The most user-friendly ad blockers are the ones you install on your browser and never think about. And what’s more user-friendly than the ones you don’t even have to install?
At the same time, the ground under traditional extensions is shifting. Chrome’s Manifest V3 is squeezing how powerful browser add-ons can be, mobile platforms have stricter rules, and more sites are fighting back with anti-ad-block walls, which is why two things matter more than ever: choosing a browser with genuinely strong built-in blocking, and having a reliable backup like AdGuard ready when you need system-level protection on top. The right browser reduces the noise; a dedicated tool like AdGuard cleans up what the browser cannot even see.
Built-in ad blocking changes the rules of the game. Instead of one extension trying to swat every ad network on its own, the browser engine itself decides what is allowed to load. That affects your user experience, page load speed, CPU and battery percentage, how many trackers follow you between tabs, and whether YouTube ads still hijack your video queue.
This article tries to see which browsers really block the most junk by default, which ones need tuning, and where a dedicated blocker like AdGuard still makes sense as a partner rather than a competitor.
Which browser has the strongest built-in ad blocker today?
If you only want one name here, it is Brave.
Brave is built around its ad blocker, a.k.a. Shield, in a way most browsers aren’t. It’s on from the moment you install it, so ads, trackers, and fingerprinting scripts are blocked automatically without you touching a single setting. Brave’s own docs say it simply: it blocks privacy-invasive ads and trackers and upgrades sites to HTTPS by default, so you start with a cleaner, faster web out of the box.
Independent testers back that up. In AdBlock Tester’s 2025 roundup of browsers with built-in ad blockers, Brave scored 96 out of 100, one of the highest results of any mainstream browser, and blocked fingerprinting and worked consistently on mobile and desktop. Other browsers can match or beat that score in narrow tests, but Brave is the one that combines near-extension-level blocking with speed, privacy, and day-to-day reliability, which is why it’s their “perfect option for most people” and often listed as the best automatic ad-blocking browser in consumer guides.
Under the hood, Brave uses the same filter lists you’d get through uBlock Origin, then adds its own fixes so sites don’t break. Because the blocker is in the engine instead of as an extension, it also sidesteps some of the Manifest V3 limits that are weakening classic Chrome ad-block add-ons. In plain English, that means fewer ads, fewer reappearing “allow ads to support us” prompts, and cleaner YouTube sessions once you set Shields to a more aggressive mode.
Does Brave still offer the best built-in ad blocking?
Yes, but the “why” is in the details of what Brave does that others simply do not bundle together.
Brave’s Shields are not just an ad toggle. They actually do a whole lot more than that. They block ads, trackers, phishing scripts, fingerprinting, cookies, and ecloaked trackers using a couple of extra tricks up their sleeve (CNAME uncloaking & script replacement), and that’s all on by default on every single page you visit, no fuss needed. Most other “ad blocking” browsers generally just go for the basics: EasyList filters & basic tracking protection. Whereas Brave adds extra layers on top like cookie partitioning & temporary data storage, basically making it so third parties get deleted data instead of long-term identifying info.
On top of all that, Brave also does fingerprinting protection. Bot by blocking your browser, but actually just randomizing what info sites see, and it does this with per-site, per-session seeds, so your browser looks different to the site every time you load a page, without breaking anything on the other end. It also comes with a bunch of useful features thrown in that you’d normally need to download separately, like automatic HTTPS upgrades, and an optional private browser mode that sends traffic through the Tor network. You still get control over what gets blocked on a site-by-site basis, with a live block counter. But the heavy lifting happens quietly in the background, which is why Brave can claim it’s got some seriously strong default protections.
Is Vivaldi’s built-in ad blocker good enough for daily use?
If you’re willing to monkey around with a couple of settings, then yes, Vivaldi’s built-in blocker is more than good enough for everyday use.
Out of the box, Vivaldi comes set to “Block trackers only”, which means most of the creepy third-party scripts get shut down, but unfortunately, it still lets a fair bit of ad slip through. Switch it to “Block trackers and ads” and it transforms into a solid all-round shield: you get ad blocking that’s pretty close to EasyList style, you’ve got tracker blocking, and you can control each site with that little shield icon that pops up, plus the option to add your own filter lists (for example, lists focused on specific regions, YouTube ads, social media blockers, whatever you fancy). For normal browsing, the two together do a great job of keeping pages clean and loading fast enough that most of the time you won’t even feel the need to look for an extension.
