Ad blockers give you a cleaner web, and anti-ad-block scripts are trying to take it back. More and more sites are adopting it to prevent you from blocking ads.
Sometimes, you’ll notice that when you open a site, before an article even loads, you’ll hit a wall that says, “We’ve detected an ad blocker. Disable it to continue.” Some sites keep annoying you with skippable prompts. Others break layouts or gray out everything until you disable your ad blocker. YouTube had one of the worst implementations, which caused videos to stop loading altogether. Of course, you didn’t install an ad blocker to start negotiating with overlays.
Websites use fake ad elements, script checks, network probes, and, in YouTube’s case, ads stitched directly into the stream. The goal is simple. Make your ad blocker useless or annoying enough that you give up.
But you do not have to give up.
In this article, you’ll see how anti-ad-block scripts actually work, where they’re getting smarter, and what still reliably beats them. We’ll go through tools, settings, and specific tactics you can use today to bypass detection without turning your browser into a science project.
But before all that, if you just want a quick and easy solution to bypass ad block detection, the AdGuard app for Windows and macOS lets you do that. Alternatively, you can use AdGuard’s browser extension with AdGuard Extra.
How do websites detect when you’re using an ad blocker?
Most sites don’t “see” your ad blocker directly. They just look for clues that ads were supposed to load and then didn’t. Here are the main tricks you’re running into:
1. Fake “test” ads
Many sites use bait elements:
- They add a tiny or invisible box called something like ‘ad-banner’ or ‘adsbox’.
- Any normal ad blocker hides it instantly.
- A short script checks that box after the page loads.
If the box is gone or squashed to zero height, the site assumes an ad blocker is active and shows you the warning.
2. Checking if ad scripts ran
Some pages test whether ad-related scripts actually loaded:
- They try to load a script such as ads.js.
- That script would normally set a little flag in the background.
- After loading, another script checks if that flag exists.
If the flag is missing, it likely means your ad blocker stopped the script, so the site flips into “we detected an ad blocker” mode.
3. Looking for broken or empty ad slots
Sites also examine the page layout itself:
- They know there should be boxes for a top banner, sidebar ad, or in-article ad.
- They check if those boxes are visible, have normal height, and contain content.
If those slots are empty, hidden, or collapsed, it signals that something stripped the ads out, even if network requests are still allowed.
4. Watching which requests never happen
Some setups watch what your browser tries to load:
- When the page opens, it expects calls to certain ad or tracking domains.
- If those calls never happen, or always fail, that is another strong hint that an ad blocker is at work.
The site doesn’t see your extension, but it notices that all its ad-related traffic has quietly vanished.
5. Bigger platforms use smarter checks
Big platforms like YouTube mix several ideas together:
- They see if ad requests are fired.
- They monitor whether ad segments play before or during videos.
- They sometimes stitch ads directly into the video stream, which makes blocking and detection harder.
If their checks say “no ads were shown when there should have been ads,” you get the warning overlay or blocked playback.
So in simple terms, websites detect ad blockers by looking for missing ads, missing scripts, and missing requests, then reacting when too many of those signals line up.
What Anti-AdBlock Scripts Do Websites Use?
Most websites don’t bother building their own anti-adblock detection from the ground up. They just pop in a tested solution to sniff out ad blockers and show a nasty message if they catch you.
You’ll mostly run into three distinct types:
1. Simple “Drop-In” Scripts
These are tiny JavaScript files that can be slotted into any site with a single click.
- They create fake ad spaces on the page just to see if your ad blocker will remove them.
- If the boxes get blocked, the script fires off a signal saying “Yep, you’re blocking ads”.
- And then the site uses that signal to serve up a notice, blur the content, or lock it down good and proper.
Older projects like BlockAdBlock/FuckAdBlock are classic examples of this sort of thing. There are tons of clones and forks still making the rounds on smaller blogs and sites.
2. Paid Anti-AdBlock Services
Bigger publishers tend to go for full-service anti-adblock packages rather than slapping a single script on their site.
- You just add a single tag from the provider, and they do the rest.
- Their code takes care of detecting ad blockers for you, and also decides how to react:
- Show a nice “we’d love you to whitelist us” prompt
- Show a hard wall that locks out the content
- Push you toward a subscription or login to access the content
Some of the bigger players in this space include Admiral, PubGuru, and similar “adblock revenue recovery” products. To the user, they all basically feel the same. A branded pop-up asking you to disable your blocker or cough up some cash.
