Mozilla confirms Firefox will soon block ads out-of-the-box
Mozilla is building ad-blocking directly into Firefox. Ajit Varma, the Head of Firefox, confirmed the feature in a June 6 interview with privacy-focused YouTube channel Techlore.
The confirmation arose during a broader conversation about Firefox’s new free VPN feature. Varma said the team is experimenting with test implementations using common filter lists, such as EasyList — a widely used, community-maintained list of known ad-serving domains. He stressed these are early-stage tests, not a finished product.
The goal is straightforward. Mozilla wants to offer a simple, out-of-the-box solution for users who prefer not to install separate browser extensions to block ads.
What Already Exists
Firefox is not starting from scratch. The browser already includes Enhanced Tracking Protection, which blocks trackers and many ads when users enable “Strict mode.” Native ad-blocking would extend that coverage to standard browsing sessions.
An earlier technical signal also pointed in this direction. Mozilla added Brave’s open-source adblock-rust library — a high-performance filtering engine — to Firefox 149 as part of ongoing tests. The feature remains hidden from regular users and requires manual activation through Firefox’s about:config settings panel, along with manually added filter lists.
Clearing Up the Confusion
Varma pushed back on reports suggesting Firefox was borrowing technology from rival browsers. He said the final public release would be natively developed and called out what he described as misinformation circulating online.
Mixed Reactions
Most online commentary welcomed the news. Some users, however, said they would stick with third-party tools such as uBlock Origin for greater customization. A native solution could still deliver meaningful performance gains, since browser extensions consume additional system resources.
That resource question is timely. Firefox users running uBlock Origin are currently facing update delays caused by an eight-week review backlog in Mozilla’s extensions queue.
Varma did not provide a specific timeline or rollout details during the interview. The announcement signals intent but stops short of a firm launch commitment.
