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I want my browser to be as snappy as possible and I find all the recently introduced AI features to be unnecessary. How to disable all of them?

This question is relevant to Ask Ubuntu because Firefox is Ubuntu's default browser, and optimizing Ubuntu systems for better performance is considered on topic here.

Archisman Panigrahi
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3 Answers3

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A quick search found this thread on connect.mozilla.org with answers from May 2025 and late August 2025, which essentially states the following:

  1. In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and hit Enter.

  2. Click "Accept the risk and continue" or similar wording.

  3. Search for each of the following options and change them all to "false":

    • browser.ml.enable
    • browser.ml.chat.enabled
    • browser.ml.chat.page
    • browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled
    • browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
    • browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled
    • extensions.ml.enabled
    • sidebar.notification.badge.aichat

This should disable most if not all of the embedded AI features. Note that not all of these will be set to True, some of these are not enabled by default - they may be False by default which is fine, meaning they aren't enabled

Note that I don't use the Snap version of Firefox, I use a separately installed version of Firefox from Mozilla's repositories, the current 'stable' version of Firefox in Ubuntu Snap repositories for 'stable' branch is 142.0.1, with the candidate version being 143.0 (which is what I'm using from separate repositories). I don't know at which point Firefox added these settings (whether it was 142 or earlier or 143), so some of these settings might not be present.

Archisman Panigrahi
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Thomas Ward
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    Just checked on my FF 142.0.1 (snap). All six settings exist, and the default of all six settings is True. – user535733 Sep 15 '25 at 03:15
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Alternatively, you can use LibreWolf or Waterfox, these browsers are compatible with your Firefox account so you can sync your favorites, history, extensions etc.

Personally it has done wonders on an old laptop of mine that was really sluggish when using Firefox.

You can install Waterfox from flathub with

flatpak install flathub net.waterfox.waterfox

or by PPA.

As for LibreWolf it can be installed via apt

sudo apt update && sudo apt install extrepo -y
sudo extrepo enable librewolf
sudo apt update && sudo apt install librewolf -y
EPrivat
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  • Could you edit the answer and add some information about how to install these browsers? – Archisman Panigrahi Sep 17 '25 at 23:35
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    for me this is the best answer as this means mozilla sees an decline in users but warrants an investigation into who created these. This scares me about waterfox; "Privacy browser Waterfox appears to be sold to System1, a U.S. pay-per-click ad company that recently bought a majority of the Startpage search engine" – Rinzwind Sep 18 '25 at 10:47
  • Link to https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/f4si1i/privacy_browser_waterfox_appears_to_be_sold_to/ – Rinzwind Sep 18 '25 at 10:48
1

Firefox ESR does not include any of the AI features. Be warned tho, it updates far slower than normal Firefox, quote:

Extended Support Release (ESR): receives major updates on average every 52 weeks with minor updates such as crash fixes, security fixes and policy updates as needed, but at least every four weeks.

  • Personally I use ESR just to avoid frequent updates/restarts.

To install ESR on Ubuntu, I recommend:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa;
sudo apt update;
sudo apt install firefox-esr;
hanshenrik
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    +1 for the great suggestion but keep in mind the next ESR might include the AI features the OP doesn't want. – ChanganAuto Sep 17 '25 at 18:30
  • @ChanganAuto Possible but doubt it. ESR caters to enterprise, and enterprise often ban 3rd party AIs (Samsung, Apple, AWS, to name a few) - adding the AI stuff to ESR Firefox would drive away enterprise. – hanshenrik Sep 17 '25 at 18:34