3. CMS Plugins and Home-Grown Scripts
When it comes to WordPress and other CMS platforms, detection often comes in the form of a plugin that wraps around one of the scripts above.
Site owners can then choose exactly what they want to show when they catch you blocking ads: a custom message, a blur, or a redirect to somewhere else.
And on top of that, many sites have their own little custom scripts that do the same thing, usually in a slightly different way:
- They check a couple of known ad slots,
- Decide “oh, ads are missing, so you must be blocking them”,
- And then show an overlay with a message.
So the next time you see “we’ve detected an adblocker,” it’s probably one of these three behind the scenes: a simple drop-in script, a commercial anti-adblock service, or a custom script built around the exact same bait-and-check logic.
How do you bypass ad blocker detection on websites?
Start with a better ad blocker
There is no “bypass” button. What actually works in 2025 is having a solid base setup, then a couple of simple tricks you use when a site gets aggressive. First, start with a better ad blocker. If you’re still on something like AdBlock or Adblock Plus, you’ll hit more walls and weird layouts. Tools like uBlock Origin or AdGuard’s browser extension give you better filters, better cosmetic blocking, and more control. You get fewer messages, fewer broken pages, and better privacy by default.
Use AdGuard Extra as a booster
On top of that base, you can add a helper that’s made specifically for this problem. AdGuard Extra is exactly that. It sits next to your main blocker and focuses on anti-adblock behavior: scripts that try to reinsert ads, break the site when ads are blocked, or throw up annoying “disable your blocker” overlays. Instead of you hunting for custom rules every time, AdGuard Extra quietly patches a lot of those tricks in the background. If you want a clean place for affiliate, this is where you naturally mention it as the “booster” that makes a normal ad blocker feel much smarter on difficult sites.
Try reader mode or temporary JavaScript blocking
For article pages, the lowest-effort bypass is often reader mode. Reader or Reading mode strips a page down to the headline, body text, and inline images. On many news sites, that alone removes the anti-adblock layer and most ads. If that fails, temporarily disabling JavaScript for that one domain can also work, because most detection relies on scripts. The page might look a bit bare, and some features will break, but you usually get the content with no overlay.
Remove overlays with custom filters
When a site only throws a visual nag, you can just remove the symptom. Both uBlock Origin and AdGuard let you click an element and tell the blocker to hide it forever. If the site is popular, there’s a good chance someone has already written an anti-AdBlock filter list that hides the exact overlay you’re seeing. Importing one or two of those “annoyance” lists reduces how often you even need to think about it.
Use private windows or a separate profile for stubborn sites
And finally, have a “throwaway” context for stubborn sites. Open them in a private window or a separate profile with your blocker enabled, and you’ll have a clean slate with fewer cookies and flags saying “this user refused to disable adblock”. With a strong blocker and AdGuard Extra, that’s usually enough to get past most detection without making it a full-time job.
How YouTube Detects Ad Blockers in 2025?
YouTube is on the lookout for two things at the same time: whether you’re missing out on the ads, and whether you’re getting in the way of them loading in the first place.
Checking if ads are actually getting loaded
When you watch a video, your player connects to YouTube’s ad servers and says, “Hey, can I get some ads here?” Ad segments or skippable ads start playing either before or during the video.
But when you’ve got an ad blocker on, those calls are blocked, or the ad elements just plain don’t show up. YouTube’s scripts notice that:
- No ad requests are made when they should have been
- The stuff the ad player does just doesn’t seem to be happening
If that keeps on happening, YouTube assumes you’re actively blocking ads and shows you that “ad blockers go against YouTube’s Terms of Service” warning. And often enough, it blocks or limits playback until you “allow ads” or sign up for YouTube Premium.
It hides the ads inside the video stream
Now, on top of that, YouTube has started doing something sneaky on the web player. It’s called server-side ad insertion, just like it does on your TV and in the app. That means ads get stitched right into the actual video stream on YouTube’s servers. And your browser just gets a single continuous stream that includes the ad already built in
To an ad blocker, this doesn’t look like a separate ad file to block. There isn’t any obvious ad request to nip in the bud, which makes both blocking and detecting a real pain. When the stream plays without the ads because a blocker or tool managed to skip or mess with them, that flags you as someone who’s interfering with ads all over again.
It keeps track of what you’re doing
YouTube also uses cookies, local storage, and your Google account to keep tabs on what you’re up to:
- If you keep dismissing the warning and keep blocking ads, it can just keep showing the banner up in that browser.
