IdleTab Cost — See What Idle Tabs Really Cost You

⏱️ FREE CHROME EXTENSION

IdleTab Cost — See What Idle Tabs Really Cost You

Turns idle browser tabs into a real dollar figure based on your hourly rate, so you can see — and stop — the hidden cost of scattered attention.

Get Pro → Install Free on Chrome Web Store →

The IdleTab Cost popup — see what idle tabs cost you in real time.

What Is IdleTab Cost?

IdleTab Cost is a Chrome extension that tracks every open tab's idle time and calculates its real dollar cost. Set your hourly rate, and watch the cost of every idle tab appear in real time. Close all idle tabs with one click, track your daily focus score, and unlock Pro for auto-closing, 365-day history, and multiple rate profiles.

Every idle browser tab has a hidden cost. IdleTab Cost turns that cost into a real dollar figure based on your hourly rate — so you can see exactly how much scattered attention is costing you, and do something about it.

Who Should Use This Extension?

• Freelancers & consultants — billing by the hour and losing money to idle tabs.
• Remote workers — who need to stay focused and understand their attention costs.
• Productivity enthusiasts — tracking focus scores and building idle-free streaks.
• Anyone who's ever said — "I have too many tabs open and I don't know why."

Why You Can Trust IdleTab Cost

🔒 Trust built in — Local-first, private by default, and built with transparency.

IdleTab Cost tracks idle time and calculates costs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to external servers. Your hourly rate, idle history, and settings stay local in chrome.storage.local. The only network calls are optional Gumroad license verification for Pro upgrades.

• 🔒 100% local storage — All data stays in your browser.
• ⚡ No background scraping — The extension only runs when you interact with it or when tabs are open.
• 🛡️ Minimal permissions — Only storage, alarms, tabs, and contextMenus.
• 🧪 Tested accuracy — The idle cost formula is tested against 4 scenarios.

Core Philosophy

• Hidden costs made visible: Every idle tab costs you money. IdleTab Cost shows you exactly how much — in real dollars.
• Set your own rate: Your time has value. Set your hourly rate and watch the cost of every idle tab, live.
• Free first: Live idle audit, daily cost tracking, focus score, and one-click close all idle tabs are free forever.
• Privacy-respecting: Everything stays local to your browser. No accounts, no servers, no telemetry.
• Works everywhere: Every open tab in Chrome — regardless of domain, pinned status, or audio state.

Key Benefits

💵

Live idle cost tracking

Every idle tab shows its real dollar cost based on your hourly rate. Watch it grow in real time.

📊

Daily cost counter

See how much you've lost to idle tabs today. The toolbar badge shows your running total at a glance.

🎯

Focus Score & streaks

A 0-100 daily score shows how focused you've been. Streaks track days under your idle cost threshold.

🧹

Close all idle tabs

One click closes every idle tab. A 3-second undo lets you reopen them if you change your mind.

🚫

Session-only exclusion

Ignore specific tabs for the current session — they won't count toward your idle cost.

🔄

System idle detection

If you step away from your computer, cost accrual pauses automatically — no false charges.

Detailed Feature Explanations

1. Live Idle Audit

The popup shows every idle tab in your browser, sorted by cost descending. Each tab displays:

• Favicon, title, and domain
• Idle duration (in minutes/seconds)
• Current idle cost based on your hourly rate

2. Daily Cost Counter

A running total of what you've lost to idle tabs today, shown in the popup and as a toolbar badge. Resets at midnight local time.

⚠️ Important: If you step away from your computer, the system idle detection pauses cost accrual — no false charges while you're away.

3. Focus Score & Streaks

Two free metrics to track your focus:

• Focus Score (0-100): The percentage of tracked time today that was spent actively focused (not idle).
• Day Streak: Consecutive days under your idle cost threshold (configurable in Settings).

4. Close All Idle Tabs

One click closes every idle tab. A 3-second undo toast lets you reopen them if you change your mind — and it reopens exactly the tabs that were closed, not just the same URLs in a generic way.

5. Session-Only Tab Exclusion

Click the 🚫 button next to any tab in the idle list to exclude it for the current session. It won't count toward your idle cost — and the exclusion clears automatically when the tab closes or the browser restarts.

6. Persistent Work-Domain Allowlist (Pro)

Domains added here are never counted as idle cost, even if left open for hours. Perfect for work tools you keep open all day: docs.google.com, github.com, notion.so, your CRM, etc.

7. Auto-Close Idle Tabs (Pro)

Automatically closes idle tabs after a longer grace period than the cost-counting threshold — so a tab isn't yanked the instant it starts costing money. Pinned and audio-playing tabs are still respected as exceptions.

