# Add custom search engine

> Add a custom search engine to the list of available search engines in the search bar and URL bar.

Canonical page: [https://chrome-stats.com/d/add-custom-search-engine](https://chrome-stats.com/d/add-custom-search-engine)

## Overview

- **ID:** `add-custom-search-engine`
- **Platform:** Firefox
- **Type:** Firefox add-on
- **Status:** Available
- **Publisher:** Tom Schuster
- **Category:** search-tools
- **Daily users:** 8,970
- **Weekly downloads:** 126
- **Rating:** 4.72 / 5 (489 ratings)
- **Version:** 5.0
- **Last updated:** 2025-03-31
- **First published:** 2018-07-30
- **Size:** 66 KB
- **Data as of:** 2026-09-13
- **Store listing:** [Firefox Add-ons Store](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/add-custom-search-engine/)
- **Website:** [https://github.com/evilpie/add-custom-search-engine](https://github.com/evilpie/add-custom-search-engine)
- **Privacy policy:** [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/add-custom-search-engine/privacy/](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/add-custom-search-engine/privacy/)

## Description

Add Custom Search Engine lets you enhance your browsing experience by adding personalized search engines directly to Chrome's search and URL bars. Simply provide a name and search URL, and optionally add an icon from your computer or via a URL, suggestion URLs, POST query parameters, input encoding, and a description.

Access the extension conveniently through a button next to the URL/search bar or via the Chrome extensions options. Note that due to current technical limitations, the custom search engine data is handled via a third-party service. Customize your searching today with ease and flexibility!

## Rankings

- #834 — Overall
- #89 — Search Tools
- #5 — engine
- #7 — customer
- #10 — custom font
- #11 — custom feed

## Permissions and access

### Permissions

- `https://paste.mozilla.org/api/`
- `https://dpaste.org/api/`
- `search`

## Safety

- **Risk impact:** Low risk impact
- **Risk likelihood:** Low risk likelihood

### Analysis details

- Request access to the following domains: mozilla.org, dpaste.org
- This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.

> Some risk analysis details are omitted from this free response. [Upgrade to view the full analysis](https://chrome-stats.com/pricing).

## Review summary

Users valued the add-on for adding custom search engines and its simplicity, which boosted workflow and served as a crucial workaround before native Firefox support. Now its usefulness is diminished since Firefox offers built-in features. It relies on external upload services that can fail, causing outages. Some users report compatibility issues on older Firefox versions or after updates, and a few instances of non-working states or errors. Overall sentiment is mixed, praising its functionality but noting it may be redundant or unreliable in current Firefox versions.

### Pros

- Adds the long-standing ability to add custom search engines.
- Easy to use and helps streamline workflows.
- Valuable interim solution before native Firefox support arrived.
- Generally well-received when functioning, with positive feedback such as works great and greatly increased my workflow.

### Cons

- Now largely redundant due to Firefox's native support.
- Reliance on external upload services (e.g., dpaste.org) can render the extension unusable when those services are down.
- Reported compatibility issues on older Firefox versions and after updates.
- Some users experience non-working states or errors (e.g., JSON error) on certain setups.

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Source: [Chrome-Stats](https://chrome-stats.com/d/add-custom-search-engine)