How Often Does Chromium Drift Update Its Browser Version Data?

Chromium Drift updates its data on two different schedules depending on how each browser is tracked. Browsers fetched live from public APIs refresh on every page load, while browsers detected through CI update once per day via GitHub Actions. So if you reload the dashboard, some rows reflect the current moment and others reflect the most recent daily run.

The two update paths

The dashboard doesn't use a single refresh mechanism. It splits browsers into two groups:

This distinction matters when you're comparing what you see on the dashboard against what your own browser reports.

Why your browser may still show a different version

Even with live and daily updates, a mismatch between the dashboard and your installed browser is normal. The dashboard shows the version officially designated as stable, but browsers roll out updates gradually — a new version may not reach all users for a day or two.

For Chrome specifically, the dashboard shows the newest release that system administrators can pin. That deliberately excludes partial rollouts and A/B test builds, so your Chrome may briefly show something newer or older than the pinned figure.

Reading the colors correctly

The color coding is tied to Chrome Stable as the reference point:

• Blue — same Chromium major version as Chrome Stable, or ahead
• Yellow — 1 major version behind
• Red — 2 or more major versions behind

One nuance the dashboard itself flags: a browser on a newer Chromium major than Chrome Stable still shows as blue ("up to date"). That's because Google rolls out each Chrome Stable release gradually, so the reported Chrome Stable version can briefly lag the newest Chromium major even after that major has shipped. A browser that already picked up the newer major isn't behind.

Does "behind" mean insecure?

Not necessarily. Some browsers intentionally track Chromium's Extended Stable channel and backport security fixes from newer releases. Being a major version behind on the version number does not always mean missing security patches — the number alone doesn't tell you whether fixes were backported.

Practical takeaways

• If you need the freshest possible reading, reload the page — live-fetched browsers will re-query their APIs.
• If a CI-detected browser looks stale, wait for the next daily run rather than assuming the dashboard is broken.
• To check your own browser's Chromium version, the dashboard points to chromiumchecker.com.
• Some browsers use their own versioning scheme that doesn't line up directly with Chromium's numbers, which is part of why mapping them to a Chromium version is difficult in the first place.

If a browser you care about isn't listed, the dashboard covers major Chromium-based desktop browsers and accepts requests via an issue on its GitHub repo.