Update Chrome Web Browser

Updated at: Feb 15, 2022

This guide will step you through the process of updating your Google Chrome web browser.

Do you need to know what version of Chrome do I have?

Unless you have specifically disabled it Chrome will check for updates every couple of hours and automatically update itself, but here's how to manually tell Chrome to update itself.

1. Click the "Customize and Control" button

   In the top-right corner of the Chrome window you'll see the Customise menu icon - it looks like three little black dots on top of each other - click it.

   

   This will reveal a menu with lots of options. One of them will be named "Settings".

2. Hover your mouse on the "Help" menu item

   

   When you hover on the Help menu item another menu will appear out to the side - it contains the About Google Chrome option.

3. Click "About Google Chrome"

   

   You will be taken to the About page for Chrome.

4. Chrome will automatically check for updates

   As soon as you open the "About" screen for Chrome, it will automatically start to check if there are any updates available for your copy of Chrome. If there are updates available it will start to download them. You don't need to do anything to start this process.

   

   Chrome tells you that it's "Checking for updates..." while it checks for a newer version.

   Version numbers shown here are examples and will change depending on what is considered the latest version...

5. If Chrome finds updates, click "Relaunch" to install them

   If Chrome finds updates, it will automatically download and install them. Once this is done you need to click the Relaunch button to finish this process. Clicking it will restart Chrome. Chrome should remember which websites you have open and reopen them when it starts up again.

   

6. When Chrome relaunches, you'll have the latest version

   

   Chrome now tells you "Google Chrome is up to date".

Congratulations, you have now ensured that your copy of Chrome is up to date.

In normal circumstances, Chrome will keep itself up to date automatically - if for some reason Chrome didn't update itself, please speak to your IT Support team for further help.

Chrome auto-updates itself

Google's Chrome web browser was the first web browser to provide automatic updates. This was something of a revolution, because prior to this, it was the user's responsibility to update their web browser. This usually meant that only the most vigilant and technically savvy users had up to date web browsers.

Having an up to date web browser is vital to having a safe and fully-featured web experience and Chrome's auto-update feature facilitates this very easily.

What if Chrome is not already auto-updating?

If you are being told that Chrome is out of date (our homepage will tell you if your web browser up to date) then in most cases you just need to wait a few hours and Chrome will auto update itself.

If this doesn't occur, it's possible that:

• Your computer's firewall is preventing Chrome from checking if there are updates
• Your employer has blocked Chrome from auto-updating
• You (or someone else) has configured your Chrome to not auto-update

Fixing these issues is beyond the scope of this article; these situations are typically very rare.

"I have the latest version of Chrome OS but you say my Chrome Browser is out of date!"

Even though you have the latest version of Chrome OS, occasionally the version of Chrome Browser you are running might considered out of date. This is because there is sometimes a short time-lag between the latest version of Chrome Browser being released and the latest version of Chrome OS being released as well. We've got a page with more details about ChromeBrowser and Chrome OS versions if you're curious.