How does the process of publishing an extension in the official Chrome Web Store work?

Publishing your own extension in the official Chrome Web Store catalog is the final stage of development, making your product available to a million-user audience worldwide. This process requires compliance with strict security regulations, the preparation of high-quality marketing materials, and passing moderation by Google's automated and manual algorithms.

The first step for a developer is to register an account in the Chrome Developer Dashboard and pay a small registration fee, which is charged to prevent mass spam publishing. Upon completing registration, you gain access to the upload interface, where you need to submit a ZIP archive containing all the compiled files of your extension along with the manifest of the corresponding version.

In addition to the program code itself, the publication page requires filling out detailed project information:

After submitting the form, the project enters the review stage. Automated systems scan the code for malicious components, hidden traffic redirection functions, and compliance with the developer program policies. Depending on the complexity of the extension and the current workload of moderators, the review can take anywhere from a few hours to several business days, after which the extension either becomes available for download or is returned for revision with an indication of the identified violations.