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You can opt your site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode: should you?

Search Console by Alessandro Mari · · 7 min read

Search Console has a setting that lets you decide whether your site can appear in Google's AI-generated answers. On 21 October Google updated its documentation on how to control what you share in Search, and this switch is part of it. Here is what it does, what it does not do, and why, for most businesses, the sensible choice is to leave it alone.

What has changed, in short

In Search Console's settings, in a section called "Search generative AI", there is a property-level control: you can include your site in Google's generative search features or exclude it. The features covered are AI Overviews, AI Mode and the generative AI features in Discover. According to Google's documentation, as reported by Search Engine Journal, the default is inclusion: if you do nothing, your site stays in.

This is not brand new: Google said it would begin respecting these choices from 17 June, and the launch is gradual. Search Engine Journal reports that the control began appearing on some non-UK accounts in July, and that in the UK regulators require Google to offer it. What is recent is the documentation page update, dated 21 October, which places it next to the tools you may already know: the robots meta tag, data-nosnippet and the X-Robots-Tag header.

Note that not every account has it yet. Google itself describes a rollout to a subset of site owners. If you cannot see the section in your settings, you are not doing anything wrong: it simply has not reached you.

What opting out does (and does not do)

If you exclude your site, your content is no longer used as a source or linked in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's generative features. Changes take a few days to process, and caching can delay some content disappearing.

There are things the switch does not touch, and this is where the confusion starts:

  • Normal results. According to Google the setting is not a ranking or inclusion signal for the rest of Search, so your ordinary blue-link positions should not change;
  • Model training. That is a separate matter, handled by a different control (Google-Extended in robots.txt);
  • The Gemini app. It is outside the scope;
  • Removal from Search. To take a page out of Google, noindex remains the tool;
  • Merchant Center and Google Ads choices. These stay separate.

The limits to know before you decide

The control works per property: you cannot exclude a single page or a section. Search Engine Journal reports that page-level controls are not expected before March 2027. So the choice is all or nothing for the whole domain.

There is also a point Google does not clarify: its help page does not explain how the opt-out treats traditional results that appear inside AI answers. One example from the article: a NewzDash study found Top Stories carousels rendering inside AI Overviews in 15.5% of the US results it tracked where Top Stories appeared. Its founder thinks leaving AI Overviews will probably remove publishers from those placements too, but Google has not officially confirmed this. If you run a news site, that is a risk to weigh.

How to measure before you touch anything

To decide with data rather than instinct, Google is also rolling out a performance report for generative AI features. For now (again per Search Engine Journal) it is also available only to some accounts, and it shows impressions by page, country, device and date, with no clicks and no queries, and with AI Overviews and AI Mode combined into one figure.

That means you can see how often your site appears, but not how many visits that presence brings. There is still no clean baseline for what being cited is worth, which is why the cost of opting out is hard to estimate. Anyone leaving is, in practice, leaving blind on the benefits they give up.

Who should opt out, and who should not

There is no universal answer, but there is a practical test. Ask where your enquiries come from and what you lose if an AI answers in your place.

  • A local or service business (professional practice, tradesperson, small company): staying in is almost always better. Being cited as a source is a form of visibility, and people looking for a supplier usually need a name, a contact, a website to open. Leaving means giving up a shop window and getting nothing in return;
  • A publisher that lives on ad revenue from visits: the reasoning is different. If the AI answer replaces reading the article, a citation brings little traffic. This is the one case where opting out has an economic logic, and it should be judged on your own numbers, bearing in mind the open question on Top Stories;
  • Paid or restricted content: if your product is the content itself, a free summary in the results can cannibalise it. Here too, look at the data first.

My position as a consultant: for a business owner selling services or products, there is no concrete reason to opt out today, and there are several to stay in. If your situation is different, it is worth thinking through case by case, because the decision is reversible but not instant.

What to do this week

  1. Open Search Console and check the Settings for "Search generative AI". If it is not there, do nothing more: it is not available to you yet;
  2. If it is there, keep the default and look at the performance report, if you have it, to see whether and where your site appears;
  3. Check you have not blocked by mistake the crawlers that matter for AI visibility: our free SEO analysis tool includes an AI-readiness check;
  4. If you want to improve your odds of being cited, read the guide on how to get cited by ChatGPT and AI Overviews.

In short

There is now an official way to leave AI Overviews and AI Mode without losing your normal rankings, but it does not yet measure clicks and it applies to the whole domain. For anyone looking for customers, staying in is almost always the prudent choice.

If you would like a read on your own situation, the free SEO analysis is a good starting point; if you would rather talk it through, get in touch. You can see how we work on the AI SEO page.

Sources: Google Search Central documentation (update of 21 October 2026); Search Engine Journal, 1 August 2026.