h264ify

Name: h264ify
Rating: 4.57 (1194 reviews)
Author: erkserkserks

Makes YouTube stream H.264 videos instead of VP8/VP9 videos

As of May 2026, h264ify has 1,000,000 users and a 4.57/5 rating from 1,194 reviews in the Workflow & Planning category.

erkserkserks Workflow & Planning★ Featured

Chrome Web Store ↗.crx

Users0%

1.0M

1,000,000

Rating0%

4.57

1.2K reviews

Reviews+0.7%

1.2K

Version

2.0.1

Manifest V3

History

3 snapshots

Tracking since Apr 1, 2026.

View as table

Date	Users	Rating	Reviews	Version
Apr 1, 2026	1.0M	4.57	1.2K	2.0.1
May 1, 2026	1.0M	4.57	1.2K	2.0.1
May 30, 2026	1.0M	4.57	1.2K	2.0.1
Now	1.0M	4.57	1.2K	2.0.1

Permissions & access

Permissions: scriptingstorage
Host access: *://*.youtube.com/*, *://*.youtube-nocookie.com/*, *://*.youtu.be/*

Screenshots

About

Try h264ify if YouTube videos stutter, take up too much CPU, eat battery life, or make your laptop hot.

By default, YouTube streams VP8/VP9 encoded video. However, this can cause problems with less powerful machines because VP8/VP9 is not typically hardware accelerated.

In contrast, H.264 is commonly hardware accelerated by GPUs, which usually means smoother video playback and reduced CPU usage. h264ify makes YouTube stream H.264 videos instead of VP8/VP9 videos.

Note: 4K and 1440p videos will not be available because YouTube no longer encodes those videos in H.264

Github: https://github.com/erkserkserks/h264ify