How do you turn off Google AI Overviews? What Google allows, and what only hides them

Google’s own help page is plain about it: AI Overviews are “a core Google Search feature” and “Features cannot be turned off.” You can still get results without them, one search at a time with the Web filter or by default with a browser shortcut, and each method below is labelled by how far it depends on Google leaving things as they are.

Can you turn off AI Overviews at all?

Not with a setting. Google’s Search Help article on AI Overviews compares them to knowledge panels and says features cannot be turned off. The same paragraph gives the alternative: select the Web filter after you search, which “displays only text-based links without features like AI Overviews.”

Every method on this page carries one of three labels:

• Google documented: Google describes it in its own help pages.
• Unofficial workaround: it works because of how Google’s pages behave today, and Google can change that without notice.
• Our reading: our own reasoning or recommendation, with no source behind it.

One caveat. The AI Overviews help article has a notice saying Google is updating its Search services settings and the article may not match what you see. Google’s page on those new settings covers search history and personalised recommendations. It does not describe a switch for AI Overviews. If Google ever adds one, the AI Overviews help article is where to look.

Why the old Search Labs and SGE opt-out advice is out of date

Many older guides tell you to open Search Labs and turn the experiment off. That advice dates from the Search Generative Experience (SGE), which Google introduced in 2023 as “an experiment in Search Labs”. In May 2024 Google said people had used AI Overviews “billions of times through our experiment in Search Labs” and started rolling them out to everyone in the US. From then on, AI Overviews were part of normal Search and no longer an opt-in test.

Labs still exists. Google’s help page calls “AI in Search” in Labs a “testbed” for new AI features and experiments, and gives the steps to opt out: sign in (not in Incognito), open a new tab, select Labs, then Manage, and toggle off “AI in Search”. That opts you out of the experiments. Google does not say it removes AI Overviews, and the same page says Search features cannot be turned off. If you have turned Labs off and still see AI Overviews, nothing is wrong. That setting just controls something else.

Label: Google documented, for Labs experiments only.

Methods Google documents: the Web filter

Google’s “Refine Google searches” help page lists the filters that appear below the search bar after you search, Web among them, and says the Web filter “contains text-based links to websites.” The AI Overviews help page confirms that this view leaves AI Overviews out.

1. Search as normal.
2. Choose Web from the filters below the search bar.
3. If Web is not showing, select “All” to see the other filters. Google says which filters appear, and in what order, depends on the query.

There are two limits. The filter only applies to the search you are on, so you have to pick it again next time unless you set up a shortcut (see the next section). It also drops other features, such as knowledge panels, so some searches will look sparse.

Label: Google documented.

Browser-level workarounds: making the Web view your default

When you choose the Web filter, the address of the results page changes. If you save that address in your browser as a custom search engine, every search from the address bar opens in the Web view. The browser makers document how to add a custom search engine. Google does not document the part of the address that selects the Web view.

That part is the parameter udm=14. Tedium, an independent newsletter, wrote it up in May 2024 and suggested https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 as the search address. Tedium’s udm14.com warns that if it stops working, “Google sometimes introduces random breaking changes.” You can also find the current address yourself: search for an easy word, choose Web, copy the address bar, and replace your word with %s. Chrome’s and Mozilla’s help pages both describe this copy-and-replace method.

Chrome on a computer

Google Chrome Help gives these steps: More, Settings, Search engine, then Manage search engines and site search. Next to “Site search”, select Add and fill in a name, a shortcut and the address with %s. Then, next to the new entry, select More and Make default. Chrome notes that at work or school your administrator may control the search engine.

Firefox on a computer

Mozilla Support says you can add a custom search engine in Settings from Firefox version 140. Earlier versions need an add-on. In Firefox’s search settings, use Add under Search Shortcuts, or Add search engine under Additional search engines (which one you see depends on your version). Paste in the address with %s, add a keyword if you want one, and select Add Engine. You can then choose it as your default.

Safari on Mac and iPhone

Apple’s help page for Safari on Mac covers choosing a search engine under Safari, Settings, Search. It describes no way to add a custom search address, so Apple documents no way to make the Web view your default. Tedium mentions third-party Safari extensions. We have not checked them and do not list them here.

Chrome on Android and iPhone

Google Chrome Help for Android and for iPhone and iPad describes picking a default from a list, where “recently visited search engines are added as options.” Neither page describes adding a custom address. On a phone, the documented route is the Web filter, chosen on each search.

Label: unofficial workaround. The browser steps are documented by the browser makers, but the Google parameter they depend on is not documented by Google.

Extensions and filter lists: what they do and their risks

There are two kinds.

• Search engine add-ons set up the shortcut for you. One example is the “udm14” add-on on Mozilla’s Firefox add-ons site. Its page says it adds udm=14 to Google searches so you can make it your default, and that add-ons of this type do not work in Firefox on Android. It is third-party, and we name it only as an example of the type, not as a recommendation.
• Hiding extensions and content-blocker rules take the AI Overview off the page after it loads. They depend on how Google builds its results page, so when Google changes that, a rule can stop working and you get no warning. We do not name one.

Our reading: either kind can read the pages you visit once you grant it permission, so check what an extension asks for before you install it.

Label: unofficial workaround.

Methods compared

Method	What it does	Documented by Google?	How long it lasts	Works on mobile?
Web filter	Shows text links only, no AI Overview	Yes	One search at a time	Yes, where the filter appears
Custom search engine with udm=14	Opens the Web view by default	Browser steps yes, the parameter no	Until Google changes how its addresses work	Not on the Chrome or Safari mobile pages we checked
Search engine add-on	Sets up the same shortcut for you	No	Same as above, plus the add-on’s upkeep	The udm14 add-on says not on Firefox for Android
Hiding extension or filter rule	Removes the block from your screen	No	Until Google changes its page	Depends on the browser
Labs “AI in Search” opt-out	Leaves Google’s Labs experiments	Yes	Permanent	Yes

Read the Labs row closely: it is documented and it lasts, but it does not remove AI Overviews.

What hiding AI Overviews does not change

This section is our reading. Every method above changes what you see and nothing else. The Web filter applies to your own search, a shortcut lives in your browser, and an extension edits the page on your device. People searching the same thing still get whatever Google shows them. If what you want is for AI Overviews to go away for everyone, none of these will do it. For background on the feature itself, see what Google AI Overviews are and our overview of how AI answers are put together.

If you run a website: what this means for you

If you hide AI Overviews in your own browser, your view of where your pages appear will be skewed (our reading). Other searchers may still see AI Overviews above your results. Check from a normal, unfiltered search, and measure over time from outside your own setup. How to track AI Overviews covers what Google reports and what you can check yourself.

As a site owner, the documented controls you have work on your pages, not on anyone’s screen. Google Search Central says that to limit the information shown from your pages in Search you can use nosnippet, data-nosnippet or max-snippet. To work on the other side, appearing in AI Overviews, see how to rank in Google AI Overviews and, for the conversational version of Search, Google AI Mode and SEO.