⚠️ Note: Auto-close uses a separate, longer threshold (default: 30 minutes) than the idle cost threshold (default: 10 minutes). This gives you time to return to a tab before it's automatically closed.

8. Multiple Rate Profiles (Pro)

Switch between different rates for different contexts — Client A, Client B, Personal time, etc. Switching a profile updates your active rate everywhere.

9. 365-Day History & Trends (Pro)

A standalone history page shows:

• 30-day bar chart of daily idle costs
• Top cost offenders by domain (all-time)
• CSV and JSON export of your full history

10. Right-Click Context Menu

Right-click anywhere on a page to access:

• ⏱ Close All Idle Tabs Now
• Ignore This Tab (this session)
• View History & Trends

Comparisons with Alternatives

Feature	IdleTab Cost	Built-in Chrome Task Manager	Other Tab Managers
Shows cost in dollars	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ Rarely
Custom hourly rate	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No
One-click close all idle	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Some
Focus Score & streaks	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No
Auto-close idle tabs	✅ Pro	❌ No	✅ Some
365-day history	✅ Pro	❌ No	❌ No
System idle detection	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No

How It Works

1. Set Your Hourly Rate

Enter your hourly rate in the popup — the number that represents what your time is worth. The extension uses this to calculate the cost of every idle tab.

2. Tabs Are Tracked Automatically

A tab is considered "idle" when:

• It's not the active tab in a focused window
• The browser window itself isn't focused
• You haven't interacted with it for the configured idle threshold (default: 10 minutes)

3. Cost Accrues in Real Time

IdleTab Cost checks every 15 seconds. Each idle tab's cost grows at a rate proportional to your hourly rate. The daily total updates instantly.

4. Take Action

See which tabs are costing you the most — sorted by cost descending. Close all idle tabs with one click, or exclude specific tabs for the session.

Idle Cost Formula

Cost = (idle seconds / 3600) × hourly rate

27 minutes idle at $60/hour = (1620 / 3600) × 60 = $27.00

1 hour idle at $100/hour = $100.00

10 minutes idle at $75/hour = $12.50

Worked Example — A Day of Idle Tabs

Scenario: You're a consultant billing at $100/hour

1. Set your rate — Enter $100 in the hourly rate field.

2. Work for 3 hours — You have 8 tabs open. 5 of them go idle after 15 minutes.

3. Check the popup — 5 idle tabs, each costing money. The daily total shows $37.50 lost.

4. Click Close All Idle — All 5 idle tabs close instantly. A toast appears with an Undo button.

5. At the end of the day — Your Focus Score is 78, and you're on a 3-day streak under your $50 threshold.

Key User Pain Points & How IdleTab Cost Solves Them

💸 Idle tabs are a hidden cost
IdleTab Cost shows you the real dollar figure — no more guessing.

🎯 Focus is hard to measure
Focus Score and streaks give you a clear metric to track your attention.

🧹 Closing idle tabs is tedious
One click closes all idle tabs — with undo if you change your mind.

🔄 Different contexts need different rates
Multiple rate profiles (Pro) let you switch between Client A, Client B, and Personal time.

Why Upgrade to Pro?

🚀 Unlock the full power of IdleTab Cost

The free tier gives you core tracking forever. But if you're serious about productivity, Pro removes all limits:

• 📊 365-day history — See trends and patterns over the full year.
• 🧹 Auto-close idle tabs — Automatically closes tabs after a grace period.
• 🌐 Persistent work-domain allowlist — Domains that never count as idle.
• 👤 Multiple rate profiles — Switch between Client A, Client B, Personal time.
• 📥 CSV/JSON export — Download your full history for analysis.
• 📈 Trend charts — Visualize your idle cost patterns over time.

🔥 Upgrade to Pro — $5 one-time

One-time payment · no subscription

Free vs Pro ($5 one-time)

Feature	Free	Pro
Live idle tab audit	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Daily cost counter & badge	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Focus Score & day streaks	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Close all idle tabs (with undo)	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Session-only tab exclusion	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Ignore pinned/audio tabs	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Configurable idle threshold	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Milestone notifications	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Work-hours window	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Persistent work-domain allowlist	❌ No	✅ Yes
Auto-close idle tabs	❌ No	✅ Yes
365-day history & trend charts	❌ No	✅ Yes
CSV/JSON export	❌ No	✅ Yes
Multiple rate profiles	❌ No	✅ Yes

💡 Core idle tracking is free forever. Pro adds power-user features — auto-close, 365-day history, rate profiles, and persistent allowlists. Get Pro →

Setup & Configuration

Installation

1. Install IdleTab Cost from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Pin the extension icon to your toolbar.
3. Click the icon to open the popup.
4. Enter your hourly rate in the Settings tab.

