How to Completely Disable ‘AutoFill’ (Form Data and Addresses) in Google Chrome

Google Chrome’s AutoFill feature is a powerful convenience tool that automatically saves and populates your addresses, phone numbers, and payment methods whenever it detects a web form. While this significantly speeds up online checkouts and registrations, it also presents a severe privacy risk on shared computers. If multiple family members or colleagues use the same Chrome profile, leaving AutoFill enabled allows anyone to inadvertently (or maliciously) inject your personal data into a website with a single click.

This guide explains how to completely disable the AutoFill feature for addresses and payment methods in Google Chrome, ensuring your personal information is never automatically suggested or saved.

Disable Address and Form AutoFill

Google Chrome categorizes AutoFill into three distinct sections: Passwords, Payment Methods, and Addresses. To stop Chrome from suggesting your home address or phone number in text boxes, you must disable the Addresses module.

1. Open Google Chrome on your desktop.
2. Click the three-dot menu icon located in the top-right corner of the browser window (next to your profile picture).
3. Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
4. In the left-hand sidebar, click on Autofill and passwords.
5. Click on Addresses and more in the main pane.
6. Locate the toggle switch labelled Save and fill addresses.
7. Turn the switch to the Off position.

By disabling this toggle, Chrome will immediately stop prompting you to save new addresses when you fill out a form, and it will cease displaying a drop-down list of your saved addresses when you click on a blank text field.

Disable Payment Method AutoFill

For maximum security, you should also ensure that your credit card data is not automatically populated during checkout processes.

1. Return to the Autofill and passwords menu in Chrome Settings.
2. Click on Payment methods.
3. Toggle off the switch labelled Save and fill payment methods.
4. If you use Google Pay, you may also want to toggle off Allow sites to check if you have payment methods saved to enhance your privacy footprint across the web.

Purge Existing AutoFill Data

Disabling the feature stops future suggestions, but it does not delete the data Chrome has already hoarded. To completely sanitize the browser:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Delete on your keyboard (or Cmd + Shift + Delete on a Mac) to open the “Clear browsing data” dialogue box.
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Set the Time range drop-down to All time.
4. Check the box next to Autofill form data. (Ensure you uncheck other boxes like Browsing history or Cookies unless you want to delete those as well).
5. Click the Clear data button.