brought it up to date, and all forty tabs came back. This page explains how to check your Chrome version, update it on every device, and fix it when updates stop.

Why Chrome updates matter

A web browser is the program most exposed to the internet. Every page you visit sends it code to run, images and videos to decode, and fonts and scripts to process, from sites you may have never seen before. Chrome is built to contain that risk, running each site in a restricted sandbox, but the browser is millions of lines of code, and researchers and attackers find flaws in it every month. Each update fixes a batch of them. Our guide to how web browsers work explains why rendering pages from strangers is such a demanding job.

Most flaws are found by Google's own security teams, automated testing and outside researchers paid through Google's bug bounty program, and are fixed before anyone uses them. A few each year are zero-days, flaws that attackers are already exploiting when Google learns of them. For those, the gap between the fix being released and your browser installing it is the period when you are exposed. That gap is usually short, because Chrome updates itself, but it stretches when the browser is never relaunched or the updater is blocked.

Updates also bring features, performance improvements and compatibility with new web standards. Sites increasingly assume a recent browser, and a version that is many months old can start showing warnings, broken layouts or refusals to load. Keeping Chrome current is the simplest security step most people can take, and it usually needs nothing more than an occasional relaunch.

How to check your Chrome version

On a Windows PC, Mac, Linux computer or Chromebook, the About page shows your version and checks for updates at the same time:

1. Open Chrome.
2. Select the three-dot menu at the top right.
3. Choose Help, then About Google Chrome.
4. Read the version number under the Chrome logo, shown as Version followed by four numbers, then (Official Build) and (64-bit) on most computers.
5. Wait a few seconds while Chrome checks for updates, then read the status: up to date, updating, or ready to relaunch.

A quicker way is to type chrome://settings/help into the address bar and press Enter, which opens the same page. Because opening this page starts an update check, it is also the fastest way to update Chrome on demand.

For full details, type chrome://version into the address bar. That page shows the exact version, whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit, the operating system version Chrome detects, the JavaScript engine version, the command line Chrome was started with and the folder where your profile is stored. It is the page support teams ask for when troubleshooting, and it works on Android and iPhone as well as computers. The profile path it shows is also handy when you need to find or back up your Chrome data.

If the About page shows a spinning circle for a long time, or the version number appears without any update status, give it a minute on a slow connection. If it still does not finish, the troubleshooting steps further down this page cover the usual causes.

What the version number means

Chrome version numbers have four parts separated by dots, such as 80.0.3987.87, the version this page first covered in 2020. The first number is the major version, which rises with each new release every four weeks. The second is almost always zero. The third is the build number, tied to the point in Chrome's source code the release was made from. The fourth is the patch number, which rises with each security and bug fix update within that major version.

When Google announces a security fix, it lists the version that contains it, sometimes with slightly different numbers for Windows, Mac and Linux. To know whether you are protected, compare your version with the fixed version: if your major version is higher, or the same with an equal or higher patch number, you have the fix. In practice, if the About page says Chrome is up to date, you have every fix released for your channel.

Version numbers also matter for compatibility. Some sites, extensions and company tools state a minimum Chrome version, and support teams often ask for yours. The first number is usually enough for those conversations.

Update Chrome on Windows and Mac

Chrome on Windows and Mac updates itself in the background, checking regularly and downloading updates without asking. To update it immediately:

1. Open Chrome and go to chrome://settings/help, or Menu > Help > About Google Chrome.
2. Let Chrome check for updates; if one is available, it downloads and installs automatically.
3. When the button reads Relaunch, save any unfinished work in open web forms.
4. Select Relaunch. Chrome closes and reopens with your tabs.
5. Open the About page again to confirm it now says Chrome is up to date.

When an update is waiting, Chrome also shows an Update button or a colored indicator near the three-dot menu at the top right. Selecting it offers to relaunch. If you ignore it, Chrome will finish the update the next time you fully close and reopen the browser.

On a Mac, Chrome must be installed in the Applications folder to update properly. A copy run directly from the Downloads folder or from the installer disk image may never update. If the About page reports a problem on a Mac, drag Chrome into Applications, delete any other copies, and check again. On some Macs, Chrome asks whether to set up automatic updates for all users and requests an administrator password, which is worth accepting so updates work for every account.

