Google adds opt-out toggle for AI Overviews domains

Google Search – Google says it will test—then roll out—a new Search Console toggle letting website owners exclude their domains from Google’s AI-generated search features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. The company insists opting out won’t affect regular search placement, w

For more than three years, publishers have been watching Google reshape search around AI-generated answers. Now, Google is handing website owners a new lever—one that could let them pull their domains out of those AI results entirely.

In a blog post published early Wednesday morning. Google said it will begin testing a new toggle inside Search Console that allows webmasters to decide whether their webpages appear in and help ground the company’s latest AI search features. The test will start with a small subset of domain owners in the UK. with a global rollout planned after that.

Google framed the control as tightly scoped. In its words, “Sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from our generative AI features.” The company also said the option “will not be used as a ranking signal for search results outside of these generative AI Search features.”

That distinction matters. Google is essentially offering a split: a website can be excluded from AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic without being pushed down in normal web search rankings.

The change is paired with another push inside Search Console. Google said it is beginning to roll out new “insights” meant to show webmasters metrics and more information about which of their pages appear in AI responses and in what countries. Google added that it will continue working with website owners on what kinds of insights they find most helpful. and that additional metrics will be introduced over time.

What prompted Google to create the opt-out toggle wasn’t stated. Still, the timing lands as tension between Google and the publishers that feed its AI search features appears to be rising.

Just weeks earlier. during Google’s I/O 2026 developer keynote. the company introduced a new dynamic Search Box—one that can grow to fit complex queries and can take inputs like process videos. images. files and even Chrome tabs. The announcement set off a wave of coverage arguing it could mark the “death of Google Search as you know it.” Even if that conclusion was premature. it added fuel to a broader debate about what search becomes when answers are generated rather than simply retrieved.

That debate has also sharpened among the executives who represent major content publishers. In a recent TBPN interview featuring Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch. he said he told Google’s teams last year to “assume there’s no search” to bolster pageviews and revenue. He later clarified that Condé Nast doesn’t expect search traffic to literally drop to zero. but he said he expects referrals from Google to represent a single-digit percentage of total traffic moving forward.

With Google now offering an AI-specific opt-out, the question shifts from whether publishers should prepare for a future with less traditional search traffic to whether they can meaningfully control their presence inside the AI answers that may replace part of the old search experience.

For now, the rollout begins with a UK test group—and a Search Console toggle that turns a website’s relationship with Google’s generative features into a choice.

Google Search Console AI Overviews AI Mode AI search opt out toggle webmasters publishers UK test generative AI features