- If you’re signed in, it can tie that pattern to your account, not just the device you’re using.
So even if you close the tab, the next video can still trigger that “disable your ad blocker” thing very quickly.
What are the best ad blockers to get around anti-adblock measures?
If your goal is to avoid annoying walls altogether, which ad blocker you choose does matter a lot. Some blockers are okay at hiding basic banner ads but start to struggle when the sites get a bit more aggressive in their efforts to fight back.
AdGuard
If you only want to know one name to remember, it’s AdGuard.
AdGuard’s got three key advantages:
- Their filter lists are top-notch, especially their “Annoyances” lists, which specifically target those annoying overlays and anti-adblock walls that sites try to spring on you.
- The AdGuard desktop app, which is available for both Windows and macOS, can filter traffic at the system level, not just within your browser. This makes it a lot harder for sites to detect it and retaliate accordingly.
- AdGuard Extra is a helpful companion app that specifically looks out for scripts that try to reinsert ads, break the page layout when ads are blocked, or throw up that dreaded “disable your ad blocker” overlay – and quietly patches those behaviors out.
For most people, the easiest way to set it up is to use the AdGuard browser extension as your main blocker, and then add AdGuard Extra as a sort of “booster” to help with those sites that think they can outsmart you. If you want more control and protection across all your apps, the paid desktop app is even better.
uBlock Origin
uBlock Origin is another one of these must-mentions.
- It remains free and open-source
- Uses barely any resources
- Super flexible, with custom rules and extra filter lists at your disposal
If you’re okay with tweaking some settings now and then, uBlock Origin gives you a ton of control. You can import anti-adblock filter lists, use the element picker to hide those annoying overlays, and even use dynamic filtering on domains that keep pushing back. For many users, “uBlock Origin + some good annoyance lists” is still a solid default setup.
Browsers that do the blocking out of the box
Then there are the browsers that come with their own built-in ad blocking, for example:
- Brave with its so-called Shields
- Firefox with its Enhanced Tracking Protection, plus an extension like uBlock or AdGuard
- Vivaldi with its integrated ad/tracker blocking
Having a built-in blocker can be a real time-saver and even hide the fact that an extension is doing the blocking – but on the tougher sites, you’ll often still need to pair it with a dedicated blocker like AdGuard or uBlock.
Extra network-level helpers (Pi-hole, NextDNS, VPN ad blocking)
There are also tools that work outside your browser:
- Pi-hole or NextDNS to block ad domains for your whole network
- VPNs that offer basic ad/tracker blocking on their servers
These are a great second layer of protection. They cut out a lot of ad and tracking traffic before it even reaches your browser, which means fewer things for anti-adblock scripts to probe. On their own, they won’t handle all those cosmetic issues like overlays, but combined with AdGuard or uBlock, they make things a lot quieter.
If you want to keep things simple: AdGuard (+ AdGuard Extra) first, then uBlock Origin if you prefer a pure open-source approach, and finally add a DNS or VPN-level blocker if you want to go a step further.
Is it legal to bypass AdBlock detection?
In most places, yes. Using an ad blocker and avoiding “we detected your ad blocker” popups is generally legal. You get to control what runs on your own device and what your browser loads or ignores.
Where it gets hairy is with terms of service, not criminal law. Platforms like YouTube now say ad blockers break their rules. That gives them the right to nag you, limit playback or block your account. It doesn’t make you a criminal. The consequence is access, not fines or legal action.
There are academic debates about “circumventing technical measures,” but there is no pattern of regular users being targeted for just blocking ads or hiding overlays. In practice, the worst that happens is that a site won’t show you content until you comply.
So the real question isn’t “is this illegal” but “how do I want to support the sites I actually care about?” You can keep blocking ads, and for the few publishers you like, you can choose to whitelist, subscribe, or support them in some other way.
Is bypassing anti-adblock scripts worth it?
If you want a clean, private web, yes.
Anti-adblock scripts are trying to force you back into a tracking-heavy, distraction-heavy experience. Some do it with gentle nudges, others with broken layouts and blocked videos. None of that changes the fact: you still control what runs in your browser.
The sweet spot is balance. Use a strong setup, keep a couple of simple tricks in your pocket (reader mode, temporary JS blocking, private windows), and then decide which sites you actually want to reward. For a few publishers you really like, you can whitelist, subscribe or support them directly. For everything else, you don’t have to accept a worse, more invasive web just because their script says so.
You installed an ad blocker to take back control. Bypassing anti-adblock detection is just finishing the job.