Wondering how to turn off Google AI overviews? You’re not alone.
Like it or not, AI is taking over the web. Not only are countless AI companies creating intelligent search solutions like Perplexity AI and SearchGPT to transform traditional search experiences, but market leaders like Microsoft and Google are adding more AI to their search solutions, too.
I don’t mind Google’s AI overviews. They’re handy if you want a quick answer to a question like “What is generative AI.” However, they’re not ideal for every search experience. These overviews can still share inaccurate insights and don’t exactly go “in-depth” with their answers when you’re researching complex topics.
Obviously, you can choose (like me) to simply ignore the AI overviews when you’re searching, and check out the links Google surfaces instead. But what if you want to remove them from your search experience entirely?
What are Google AI Overviews?
Before I walk you through the process of getting rid of AI overviews (it’s a little tricky), let’s define what they are. Google’s AI overviews are AI-generated answers to the questions you ask Google search. They use Google’s large language model technology – the same tech that powers Google Gemini.
Initially, just like OpenAI’s SearchGPT, AI overviews were an experimental feature offered by Google to a select few users. To begin with, you needed to sign up for Search Labs with Google and “opt-in” to the experiment to use this feature.
Now, however, Google is introducing AI overviews to users worldwide. They’re becoming a standard part of everyone’s search experience. However, they’re still not available in every region, and they don’t appear for every question you ask on Google.
After a few initial teething pains with the feature, Google did reduce how often AI overviews show up, ensuring they only appear when Gemini can extract “accurate” information from the web. This means you’re less likely to see problematic responses to queries. Additionally, AI overviews aren’t yet widely available for local search queries.
For instance, they won’t be able to tell you where you can find the best Indian takeaway in your specific town. Of course, this could change in the future.
Can You Turn Off Google AI Overviews?
Google’s AI overviews can be helpful at times. They’re ideal if you just want a quick answer to something, and don’t want to spend ages browsing search results and clicking on countless different links. However, they can get in the way when conducting in-depth research.
I typically skip past the AI overviews when I’m looking for a lot of information with genuine citations and sources from relevant publications.
So, can you turn the AI overviews off? Not exactly. Initially, when AI overviews were still an experimental feature for Search Labs users, you could easily switch them on and off by visiting your Google Labs account.
Now that you don’t need a Search Labs account to access the feature, you also can’t use your account to turn AI overviews off, either. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t side-step them.
Here are a few ways to remove AI overviews from your search experience.
How to Turn Off Google AI Overviews: On a Desktop
Although you can’t technically just “turn AI overviews” off, you can stop them from cropping up when you conduct an online search.
The easiest method I’d recommend using is to just conduct a standard search like normal on Google, then click on the “Web” tab, next to Books and News, under the Google search bar. This will give you a list of links, similar to your traditional Google search experience, and eliminate the “AI Overviews” section. Beyond this, there are two other methods you can try.
Adjusting Your Browser Settings on Google Chrome
If you’re using Google Chrome as your browser, you can adjust your standard browser settings to access Google Search without AI overviews. Just open Chrome and search for “chrome://settings/searchEngines”. This should open a tab to your browser Search settings.
On the page, you should see a section titled Site Search. Click on the Add button, and a new box will open asking for details. Enter the following:
- Name: AI Free Web
- Shortcut: @web
- {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14
The “AI Free Web” option should then appear at the top of your site search list. Click the three dots on the right-hand side to make this search option “Default” for your browser. From then on, when you use the search box on your browser to search for something on Google, you shouldn’t see any AI overviews. Instead, you just get the “Web” results you’d get by clicking on the Web tab.
Using Extensions to Turn Off Google AI Overviews
Alternatively, you can consider using an extension to get rid of Google’s AI search results. The AI overview component on Google is just like any other part of a HTML page, and can be altered using JavaScript. A few developers on the Chrome app store have already created extensions that can remove the AI overviews block from your search.
Options include solutions like “Bye, Bye Google AI” and “Hide Google AI Overview.” Visit the “Extensions” web store on your Google browser, search for one of these options, and download and apply it to your browser.
Notably, some options have extra features. For instance, Bye Bye, Google AI can turn off featured snippets, sponsored links, shopping, and discussion blocks. You can choose everything you want to filter out within the “Options” menu.
Just keep in mind that extensions aren’t perfect. Google can easily block or break certain extensions for its browser whenever it wants. This means your plugin could suddenly stop working. However, new developers might crop up to replace broken applications. Plus, the great thing about extensions is you can apply them to multiple browsers, including Firefox.
How to Turn Off Google AI Overviews on Mobile
You’ll have a slightly more challenging time if you’re looking for a way to block Google AI overviews on a mobile device. First, there’s no support for extensions and plugins on mobile-based browsers like Google Chrome.
You also can’t use the “filter string” mentioned above to adjust your site search experience like a desktop. However, there are still some workarounds. For instance, you can still manually switch to the “Web” tab whenever you search on Google with your phone.
The most popular option, however, is to use the workaround site Tenbluelinks.org. Simply visit the TenBlueLinks.org link on your mobile browser and choose the browser you’re using. You’ll see options for Chrome Android, iOS, Windows/MacOS, and Firefox Windows/MacOS.
While you have the TenBlueLinks page open on your browser, open a new tab and use it to search for “Google.com”. Then, go to your Settings Search Menu. On Chrome, it should be at Settings > Search Engine, whereas on Edge, it’s at Settings > General > Select Search Engine.
Select Google Web from the list under “Search Engine”. It should appear in your “Recently Viewed” list, and be connected to the tenbluelinks.org webpage.
Once you make this option your default, you should be able to search on Google normally without seeing the AI overviews. Notably, your queries will still be sent directly to Google, and they won’t need to pass through the Tenbluelinks.org site.
Alternative: Use the Firefox Mobile Browser
If the tenbluelinks.org method above seems a bit too complicated, and you don’t want to simply tap on the “Web” tab when you’re browsing through Google, there’s another alternative option. If you download the Firefox mobile browser for your smartphone, you can change your search functionality directly, within your Firefox Settings.
Simply open Firefox, and click on the three stacked dots button in the upper-right corner. Tap on Settings then Search, and a new window should open. Tap Default Search Engine, and you’ll see a list of your existing options.
Select Add Search Engine then enter the name “AI-Free Web”, and the search string: google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s into the available boxes. Hit Save, and you should be good to go.
Banish AI Overviews From Your Search Results
AI-powered search experiences are excellent – sometimes – but they’re not ideal for every use case. Even if you love using tools like Perplexity AI, you might not want to see AI overviews in all of your Google search results.
Fortunately, although you can’t just switch AI overviews off in Google, that doesn’t mean you can’t prevent them from showing up on your search results. The methods above should help you to hide AI overviews for as long as you like – even if they do require a little work.
Alternatively, you can always consider using a different search engine, like DuckDuckGo, or Brave. Just keep in mind there’s no guarantee that these search solutions won’t introduce AI features in the years to come too.
