Sound Booster MaxHow to Make Chrome Louder With a Volume Booster Extension
Swasthik Raj- Updated
- 3 min read
To make sound louder in Chrome than the built-in maximum, add a volume booster extension such as Sound Booster Max, play audio in a tab, click the extension's icon and raise its slider above 100%. The boost applies to that tab only and can go up to 600%.
Chrome has no volume control of its own. Each website's player has a slider, and your computer has a master volume, and both stop at 100%. If a video was recorded quietly, or your laptop speakers are small, 100% is simply not loud enough. A louder-sound extension, such as our volume booster extension for Chrome, adds the missing step: it raises the level of the audio inside the tab before it reaches your speakers.
Why browser audio is often too quiet
- Quiet source material. Lectures, interviews, old uploads and screen recordings are often recorded at a low level.
- Loudness normalisation. Sites such as YouTube turn loud content down to a common level, but they do not turn quiet content up.
- Small speakers. Thin laptops and Chromebooks cannot move much air.
- Dialogue mixed for home cinema. Films mixed for surround speakers can leave speech quiet on stereo speakers.
None of these can be fixed with the normal volume slider once it reaches the top.
How a volume booster extension makes sound louder
The extension takes the audio from one tab and multiplies its level. At 100% nothing changes. At 200% the signal is twice as strong, which is about 6 dB louder. At 600%, the top of the Sound Booster Max slider, it is six times the original level.
It only touches the tab you use it on. Other tabs, other apps and your system volume stay as they were. See website volume vs system volume for how the layers fit together.
Set it up in four steps
- Add Sound Booster Max to Chrome on your computer.
- Pin it from the puzzle-piece Extensions menu so the green icon is always in your toolbar.
- Play the quiet video or audio, then click the green icon. A small control window opens for that tab.
- Raise the slider a little at a time until you can hear clearly, and keep the window open while you listen.
There is a picture for each step in how to add the extension to Chrome. If you want to know what the extension does and does not do first, read about a simple volume booster with one slider.
Sensible levels for common situations
| Situation | Where to start |
|---|---|
| Quiet lecture or tutorial | 150% to 250% |
| Film dialogue on laptop speakers | 200% to 300% |
| One quiet person on a browser call | 150% to 200% |
| Music that is already loud | Stay near 100% to 150% |
Set your computer's own volume to a comfortable level first, then use the extension to bring the quiet tab up to match everything else. For voices in particular, see clearer speech in lectures and calls.
If the sound crackles or distorts
Distortion means the boosted signal is hitting the ceiling of what digital audio can carry. Lower the slider until it stops. The slider marks everything above 400% as a quality-warning zone for this reason. Music and adverts, which are already mastered loud, distort sooner than quiet speech. More on this in louder than max without distortion.
If it does not seem to work
- Make sure sound is actually playing in the tab before you click the icon.
- Check the switch at the top of the control window is on.
- Keep the control window open. The boost applies while that window is open.
- If a video will not go fully full screen while boosted, use your browser's own full-screen shortcut (F11 on Windows, Control + Command + F on Mac).
Frequently asked questions
Does a louder volume extension affect other tabs?
No. Sound Booster Max works per tab. The control window also lists which tabs are currently playing media, so you can jump to them.
Will it make my laptop's speakers louder?
Yes, for browser audio. Sound Booster Max makes a laptop's built-in speakers play a Chrome tab louder, within what the speakers can physically do. See the laptop volume booster guide.
Is it free?
Yes. It is free on the Chrome Web Store and needs no account.