Where Vivaldi doesn’t quite match up to Brave is in how hard it tries to block stuff and how automatic it is. Its default setting is pretty laid back, and for example, YouTube ads aren’t always blocked out of the box unless you import some stricter lists, and it doesn’t lean so heavily into fingerprinting defences. So the trade-off looks like this: if you like having a bit of control and some options for tweaking, Vivaldi’s blocker is ready to go for daily use once you’ve fiddled with the settings a bit. If you just want something that will totally squash all the ads and scripts with zero effort, then Brave is probably still the easier and more effective choice.
How strong is Opera’s built-in ad blocker in 2025?
Opera’s blocker is strong enough to drive daily, but it’s not turned on by default.
Once you turn it on, Opera’s built-in ad blocker scores 89/100 on AdBlock Tester, which puts it in “surprisingly strong” for a default browser feature. It uses EasyList and NoCoin (a crypto-miner blocking list) by default, with optional EasyPrivacy and regional lists and blocks banners, pop-ups, and a lot of YouTube ads while speeding up heavy pages significantly. Opera claims content-rich sites can load up to 90% faster with the blocker on, and independent tests agree it feels lighter than running a separate extension.
On Android, Opera doubled down in 2024 with three blocker modes, including a Custom mode that lets you pick curated lists like EasyList, uBlock, AdGuard, AdGuard Mobile, EasyPrivacy, and uBlock filters. That makes the mobile blocker faster and more powerful than it used to be and gives you more control than most stock mobile browsers.
The caveats are where it falls behind Brave. Opera’s blocker is off by default; it whitelists search engines like Google and Bing, so sponsored results still appear unless you change that, and YouTube’s latest anti-ad-block moves have specifically caused problems for Opera GX users with the built-in blocker on. Disabling the blocker fixes YouTube instantly, which tells you that YouTube and Opera are currently at war. So for normal sites and general browsing, Opera’s ad blocker is more than “good enough” and noticeably fast. If you care about the absolute toughest blocking and smoothest YouTube in 2025, you still keep Brave at the top of the list and treat Opera as the more feature-rich, slightly softer option.
Does DuckDuckGo Browser block ads or only trackers?
DuckDuckGo’s browser goes after trackers first, and a lot of ads disappear as a side effect. It uses its own Tracker Radar list to automatically block hidden third-party trackers, strip tracking parameters from URLs, and upgrade sites to HTTPS where possible. That kills many personalized and retargeted ads because the tracking tech behind them never loads.
But it’s not an “every single ad must die” browser. DuckDuckGo doesn’t try to remove all first-party or purely contextual ads, and it can’t fully clean up YouTube ads the way Brave can. On desktop and mobile, you still get a much calmer, more private web, but you will notice the occasional banner or non-tracking ad slipping through. So the honest answer is: it blocks trackers by design, and that ends up blocking a good chunk of ads, just not all of them.
Does Safari block ads by default?
No. Safari doesn’t block ads by default; it blocks tracking. Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention stops cross-site trackers, limits cookies, and can hide your IP, which makes Safari feel more private than Chrome, but the actual ad slots on pages are still allowed to load. That’s why you still see normal display ads and YouTube ads in plain Safari.
If you want Safari to behave like an ad-blocking browser, you need to add a content blocker (for example, AdGuard or 1Blocker on iOS and macOS) and enable it in Safari’s settings. Only then do you get proper cosmetic ad blocking on top of Apple’s built-in tracking defenses.
Is Edge’s built-in ad blocking enough for everyday browsing?
For most people, Edge’s built-in protection is “good enough” for some level of privacy, but if you’re really after some tough ad blocking, that’s not what you’ve got here
On your desktop, Edge lets you flip a switch for Tracking prevention (Basic, Balanced, Strict). Naturally, Balanced is on by default. It does a decent job of cutting down on third-party trackers, cookies, and most of the ad tech nonsense, so you’ll see fewer of those creepy as-hell ads that follow you everywhere. Switch to Strict and you start to get something that feels kinda like light ad blocking on a lot of sites, but it’s still not a “clean sheet” ad-free experience. It still leaves search ads and a lot of first-party ads alone – and some sites just go haywire or start nagging you more in Strict mode.
