Google Chrome is the world’s most popular web browser, and in this guide I show you how to install Chrome in Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and other Ubuntu-based Linux distributions.
“Why is a tutorial needed”, you wonder? Well, Google Chrome isn’t preinstalled in Ubuntu, and you can’t install it from App Center in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Software Manager in Linux Mint 22.
That doesn’t mean it’s unavailable; on the contrary: Google Chrome for Linux has been around since 2010.
So let’s look at getting it set up.
Want to Install Chrome on Ubuntu?
First step is to download Google Chrome for Linux from the official website1, which you can do using any web browser (e.g., Firefox, which is included in Ubuntu by default).
Select the 64-bit DEB package from the options presented.
But before the download begins you will be asked to agree to the Google Chrome Terms of Service:
Click the “Accept and Install” to continue, and the Chrome DEB will started downloading.
If it doesn’t, or you wish to skip the above step entirely, you can download the full offline installer using the direct link below:
- https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
Let the DEB package finish downloading then open the file manager, go to your Downloads folder (or the location you saved the package to, and double-click on the DEB file to open it Software Center (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS) or App Center (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS).
Some users find double-clicking on a DEB in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS doesn’t do anything. If that happens, you can right-click on the DEB, pick “Open with…” from the context menu, and choose App Center from the list to do the same thing.
Once the software store opens you should see some details listed and an “install” button:
Click the install button (and the confirmation dialogs that Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and later now show), and enter your user password to proceed with the installation.
A progress bar lets you see track installation,
Once done, you can open Google Chrome from the application launcher.
How to Install Google Chrome from the Command Line
Would you prefer to install Google Chrome on Ubuntu from the command line? You can do so pretty easily, like so: –
Step 1: Open Terminal and run this command to download Chrome’s DEB installer:
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
Step 2: Use apt to install the DEB:
sudo apt install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
If any errors appear about missing dependencies you may need to ‘force install’ (not as scary as it sounds, it just lets you install the dependencies without needing to specify what they are):
sudo apt -f install
Once installation is finished, open Google Chrome from the app launcher and start using it!
Set up Google Chrome
The first time you run Chrome on any Linux distro it will ask if you want to ‘make Google Chrome the default browser’. If you do want to do this (meaning any links you click in other apps open a new tab in Chrome) go ahead and check the box.
Choose to ‘automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google’ if you want to help Chrome developers know what is and isn’t working:
The first time you open Chrome you see an empty browser window welcoming you to the browser and asking if you want to sign in:
Sign-in with a valid Google Account (e.g., Gmail) to sync bookmarks, passwords and Chrome extensions between all of the devices you use on the Chrome browser on, including your smartphone!
Stay Updated
When you install Google Chrome on Ubuntu or a similar Linux distro, the official Google repository is added to your system. This allows you to receive future Google Chrome updates automatically, either through the Software Update tool or your preferred command line package manager.
Google Chrome Not Supported on 32-Bit Ubuntu
Google discontinued support for 32-bit Ubuntu in 2016, so you can no longer install Google Chrome on 32-bit Ubuntu systems. If you’re using a 32-bit system you can install Chromium instead. Chromium is an open-source version of Chrome.
Uninstall Chrome from Ubuntu
If you install Google’s web browser but later decide it’s not for you, that’s fine: you can uninstall Chrome on ubuntu just as easily as you installed it.
Open a new Terminal window and run:
sudo apt remove google-chrome
Removal is quick but some configuration files may be left on your system. If you want to clean these out you’ll need to delete them by hand, or use a tool like Bleachbit.
Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to install Google Chrome on Ubuntu and its official flavours, as well as Linux Mint and (almost every) Ubuntu-based Linux distro. I also showed you how to install Google Chrome from the command line for convenience.
If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.
H/T Toby
- Don’t rely on third-party builds or packages from other locations – get it direct. ↩︎