How to Export Chrome Bookmarks as JSON — and Why I Built a One-Click Extension for It

Source: Dev.to

What it does

• No popup, no settings, no account.
• Works offline.
• The whole extension is about 5 KB.

Permissions

• bookmarks — to read your bookmark tree

The code

chrome.action.onClicked.addListener(exportBookmarks);

async function exportBookmarks() {
  const bookmarks = await chrome.bookmarks.getTree();
  const blob = new Blob([JSON.stringify(bookmarks, null, 2)], { type: 'application/json' });
  const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

  chrome.downloads.download({
    url,
    filename: 'bookmarks.json',
    saveAs: true
  });
}

The extension uses Manifest V3, the chrome.bookmarks API to retrieve the tree, and chrome.downloads to save the file.

When it’s useful

• Backing up bookmarks in a readable format.
• Version‑controlling your bookmark collection.
• Feeding bookmarks into scripts or other tools that consume JSON.

Try it

• Chrome Web Store – (link to the extension)
• GitHub – (link to the source code)