How to Block AI Overviews From Using Your Content

By Amit Patel

You have three levels of control over AI Overviews using your content: snippet directives (nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet), the Google-Extended token for AI training in other Google systems, and — since June 2026 — a dedicated Search Console opt-out toggle rolling out UK-first. Each works differently and carries different costs. This is what each control actually does, and what it does not.

Snippet Controls

Google documents nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex as the controls for limiting what appears from your pages in Search — including its AI features.

Because AI is built into Search, Google’s position is that the same preview controls govern it: nosnippet removes your text from snippets and AI features entirely, data-nosnippet excludes marked sections, and max-snippet:[n] caps how much can be shown. These are page- and passage-level, which makes them the surgical option — you can shield a proprietary paragraph while leaving the rest quotable. The blunt cost: classic featured snippets and result previews use the same text, so restricting AI features restricts those too. Verify implementation with URL Inspection, and allow time for recrawling.

Google-Extended

Google-Extended is a robots.txt token that limits use of your content for AI training and grounding in some of Google’s other systems — it does not remove you from Search or AI Overviews.

This is the most misunderstood control. Blocking Google-Extended addresses model training and grounding outside Search (such as Gemini); it is explicitly not the lever for AI Overviews, which are governed by Googlebot crawling and the snippet controls above. Sites that blocked Google-Extended expecting to vanish from overviews did not. The full map of which file controls which system — including where llms.txt does and does not matter — is in llms.txt vs robots.txt vs XML sitemap.

The Search Console Opt-Out (June 2026)

In June 2026, under a binding order from the UK’s competition regulator, Google began rolling out a Search Console setting that lets site owners opt out of grounding generative AI features — AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews in Discover — while remaining in classic results.

The control lives in Search Console settings, launched UK-first (effective mid-June 2026) with a global expansion planned but not dated. Google states opted-out sites keep their regular Search and Discover presence and that the setting is not used as a ranking signal outside AI features. It is the first all-or-nothing, site-level answer to "stay in Search, skip the AI answer" — no snippet side effects, but also no passage-level nuance: you surrender all AI Overview citations, including the ones that send traffic.

Trade-Offs Before You Block

Blocking is a business decision, not a technical one: overview citations are also a visibility channel, and every control that limits quoting limits being recommended.

Before opting out, quantify what you would give up — the tracking workflow shows how to estimate AI-surface impressions and clicks for your site. Publishers whose content is fully substitutable by a summary have the strongest case for blocking; sites that win qualified traffic from citations usually have the weakest. A middle path many choose: data-nosnippet on the paragraphs that constitute the product, full quotability everywhere else.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Real control exists now: passage-level via snippet directives, site-level via the new Search Console toggle, with Google-Extended handling the separate question of AI training elsewhere. Just make the choice with data — know what AI surfaces currently send you, block at the narrowest level that protects the content that matters, and re-check after the global rollout expands your options. Blocking well is a scalpel job; the site-wide switch should be the last resort, not the first reflex.