Chrome for Windows comes in 64-bit and 32-bit builds. Almost every Windows PC today runs a 64-bit system, and the 64-bit build is faster and more secure; if chrome://version shows a 32-bit build on a 64-bit PC, download and install Chrome again from Google's page, which replaces it with the 64-bit version and keeps your profile.

Relaunch: the step people skip

Chrome can download an update while it runs, but it cannot switch to the new version until it restarts. Many people never fully close Chrome: they put the computer to sleep with the browser open, or close the window but leave Chrome running in the background for apps and notifications. The update then sits waiting, sometimes for weeks, exactly as it did on Ethan's laptop.

Relaunching is less disruptive than people expect. Chrome reopens every normal window and tab you had open, in the same order, and you stay signed in to sites. What does not come back are Incognito windows, which are deliberately forgotten, and text typed into forms that were never submitted. If you are in the middle of writing something long in a web page, save or submit it first, then relaunch.

If you want tabs to come back every time, not just after an update relaunch, set Settings > On startup > Continue where you left off. Restarting the whole computer every week or so also finishes any pending Chrome update, along with Windows or macOS updates waiting for the same thing.

Chrome running in the background after its window is closed is controlled by Settings > System > Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. Turning that off means closing the last Chrome window really closes Chrome, so pending updates are applied the next time you open it.

Update Chrome on Android

On Android, Chrome is updated through the Google Play Store, usually automatically. To update it yourself:

1. Open the Play Store app.
2. Tap your profile picture at the top right.
3. Choose Manage apps & device.
4. Under Updates available, find Chrome and tap Update, or tap Update all.

You can also search for Chrome in the Play Store and tap Update on its page if one is offered. To see your version, open Chrome, tap the three-dot menu, go to Settings > About Chrome, or type chrome://version in the address bar. If the Play Store shows no update but your version seems old, check that automatic app updates are allowed in the Play Store settings and that the phone has enough free storage, since Chrome updates need space to install.

Very old Android versions stop receiving new Chrome versions after a time. Chrome keeps running on them, but without new security fixes, which is one more reason to replace phones that have also stopped getting Android security updates.

Update Chrome on iPhone and iPad

On iPhone and iPad, Chrome updates through the App Store. Open the App Store, tap your profile picture, and scroll to see pending updates; tap Update next to Chrome. Turning on automatic app updates in Settings > App Store > App Updates keeps it current without effort.

Chrome on iPhone and iPad works differently from Chrome on a computer. Apple has long required browsers on iOS to use its WebKit engine, the same one Safari uses, so the part of Chrome that renders web pages is updated through iOS updates rather than Chrome updates. Apple allows other engines in the European Union under the Digital Markets Act, but Chrome elsewhere still uses WebKit. In practice, that means both kinds of update matter on an iPhone: Chrome from the App Store, and iOS from Settings.

Chrome on Linux and Chromebooks

On Linux, installing Chrome from Google's package adds Google's software repository to your system, so Chrome updates with your other packages through your distribution's update tool, or with commands such as sudo apt update followed by sudo apt upgrade on Debian and Ubuntu. If Chrome stops updating on Linux, check that the Google repository is still listed and enabled; some system upgrades disable third-party repositories.

On a Chromebook, Chrome is part of ChromeOS and updates with it. Open Settings > About ChromeOS and select Check for updates, then restart when asked. Each Chromebook model receives updates until a published end date; Google extended that period to ten years from release for Chromebooks launched from 2019 onward. A Chromebook past its end date keeps working, but stops receiving browser security fixes, and it is time to replace it.

How often Chrome updates

Google moved Chrome to a four-week cycle for major versions in 2021, starting with Chrome 94. Between major versions, Chrome receives security updates every week, a change Google made with Chrome 116 in 2023 to shorten the time between a fix being made and it reaching users. Emergency fixes for zero-days can arrive on any day. The result is that Chrome on a computer that is used and relaunched normally is rarely more than a few days behind.

New versions also roll out gradually. When a major version is released, Google often sends it to a small share of users first and widens the rollout over several days while watching for problems. That is why two people can open the About page on the same day and see different versions, and why the About page sometimes says Chrome is up to date even when a newer version has been announced. Security fixes for actively exploited flaws are usually pushed to everyone faster.

Stable, Beta, Dev and Canary

Most people should use Stable, the version downloaded from Google's Chrome page. Beta, Dev and Canary are separate installs with their own icons that can sit alongside Stable, and they share nothing with it unless you sign in to sync. They exist so developers and testers can try new features and catch problems before they reach everyone.

