Can you stop Google using your content in AI Overviews?
Google changed the controls in 2026, and choosing the wrong one could remove more than you intended.
Steen Stones · Reviewed
Yes, you can exclude your website’s content from AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI Overviews in Discover through Search Console. Google says this choice does not affect whether your site appears or where it ranks in other Search results.
Swipe across to read all columns.
| Control | What it changes | Important limit |
|---|---|---|
| Search generative AI in Search Console | Excludes your site’s content and links from covered Search AI features. | Does not affect other Search ranking or inclusion, or AI training. |
| Google-Extended | Use it to limit training of models used for Search AI responses. | Does not change inclusion or ranking in Google Search. |
| nosnippet | Stops page text or video previews, and direct input to AI Overviews and AI Mode. | Also affects snippets outside the AI features. |
| data-nosnippet | Excludes selected sections from search-result snippets. | A section-level setting, not the site-wide AI inclusion control. |
| noindex | Removes the page entirely from Google Search after Googlebot reads the rule. | Google must be able to crawl the page to see the rule. |
Where is the AI search control?
In Search Console, open Settings and choose Search generative AI to find the control. Selecting Exclude stops your content appearing as links or helping build answers in the covered AI features.
The setting may come from a parent property, which covers a wider part of your site. Changes there can apply below it, but owners can choose a separate setting for a child property and its pages.
What changed in 2026?
Google says the features became available worldwide on August 31, 2026, following the limited rollout described in its original announcement.
Opting out means giving up visits from those AI features, as well as impressions, the times your content appears. Google states that trade-off plainly, so weigh it against how you want people to find your company.
Other websites’ content can still appear in Google’s AI features, even when it says something similar to yours. Excluding your site does not remove the subject from an answer.
Does this also stop AI training?
The Search Console control leaves AI training unchanged, and Google points owners to Google-Extended for that separate choice.
Google-Extended does not change whether your site appears in Google Search or where it ranks there. Keep that distinction in mind when deciding which use of your content you want to stop.
What do snippet controls change?
The nosnippet rule removes the short text preview and video preview of a page from search results. It also stops that page’s content being used directly to build AI Overviews and AI Mode answers.
Use data-nosnippet to keep selected text out of search previews, or max-snippet to limit a text preview’s length. Choose these settings when the preview is what you want to change.
Should you use noindex instead?
Once Google reads noindex, it removes the whole page from Google Search results, so use it only when that is your aim. Removing a page entirely goes further than keeping its content out of AI answers.
Google needs to visit the page to read noindex, so check that it can reach the instruction.