How to permanently change how a website looks in Chrome

2 min read

You open DevTools, delete the annoying sidebar, bump up the font. Perfect. Then you refresh, and it's all back.

DevTools only edits the copy of the page in your tab. Reload, and the site sends a fresh one. To make a change stick, something has to reapply it every time the page loads.

A video grid turned into a compact list after asking Cuttlefox to "switch the grid to a compact list, newest first"
One sentence turned this video grid into a compact list. The change reapplies on every visit.

Four ways to make a change stick

Chrome settings

Upside: Built in. Zoom is remembered per site, and reading mode cleans up long articles.

Downside: That’s about all it can do.

Stylus (custom CSS)

Upside: Free and precise, if you know CSS.

Downside: You write the rules, and they break when the site renames things.

Tampermonkey (userscripts)

Upside: Can change anything on the page.

Downside: You need to write JavaScript.

Cuttlefox

Upside: Describe the change in plain English. It can add and remember things, not just restyle.

Downside: $2.50/month after a 7-day free trial.

How it works in Cuttlefox

  1. 01Open the panelClick the toolbar icon or press Ctrl+Shift+E.
  2. 02Say what you wantCuttlefox finds the right parts of the page and shows you a preview.
  3. 03Save itFor the whole site, similar pages, or just this one page.

A couple of things you could ask for:

Prompt

Make the article column wider, the text a bit bigger, and hide the sidebar.

Prompt

Keep the table header visible when I scroll.

Good to know

  • Changes only happen in your browser. Everyone else sees the normal site.
  • If a redesign breaks a saved edit, ask Cuttlefox to fix it.
  • Building an edit sends a trimmed copy of the page to the AI, so skip pages with sensitive details, like your bank.

Want a concrete example? Here's how to hide YouTube Shorts for good.