Beta is usually reliable enough for daily use and lets you see features about a month before they arrive in Stable. Dev and Canary are earlier and rougher, with Canary built from the newest code each day and occasionally failing to start. If you install one of these to test a site or feature, keep Stable as your main browser. Each channel updates itself the same way Stable does, and each has its own About page showing which channel and version it is.

Zero-day fixes and emergency updates

Several times a year, Google releases a Chrome update with a note that it is aware an exploit for one of the fixed flaws exists in the wild. That wording means attackers were already using the flaw before the fix. These zero-days are often found by Google's Threat Analysis Group or by outside researchers investigating targeted attacks, and they frequently involve V8, Chrome's JavaScript engine, or the graphics and media code that processes content from websites.

When a zero-day fix is announced, the right response is simple: open chrome://settings/help, let Chrome update, and relaunch. There is no need to change settings or install anything else. Because Chromium, the open-source project Chrome is built on, is shared by Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and others, the same flaw usually affects those browsers too, and their makers release their own updates shortly after Google. News stories that say billions of users must update are describing this shared code base.

Google often holds back the technical details of a flaw until most users have updated, so attackers cannot use the details to build their own exploits. That is why announcements sometimes describe a flaw only as a type of memory bug in a named component, with full information published weeks later.

Updating promptly matters more for zero-days than for ordinary fixes because attackers already have working code. Targeted attacks against journalists, activists and businesses often begin with a link to a page built to exploit a browser flaw, and once a fix is public, less careful criminals study it to attack people who have not updated.

Chrome not updating: fixes

If the About page shows an error, keeps checking without finishing, or reports an update failure, work through these steps in order:

1. Restart the computer, then open chrome://settings/help again. Many update failures clear after a full restart.
2. Check your internet connection and try a different network if you are on a work, school or hotel network that may block updates.
3. Check security software. Antivirus and firewall programs sometimes block Google's updater; allow it, or pause the protection briefly while updating.
4. Check free disk space. Updates need room to download and unpack; free some space if the drive is nearly full.
5. Look for an administrator policy. If the About page says updates are managed by your administrator, see the section below.
6. Reinstall Chrome. Download a fresh copy from Google's Chrome page and run it over the existing install. Your bookmarks, passwords and settings are kept in your profile and survive the reinstall.
7. Uninstall and reinstall as a last resort. Turn on sync first, or back up your profile folder, so your data is safe.

On Windows, Chrome's updater runs as services and scheduled tasks named after Google Updater. Cleanup tools and some performance optimizers disable these to speed up startup, which quietly stops Chrome from updating. Reinstalling Chrome restores them. If you use such a tool, check that it leaves Google's updater alone.

If Chrome updated and then started crashing or freezing, the problem is often an extension, a graphics driver or security software rather than Chrome itself. Our guide to all browsers crashing after an update covers the shared causes, and our page on Chrome extensions missing after an update helps when extensions are disabled.

Common update error messages

Error codes can change between versions of Google's updater, so treat the table as a guide to the likely cause. The fixes in the previous section cover nearly every case.

Updates are disabled by your administrator

On a work or school computer, Chrome updates are often controlled by the IT department, which may delay new versions to test them or roll them out on its own schedule. If the About page says updates are disabled or managed by your administrator on such a computer, that is normal; ask IT if you think your version is out of date.

On a personal computer, the same message usually means a leftover policy from a previous employer, a cleanup tool, or software that changed Chrome's settings. Type chrome://policy in the address bar to see which policies are applied. On Windows, update policies for Google's updater are stored under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update; a value such as UpdateDefault set to 0 turns updates off. Our guide to removing Managed by your organization walks through finding and safely removing these policies, including the warning signs that a policy was added by unwanted software.

If you find policies you did not set and do not recognize, scan the computer for unwanted software before removing them. Browser hijackers sometimes add policies to lock a search engine or block updates, and removing the policy without removing the program lets it come back.

Old versions of Windows and macOS

Chrome supports operating systems only while they are reasonably current. Chrome 109 was the last version for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, and from Chrome 110 in early 2023, Chrome required Windows 10 or later. Chrome has dropped older versions of macOS over time in the same way, and the About page shows a message when your Mac's version is no longer supported. Chrome keeps running on these systems, but without security fixes, and sites will gradually stop working with it.

