Vivaldi 8.3 rebuilds its ad blocker with four protection levels and per-site controls

A rebuilt ad and tracker blocker

Vivaldi has shipped version 8.3 of its desktop browser, and the headline change is an extensive rework of its built-in Ad and Tracker Blocker. According to the company's release announcement, the blocker was rebuilt to handle large filter lists more efficiently, and it arrives with a refreshed design and new labels.

The update introduces four default protection levels. Off disables the blocker entirely. Light blocks most known trackers and some ads. Strong blocks more trackers and ads, with the caveat that sites may break. Aggressive blocks almost all trackers and ads, again with the risk of site breakage. Users pick a default level either during onboarding or later in the browser's settings, and that choice applies across all sites.

Granular, per-site control

The levels are meant to be more useful when applied site by site. Clicking the shield icon in the Address Bar lets users set a different level for the site they are currently visiting, and Vivaldi remembers that choice so the site always loads the same way. The announcement suggests the sort of trade-offs this enables: maximum blocking on a video site, lighter blocking on a banking site where every form needs to work, and reduced blocking on an independent site whose ads a user is happy to support.

For users who want finer control still, 8.3 adds custom levels in which every blocklist is chosen manually. Custom lists can be added from a remote URL or picked from the local file system. Vivaldi also says the new blocker ships on its Android and iOS apps the same day, so protection looks and behaves the same across laptop, phone and tablet.

Vertical tabs get two additions

Vivaldi, which offered vertical tabs long before they became an industry talking point, has added two features for users who keep tabs on the side of the window. Expand Tab Bar on Hover keeps the bar slim, showing only favicons, until the cursor moves over it, at which point it smoothly expands to reveal full tab titles before sliding back. It works whether the bar sits on the left or the right.

Pinned tabs on a vertical bar can now be arranged in a compact grid at the top, freeing room for everything else that is open. Users who prefer the previous behaviour, with each pinned tab taking a full row, can restore it through a setting in the Tabs section of the browser's preferences.

Smaller but practical changes

Several other additions round out the release. A multi-link paste feature lets users copy a whole list of URLs from an email or chat, paste it into the Address Field, and have every link open in its own tab. A new Copy Sanitized Link command strips tracking parameters from a URL before it reaches the clipboard, so recipients get the page without the referral data. Reader Mode has been tuned to open faster and scroll more smoothly, and the browser now supports Chrome's Tab Groups API, allowing extensions built around tab groups to work in Vivaldi.

Vivaldi frames the release around its identity as an independent, employee-owned European company that says it does not collect user data and answers to neither advertisers nor investors. The company draws a distinction between contextual ads, which it considers an acceptable way to fund publishing, and the tracking ads its blocker targets.

Why it matters

The browser is where most privacy decisions actually play out, and Vivaldi is positioning blocking as a first-class, built-in capability rather than something bolted on through extensions. The per-site and custom-level approach addresses the real friction in ad blocking — the choice between strong protection and broken sites — and reduces dependence on the extension ecosystem for a core privacy function. The release also sharpens the contrast between independent browsers and advertising-funded ones, since a browser maker's business model inevitably shapes how aggressively it blocks the ads that pay for the web. For publishers, wider adoption of strong default blocking carries a revenue cost, which makes Vivaldi's explicit support for non-tracking, contextual advertising a notable part of its pitch.