Configuring Idle Threshold

1. Open the Settings page (Options).
2. Under Idle Threshold, set the time (in minutes) before a tab is considered idle (default: 10 minutes).
3. Changes apply immediately.

Work-Hours Window

1. Open the Settings page (Options).
2. Under Work Hours, set your start and end time.
3. Cost tracking only runs during these hours — perfect for separating work and personal time.

Activating Pro

1. After purchasing on Gumroad, check your receipt email for your License Key.
2. Open IdleTab Cost → Settings → paste your key.
3. Click Verify.
4. Pro unlocks immediately.

Data Privacy, Performance & Permissions

• 🔒 Local‑only storage: All data (hourly rate, idle history, settings, exclusions) is stored exclusively in your browser using chrome.storage.local.
• ⚡ No background scraping: The extension only runs when you interact with it or when tabs are open — no automatic data collection.
• 🛡️ Minimal permissions: Only storage, alarms, tabs, and contextMenus — no browsing history access.
• 🧪 Tested accuracy: The idle cost formula is tested against 4 scenarios, including the research's own worked example.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake: Setting the idle threshold too low.
Fix: A 5-minute threshold will mark tabs idle very quickly. Start with 10-15 minutes and adjust as needed.

Mistake: Forgetting to set your hourly rate.
Fix: IdleTab Cost requires an hourly rate to calculate cost. Enter your rate in Settings first.

Mistake: Not using system idle detection.
Fix: System idle detection is enabled by default — if you step away from your computer, cost accrual pauses automatically.

• ⚠️ Exclusions: Session exclusions clear when the tab closes or the browser restarts. Persistent allowlisting (Pro) applies to entire domains.
• ⚠️ Auto-close: Uses a longer threshold than the cost-counting threshold — so a tab isn't yanked the instant it starts costing money.
• ⚠️ Focus Score: Only counts time during your configured work-hours window.

A Note on Accuracy

IdleTab Cost's idle cost formula is tested against 4 scenarios, including the research's own worked example (27 minutes idle at $60/hour = $27). The incremental cost accrual logic is tested against 4 scenarios — most importantly, summing every incremental tick across an entire idle streak equals the direct, one-shot calculation for that streak's full duration, confirmed exactly equal. The daily reset logic is tested against 5 scenarios, including multiple days skipped while the browser was closed.

System idle detection: If you step away from your computer, cost accrual pauses automatically — no false charges while you're away. This uses the browser's chrome.idle API, which detects user inactivity at the system level.

Idle threshold: The default idle threshold is 10 minutes. You can adjust this in Settings. A tab is considered idle when it's not the active tab in a focused window, or when the browser window itself isn't focused.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does IdleTab Cost define "idle"?

A tab is considered "idle" when it's not the active tab in a focused window, or when the browser window itself isn't focused. If you step away from your computer entirely, the system idle detection pauses cost accrual — no false charges while you're away.

How often does the cost update?

IdleTab Cost checks every 15 seconds. The popup refreshes automatically every 5 seconds while open.

What happens if I close a tab before it becomes idle?

No cost is accrued for tabs that are closed before reaching the idle threshold. Cost only starts accruing after the idle threshold has been exceeded.

Does IdleTab Cost work in incognito mode?

Yes, if you enable the extension in incognito mode. In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions, find IdleTab Cost, and toggle "Allow in incognito."

How do I activate Pro after purchasing?

After purchasing on Gumroad, check your receipt email for your License Key. Open IdleTab Cost → Settings → paste your key → click Verify. Pro unlocks immediately.

What's the difference between session exclusion and persistent allowlisting?

Session exclusion (free) ignores a specific tab for the current session only. It clears when the tab closes or the browser restarts. Persistent allowlisting (Pro) applies to entire domains and persists across browser restarts.

What's the auto-close grace period?

Auto-close uses a separate, longer threshold (default: 30 minutes) than the idle cost threshold (default: 10 minutes). This gives you time to return to a tab before it's automatically closed. Both thresholds are configurable in Settings.

What happens if I uninstall the extension?

All data (hourly rate, idle history, settings, exclusions) is removed from your browser. If you have a Pro license, you can re-enter your key after reinstalling to restore access.

Ready to see what your idle tabs cost?

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