If you are on an unsupported system, the fix is to update the operating system, if the computer can run a newer one, or replace the computer. Windows 10 itself reached end of support in October 2025, with consumer Extended Security Updates available to October 2027. Chrome has kept supporting Windows 10 after its end of support, but that will not last indefinitely, so plan an upgrade for any Windows 10 PC you depend on.

Extensions and updates

Chrome extensions update separately from Chrome, usually automatically through the Chrome Web Store. To force an update, go to chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode at the top right, and select Update. Then turn Developer mode off again.

Chrome updates sometimes disable extensions that no longer meet its rules. The biggest change was Manifest V3, the new extension platform, which led Chrome to phase out older Manifest V2 extensions between 2024 and 2025. Some ad blockers and older tools stopped working or were replaced by new versions. If an extension disappeared or was disabled after an update, our guide to missing Chrome extensions explains the causes and alternatives.

Extensions also matter for security. An extension that has been sold to a new owner, or removed from the Web Store as malware, can keep running until Chrome disables it. Chrome's Safety Check flags extensions that were removed from the store, and reviewing your extensions every few months, removing ones you no longer use, is a good habit alongside updates.

Fake Chrome update warnings

Criminals use the idea of browser updates to trick people. A hacked or malicious website shows a full-page message saying your browser is out of date and must be updated to view the page, with a download button. The download is malware. Other versions ask you to copy and paste a command to fix the browser or prove you are human, which runs malicious code on your computer; our guide to the fake CAPTCHA ClickFix scam explains that trick in detail.

The rule is simple: Chrome never asks you to update through a website. Real updates happen in the background and are finished from the About page or the Update button next to the menu. If a page tells you to download a browser update, close the tab, then open chrome://settings/help yourself to check. If you already ran a downloaded file, disconnect from the internet, run a full scan with your security software, and change important passwords from a different device.

Fake update messages also appear as browser notifications from sites you allowed to send them. If you see update warnings popping up outside any web page, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Notifications and remove sites you do not recognize.

Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers

Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and many other browsers are built on Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome. They share most of Chrome's code, including the rendering engine and the V8 JavaScript engine, so most Chrome security flaws affect them too. Each browser releases its own updates, usually within days of Google for serious fixes.

Each also has its own About page that checks for updates: edge://settings/help for Edge, brave://settings/help for Brave, and the About option in the menu for others. On Windows, Edge is also updated through Microsoft's own updater, and for businesses it can be deployed with the Microsoft Edge offline installer. If you have several browsers installed, keep all of them updated, including ones you rarely use, because links from other apps sometimes open in them.

Installing a fresh copy of Chrome

Reinstalling Chrome is safe and fixes most update problems. Download the installer only from Google's official Chrome page, never from download sites, which sometimes bundle unwanted software. Running the installer over an existing copy updates it in place and keeps your profile.

For a clean reinstall, sign in to Chrome and turn on sync first so bookmarks, passwords and settings are backed up to your Google account. Then uninstall Chrome from Settings > Apps > Installed apps on Windows, or drag it to the Trash on a Mac, restart, and install a fresh copy. Sign in again and your synced data returns. For PCs without a reliable connection, Google offers a standalone installer for Windows that contains the whole browser in one download.

Some features need extra components that update separately from Chrome, such as the Widevine module used by streaming services. If video sites stop playing after a reinstall or update, our guide to Widevine DRM in Chrome explains how to check and repair it from chrome://components.

Checking settings after a major update

Most updates change nothing you would notice. Occasionally a major version moves a setting, changes the look of menus, or introduces a feature that is turned on by default. Chrome sometimes shows a What's new tab after an update, and you can open it any time from chrome://whats-new. It is worth a quick read after a major version to see what changed.

If a familiar part of Chrome seems to have disappeared after an update, such as the bookmarks bar, the home button or a menu item, it has usually been moved or hidden rather than removed. Our guide to showing or hiding the Chrome bookmarks bar covers the most common case. Privacy-related features added in updates are worth reviewing in Settings > Privacy and security, where you can see and adjust what each new feature does.

Safety Check and Enhanced protection

Chrome's Safety Check, in Settings > Privacy and security, reviews several things at once: whether Chrome is up to date, whether any saved passwords have appeared in known data breaches, whether harmful or removed extensions are installed, and whether sites you rarely visit still hold permissions such as location or notifications. Chrome now runs these checks in the background and shows a notice when something needs attention, but opening it yourself after an update is a good way to see the full picture.

