# AI Overviews opt-out

The AI Overviews opt-out is a Google Search Console setting — Google's name for it is the Search generative AI control — that removes a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and the generative features in Discover without touching its ordinary search results. Google's documentation says the setting is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal elsewhere in Search, that exclusion takes one to two days, and that a site which opts out receives no traffic or impressions from those features.

It is the only control that separates the AI features from Search proper. Before it, every lever took something else with it: nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet limit what Search may display but shorten the ordinary result snippet too; noindex removes the page from Search altogether; Google-Extended governs training and grounding for Gemini, not appearance in Search's own AI features.

Google shipped it to a subset of Search Console accounts first — this wire found it on August 27, 2026 — and its documentation recorded a rollout to all websites worldwide on August 31. Search Console's separate AI performance reports, which show impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode without click data, reached global availability the same day.

The price is stated plainly and is not small: no traffic or impressions from features that appeared on 43% of Google searches in July 2026, up from 15% a year earlier, per Similarweb. There is also an unconfirmed second cost. Google renders Top Stories carousels inside AI Overviews on roughly 15.5% of U.S. and 17.5% of U.K. news searches, per an analysis by NewzDash founder John Shehata, so a news publisher who opts out may lose the Top Stories placement drawn within them. Shehata called the link high-confidence; Google has not addressed it.

Two things it does not do. It does not cover training: Google's documentation sends publishers to Google-Extended for that, which makes the control a partial answer to the UK Competition and Markets Authority's Publisher Conduct Requirement of June 3, 2026 — a binding order that Google let publishers opt out of content used for training, fine-tuning and the grounding behind AI Overviews and AI Mode, with nine months to comply. And Google's own guidance page for site owners, "AI features and your website," did not mention it: checked August 27, that page named nosnippet 18 times and the control not once.

| Control | Removes the site from | What else it costs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Search generative AI control (Search Console) | AI Overviews, AI Mode, generative features in Discover | Traffic and impressions from those features; possibly Top Stories rendered inside AI Overviews (unconfirmed) |
| nosnippet / data-nosnippet / max-snippet | Text shown in the AI features | The ordinary result snippet too |
| noindex | Search entirely | All Search traffic |
| Google-Extended (robots.txt token) | Gemini training and grounding | Nothing in Search — and nothing in Search's AI features either |

Google's controls over its AI features, as Google documents them and this wire reported them, August 2026.

**How do I opt out of Google AI Overviews?** In Google Search Console, under Settings, the Search generative AI control removes a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's generative features. Google says exclusion takes one to two days. It rolled out to all sites worldwide on August 31, 2026.

**Does opting out of AI Overviews hurt rankings?** Google's documentation says the control is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search. The stated cost is the traffic and impressions from the AI features themselves. One unconfirmed side effect: Top Stories carousels are rendered inside AI Overviews on roughly 15.5% of U.S. news searches, per NewzDash, and may go with them.

**Does the AI Overviews opt-out stop Google training on my content?** No. Google's documentation points publishers to Google-Extended for training and grounding. The UK CMA's June 2026 conduct requirement obliges Google to offer opt-outs for training, fine-tuning and grounding as well as appearance; the Search Console control covers appearance.

**What is the difference between the AI Overviews opt-out and nosnippet?** nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet limit what Search displays anywhere, so they shorten the ordinary result snippet as well as the AI answer. The Search generative AI control removes the site from the AI features only and leaves the ordinary result as it was.

Canonical: https://anythingengineoptimization.com/glossary/ai-overviews-opt-out/
From the Anything Engine Optimization glossary — https://anythingengineoptimization.com/glossary/