On your mobile phone, things are a little better: Edge for Android and iOS lets you toggle on Adblock Plus in its settings. If you turn that on (and optionally ditch “acceptable ads”), mobile Edge is a heck of a lot closer to what a real ad-blocker feels like when you’re just browsing around normally. For the average phone user, that’s fine – your pages don’t need to look like a billboard on the side of the road.
So if your expectations are:
- “I just don’t want to see as many trackers, and I don’t mind a little bit of junk still showing up, I’m good, no problem with some ads.” Edge’s built-in tools are more than good enough.
- “I want pages to look like I’m browsing in Brave or with AdGuard; totally ad-free.” You will still need a real ad blocker on top of that (an extension on desktop, or a DNS/app-level tool like AdGuard on anything).
Final ranking: Which browsers have the strongest built-in ad blocking in 2025?
We have tested a bunch of browsers with built-in ad blockers, and we really like these five.
| Browser | Score | Blocks | Customisation Level | Notable Extras |
| Brave | 96 | Ads, trackers, fingerprinting | High | VPN add-on |
| Avast Secure | 100 | Ads, trackers, phishing, malware | Medium | Bank Mode |
| Opera | 89 | Ads, trackers | Medium | Sidebar apps |
| DuckDuckGo | 61 | Ads, trackers | None | Private search |
| Vivaldi | 43 | Ads, trackers | High | Full UI customisation |
Brave: The Top Choice for a Quick Fix
Brave is gonna be the one if you just want to get something up and running and forget about ads for good. Shields are on from the get-go, and it uses EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and uBO-style rules to strip ads, trackers, and all the sneaky fingerprinting tricks. No messing around with settings – we clocked it hitting the mid-90s on AdBlock Tester’s score, whacking most YouTube ads, and staying stable on both desktop and mobile. For most folks, this will be the one-stop shop for ad-free browsing.
Avast Secure Browser: The Unbeaten Ad Blocker
If you only care about how much junk gets blocked, Avast Secure Browser wiped the floor with the rest, scoring a perfect 10 in our built-in blocker benchmarks. It feels like a locked-down Chromium build with strict filters, anti-phishing, and anti-malware tacked on top. The catch is you get less flexibility and a smaller community of users, but if you just want raw blocking power, it’s unbeatable.
Opera / Opera GX: The Speed Demon of Browsers
Once you flip the switch on Opera’s integrated ad blocker, it scored in the high 80s on our tests and made content-heavy pages zoom past in a flash. It uses EasyList-style filters, works at preventing a good chunk of YouTube ads, and bundles in extras like a free VPN and gamer-focused GX build. Just remember to turn off “acceptable ads” and fiddle with search whitelisting if you want it to behave like a true ad-blocker.
DuckDuckGo Browser: The Privacy Pro for Casual Users
DuckDuckGo’s browser goes for tracker protection instead of trying to eradicate every single ad on the page. Blocking hidden trackers, upgrading to HTTPS, and stripping tracking parameters make targeted ads go away without you having to switch up your entire browsing routine. It landed mid-pack in our scoring, but it’s so easy to live with – it works the same whether you’re on Android, iOS, or desktop. Perfect for a private default, not so great if you’re looking for a perfectly clean layout.
Vivaldi: The Blocker for Browser Geeks
Vivaldi’s blocker starts out a bit shy, targeting tracker blocking so that sites don’t break. Flip it up a notch, add a few more filter lists, and suddenly it becomes a top-notch daily driver. The power users get fancy per-site controls and the option to import all sorts of custom lists, which lets you really push Vivaldi to its limits. It’s for people who like to fine-tune and get the most out of their browser.
If you want the full lowdown with individual scores, test conditions, and the weird edge cases, you’re in the right spot to link to the main AdBlock Tester piece on browsers with built-in ad blockers. In the article, the anchor can do most of the heavy lifting, while this section stays focused on the five names you should actually consider installing.