Miss uBlock Origin? Vivaldi's latest update takes its built-in ad-blocker to the next level

Published Nov 5, 2026, 3:00 AM EST João has been covering the tech world for over 7 years, with a heavy focus on laptops and the Windows ecosystem. I also love all things tech and videogames, especially Nintendo, which he's always happy to talk about. Prior to joining XDA in 2021, he worked at Neowin: https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/jo%C3%A3o-carrasqueira/ Productivity-focused web browser Vivaldi has just launched version 8.3, and it's bringing a long-awaited feature that will likely please those who miss extensions such as uBlock Origin. The latest version of the browser comes with leveled-up tracking prevention and ad-blocking, with more customizable behaviors. And there's a good bit more in this update, from improved vertical tabs to better handling of multiple links. Tracker blocking becomes more powerful Credit: Vivaldi The implementation of Google's Manifest V3 API resulted in some of the most popular ad-blocking extensions seeing their capabilities reduced, and if you use one — such as uBlock Origin — you may have noticed that it recently got removed altogether from your browser. Since Vivaldi is built on Chromium, it was affected alongside Chrome and other popular browsers. Vivaldi has always as a built-in ad-blocking tool, but as it aimed to still provide compatibility, it failed in some cases, such as blocking video ads on YouTube. With Vivaldi 8.3, the company is introducing a powered-up tracker blocker that can also be customized for different sites. The new blocker has four preset levels you can choose from: Off, Light, Strong, and Aggressive, offering different levels of blocking with potentially different effects on the experience. Each level gets progressively more effective at blocking ads, but in some cases, more aggressive blocking can cause website functionality to break. Vivaldi's outspoken CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, commented on the announcement saying: “Visiting a website shouldn’t mean bringing along a crowd of trackers taking notes about you. We’ve spoken out against the surveillance economy, user profiling and the Big Tech oligarchy since the day we started Vivaldi. With 8.3, our Ad and Tracker Blocker sends them packing, and you choose how strict it is on every site you visit. That’s the kind of control a browser should give people.” As an example, Vivaldi says you can use the Light level for a banking website so all the features work, but opt for the Aggressive level on an unspecified "video site" to ensure no ads are displayed. Presumably, that means YouTube. You can assign different blocking levels to each website from the address bar, but you can also create custom blocking profiles, applying detailed rules for different websites, so you have complete control over the experience. Collapsible vertical tabs, improved link pasting, and more In addition to ad-blocking, Vivaldi 8.3 brings smaller improvements across the browser. If you're a fan of vertical tabs, this update introduces a new behavior where tab titles automatically collapse, showing only icons until you move the mouse over the tab bar. That way, you get more screen real estate while still having some idea of what tabs are open at any given time. Vivaldi is also introducing "paste and go" support for multiple links meaning you can copy a list of links and paste them all at once in the address bar to open them all in separate tabs. And on the topic of links, a new context menu option will show you the option to copy a sanitized link, so any trackers in the URL are removed and only the essential parts remain. Finally, Vivaldi's reader mode should now be faster and smoother, and the browser now supports extensions that rely on Chrome's Tab Groups API. You can download Vivaldi below if you haven't yet, or launch the browser to have it automatically check for updates and install the new update. OS Windows, macOS, Linux, Andrid, iOS Individual pricing Free