Binge Meter

This extension shoves your wasted time in your face

Popup	Analytics	Settings
Overlay	Blocking	Styles

Tired of falling down rabbit holes on YouTube, Reddit, or X and wondering where the hell your day went?
Binge Meter is a browser extension that tracks your time on distracting sites and uses (optional) AI to classify what's a waste of time, so you can actually get your work done

---

Features

• 🧠 Self-Improving AI: Uses Google's Gemini to figure out if current page is productive or distracting. It learns from your manual classifications and your Custom Instructions

• ⏱️ On-Screen Timer: A customizable overlay that shows your binge time in real-time on distracting sites

• 🚫 Site Blocking: Locks you out of distracting sites when the daily time limit is reached. Can also grant a grace period

• 📊 Analytics Dashboard: Get a reality check with charts showing total binge times and a breakdown of your top time-wasting sites

• 📝 Granular Control: Manually mark specific URLs, YouTube channels, or subreddits as productive, and create exceptions for the blocking

• 🔎 Smart URL Matching: Ignores query params and it can use wildcards (*)

• 🔐 Per-Site Permissions: Only asks permissions for the sites you explicitly tell it to track

---

Note

A Quick Heads-Up on the opt-in AI Feature

• BYOK (Bring Your Own Key): You'll need to provide your own Google AI API key to enable it.
• Model: By default, it uses the Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite model. You can change this in the settings.
• Rate Limits: See Free tier Gemini rate limits (Also available in the Settings page)
• Each new page you visit on a tracked site counts as one request (if it doesn't match any existing rules)

Get Started 🚀

1. Install the Extension:

   • Chromium-based browsers: Chrome Web Store
   • Firefox/Firefox-based browsers: Firefox Add-ons

2. Track Your First Site

   • Go to a site you want to monitor (e.g., youtube.com)
   • Click the Binge Meter icon in your browser's toolbar (Pin it for quick access)
   • Click "Grant Permission", then "Track". The extension will now monitor this domain

3. Just Browse

   • Drag and resize the Overlay, it will remember your preferences per site
   • You can click the extension icon for granular control over classification and exceptions

4. Tweak the Settings (Recommended)

   • Click the Settings button in the popup
   • Enable AI Classification Set your Gemini API key and optionally, custom instructions
   • Set Your Limit: In Blocking section, enable Blocking and set your daily time limit
   • Customize Overlay: Set threshold time and colors, make it your own

5. Check Your Stats

   • After a few days, open the Analytics page from the popup to see a breakdown of where your time really goes

---

Tech Stack 🛠️

• Core: TypeScript (Background and Content Scripts)
• UI (Popup, Settings, Analytics):
  • React
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Zustand
  • Shadcn UI
  • Recharts
• Build: Vite + CRXJS

---

Building From Source 👨‍💻

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (v18 or higher)
• pnpm

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/sahaj-b/binge-meter.git
cd binge-meter

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Run the dev server
pnpm dev
# This will create unpacked extension in dist/ dir and watch for changes

# Create a production build for chromium-based browsers
pnpm build
# OR for firefox-based browsers
pnpm build:firefox
# This will generate a production-ready, zipped package in the release/ directory, and an unpacked version in dist/

Note

• Dev mode is only supported in Chromium-based browsers
• For enabling debug messages in production build, set VITE_DEBUG_MODE environment variable to true before building

Planned stuff for Future 🚧

• Display (in popup) whether the classifcation was done by AI or manually
• Add a "Delete Data" button in Analytics page
• Require unlimited storage permission (or delete old data) when analytics data grows too large
• Double-click overlay to mark as distracting

FAQ 💬

Q: Are you stealing my Browse history?

A: Hell no. All your data, your tracked sites, time logs, settings, everything is saved locally on your own computer using the browser's storage. It never gets sent anywhere, unless you explicitly enable AI classification, in which case the page's metadata is sent to Google's AI API for classification.

Q: Do I have to use the AI? Is it free?

A: The AI is 100% optional. The extension works perfectly fine as a manual time tracker without it. Google offers a generous free tier that is more than enough for heavy personal use. see the AI section above for more details.

Q: Are AI calls made on every navigation?

A: No. AI calls are only made when you visit a new page on a tracked site that doesn't match any existing rules. If you navigate to a page that has already been classified by AI, it will use the cached classification. you can see the free tier rate limits in the Settings page.

Q: What exactly is sent to the AI?

A: To be clear, none of your personal info is sent. The AI only gets the page's metadata to judge its content, which includes:

• The page's full URL and Title
• <meta> tags (like description, keywords, etc.)
• On specific sites like YouTube, it also includes video details like the title, description, channel name, and channel ID.

Q: Can I sync my data between different computers or browsers?

A: Not right now. Because all data is stored locally for privacy, it's tied to the specific browser profile on the computer you're using. And there's no cloud sync functionality.

Q: The AI classifies stuff wrong. What to do?

A: That's exactly what manual rules ans Custom Instructions are for. If the AI gets it wrong, manually mark the page distracting/productive, the AI will learn from your manual classifications over time. You can also set Custom Instructions to tell the AI what you consider productive or distracting in Settings

Q: Can I contribute to the project?

A: Hell yes. This is an open-source project, if you find a bug, have a feature idea, or want to improve something, please open an issue on the GitHub Issues page to discuss it. Pull requests are always welcome.