Safe Browsing, also in Privacy and security, warns you about dangerous sites and downloads. The Standard protection setting is on by default. Enhanced protection checks sites and downloads in real time against Google's lists and adds protection against newer threats, at the cost of sending more browsing information to Google. For people who are often targeted by scams, Enhanced protection is a reasonable choice; others may prefer Standard for privacy. Both are far better than turning Safe Browsing off.

Updates and these protections work together. An updated browser blocks attacks that use known flaws, and Safe Browsing blocks many sites that try to trick you into downloading malware or giving away passwords. Neither protects against everything, and browsers can still be identified and tracked in other ways; our guide to browser fingerprinting explains that side of browser privacy.

For businesses and IT teams

Organizations manage Chrome updates through group policy on Windows, configuration profiles on Mac, or Google's cloud management console. Policies can delay updates, pin Chrome to a target major version for testing, roll back to an earlier version in an emergency, or put some machines on the Extended Stable channel, which receives a new major version every eight weeks instead of four. Security fixes still arrive on Extended Stable between major versions.

The common mistake is to disable updates entirely to avoid compatibility problems and then forget to turn them back on. A better approach is a small test group on Beta or the newest Stable version, with the rest of the organization a few days behind, and a process to fast-track zero-day fixes. Monitoring which Chrome versions are actually running across the fleet catches machines where the updater has been broken or users never relaunch.

Relaunch behavior can be managed too. A policy can notify users that a relaunch is recommended or required within a set period after an update, and then relaunch Chrome automatically. For organizations where staff leave the browser open for weeks, that policy closes the gap Ethan's laptop showed.

What Chrome 80 changed

This page began as a 2020 news note about Chrome 80, version 80.0.3987.87, released in February 2020 with fixes for 56 security flaws, including some that could allow code to run on a computer through a malicious page. That release is a good example of a typical major version: a large batch of security fixes, plus changes to how the web works.

The best-known change in Chrome 80 was to cookies. Chrome began treating cookies without a SameSite setting as SameSite=Lax by default, which stops them from being sent with most requests from other sites and makes cross-site request forgery attacks harder. Sites that relied on cookies in third-party contexts had to mark them explicitly. Google rolled the change out gradually, paused it in April 2020 to avoid breaking essential sites during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and resumed it in July 2020 with Chrome 84. Chrome 80 also introduced quieter notification permission prompts, reducing the pop-ups asking to show notifications.

Chrome has moved well past version 80 since then. The major version number rises roughly thirteen times a year, which is why the number on your About page today is far higher than the one this page first reported.

A simple Chrome update routine

For most people, keeping Chrome safe takes almost no effort. Let it update automatically, and relaunch when the Update button appears rather than ignoring it for weeks. Restart the computer every week or so, which also finishes system updates. When you hear about an urgent Chrome fix, open chrome://settings/help and relaunch. Keep the Play Store and App Store set to update apps automatically on phones and tablets. Review extensions every few months, and never download a browser update offered by a website.

Jake set Ethan's laptop to continue where it left off on startup, so relaunching would never cost him his tabs, and showed him the Update button by the menu. Ethan now relaunches whenever it appears, usually while he gets a coffee.

What this page said in 2020

The original version of this page, from February 2020, reported the release of Chrome 80.0.3987.87 with fixes for 56 security flaws and urged readers to update. That advice still stands. This rewrite turns the news note into a complete guide to checking your Chrome version, updating Chrome on every device and fixing updates that fail, with the history of Chrome 80's changes kept for reference.

A lot has changed in how Chrome updates since then. In 2020, major versions arrived every six weeks and security fixes came with them or in occasional point releases. Today the four-week major cycle, weekly security updates and faster zero-day fixes mean the version gap between an updated and a neglected browser grows much faster, which makes the relaunch habit more important than it was when this page was first written.

Chrome update and version: frequently asked questions

Ethan still keeps forty tabs open, but they no longer hold his browser back. When the Update button appears, he relaunches, and Chrome reopens everything in a few seconds. The news story that worried him described a real attack, fixed in a version his laptop had already downloaded. All it needed was the one step he had been skipping.

Revision note. Written October 3, 2026, rewriting our 2020 news note on Chrome 80's security fixes into a complete guide to checking your Chrome version, updating Chrome on every device and fixing failed updates. May your browser always be one relaunch from current.