If you like the idea of blocking overbearing ads, but don’t want to steal revenue from sites you like, you can set AdBlock to allow all ads by default, and then block them as needed.

While Google is doing its part to make your ad experience better on the web by blocking ads that don’t meat certain standards, it’s never a bad idea to have the control where you want it. That’s where AdBlock comes into play—but not in the way you traditionally think of this controversial plugin.

By default, AdBlock, blocks ads—all ads. While I see how appealing that can be, not all ads are bad, overbearing, or otherwise in the way. In fact, ads are how many websites make money—including the one you’re reading right now.

While we go out of our way to make sure the ad experience is as out of your way as possible, we also understand that not all websites are as aware of their ad situation as they should be—or maybe they just don’t care. Whatever the reason, if there comes a time when a website is forcing too many ads down your throat, it’s time to block them.

How to Set AdBlock to Allow Ads

So, first things first, go ahead and install AdBlock. It’s available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. After you install it, the instructions are essentially the same across all browsers.

Note: I’ll be using Chrome for the tutorial, so it might look slightly different if you’re using a different browser.

Click the extension icon, and then choose the “Options” entry. This opens a new browser tab.

On that tab, click the “Customize” option at the top.

There are quite a few options on the “Customize” page, but you’re looking for the “Show ads everywhere except for these domains” option. Click it to expand a new input box.

In that box, you can start adding the sites on which you want to block ads by using the format displayed just below the box. The sites you type are added to the “Filters” section.

You can edit the filters section manually as well, but be aware that it’s very particular about formatting. One incorrect character and everything breaks!

Fortunately, there’s an easier way. You don’t have to worry about manually inputting every site for which you want to block ads. Instead, you can just use the extension icon as you’re browsing. When you encounter an offending site, head to that site’s home page, click the AdBlock extension icon, and then choose the “Enable AdBlock on this page” option. Poof—ads are gone. That’s all there is to it!

Note: You do need to do this on a website’s home page, otherwise it only block ads on the exact page you’re looking at. When you enable it on the home page, though, it blocks ads across that entire domain.

How to Re-Enable Ads for Blocked Sites

If at any point, you have a change of heart (or perhaps accidentally blocked ads), you can easily undo this setting.

While you can edit the Filters list, I’d generally recommend against that unless you’re absolutely sure of what you’re doing. Again, it’ll break the entire list if something is entered improperly.

Instead, just visit the site’s home page, click the AdBlock icon, and then choose the “Don’t run on pages on this site” option.

This open a new window—just click “Exclude” to allow ads across that domain.

While we definitely encourage the “innocent until proven guilty” mindset when it comes to blocking ads, we also understand that some websites are just awful when it comes to putting ads in your face. We feel like allowing ads in general, and then blocking ads on offending sites offers a great middle ground in the debate over blocking ads.

Also, please don’t use this to block our ads. We love you.

Are you trying to watch a video or read an article on a site that doesn’t allow ad blockers? Do you want to support a site you love by allowing it to show you ads? Use the steps below to pause AdBlock temporarily or add a site to your allowlist to see ads every time you visit.

Note: The methods described below work in desktop browsers on Chrome, Firefox and Edge. There are similar steps for the Mac app. You can also pause AdBlock on your mobile device or add websites to your allowlist on your iPhone or iPad.

To allow ads to show on the site you’re currently visiting, click the AdBlock toolbar icon to open the AdBlock menu. Under Pause on this site, select Once to temporarily pause AdBlock on that site or Always to add the site to your allowlist.

When paused once, AdBlock will automatically start blocking ads again when you leave the site. If paused always, the site will be added to your allowlist ensuring that ads will continue to show every time you visit the site.

To start blocking ads on a site again, click the AdBlock toolbar icon and select Unpause AdBlock. You can also manually remove the site from your allowlist:

1. Click the AdBlock toolbar icon and select the gear symbol.
2. On the Customize tab next to “Manually edit your filters,” click Edit.
3. Delete any line containing the name of the website.
4. Click Save.
5. Go back to the page you were viewing and reload it.

To always allow ads to show on the page you’re currently viewing, open the AdBlock menu, select More pause options, adjust the page slider to match the URL of the page you want to add to your allowlist, then click Exclude.

AdBlock will allow ads on the current page but will still block them everywhere else, including on other pages on the same site.

To start blocking ads on that page again open the AdBlock menu and select Unpause AdBlock or remove the page from your allowlist manually:

1. Click the AdBlock toolbar icon and select the gear symbol.
2. On the Customize tab next to “Manually edit your filters,” click Edit.
3. Delete any line containing the name of the page URL.
4. Click Save.
5. Go back to the page you were viewing and reload it.

To temporarily allow ads to show on all sites, right-click on the page and select Pause on all sites from the context menu. After enabling this, any site you visit will allow ads, however, all tabs and windows that are already open will need to be refreshed to allow ads.

AdBlock will remain paused on all sites until the browser is restarted. To block ads again, right-click on the page and select Resume blocking ads from the context menu.

If you prefer to allow ads on most sites, only blocking them on specific sites, you can set AdBlock to default to “off.” We call this running AdBlock in “Allow Ads Mode,” showing ads on all websites, and blocking them only where you tell it to.

Allow Ads Mode is similar to pausing AdBlock on all sites but in Allow Ads Mode you can still block ads on some websites, and AdBlock will remain in Allow Ads Mode until you turn it off.

To use AdBlock in Allow Ads Mode:

1. Open the AdBlock menu (the AdBlock icon in the upper right-hand corner of your browser)
2. Select the gear icon to open your Options page
3. Click the Customize tab on the left
4. Scroll down to “Stop blocking ads” and select “Show ads everywhere except for these domains”
5. Add any sites where you prefer to keep ads blocked. This overides all other filters.
   

Exception (allowlist) rules always override blocking rules. If there is a particular ad you want to see, you can use AdBlock’s resource page to create an exception to the rule that’s blocking it.