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How to turn off AI overview?

Updated 2026-07-1527,360 searches/mo across 13 ways of asking itRanked #11 of 519· Turning AI off
Short answer

AI Overviews cannot be turned off. Google's help page states: "AI Overviews are a core Google Search feature, like knowledge panels. Features cannot be turned off." The supported alternative is the Web filter — click "Web" above your results for text-only links. Set udm=14 as your browser default to make it automatic.

On this page
  1. Answer
  2. Why it works
  3. Example
  4. Steps
  5. Key facts
  6. Sources
  7. People also ask

Why — the first-principles explanation

Start with the sentence Google actually published, because everything follows from it: AI Overviews are classified as a core Search feature, like knowledge panels. That word "core" is doing real work. Google treats some things as preferences — SafeSearch, language, region — and gives them settings pages. It treats others as the product itself. You cannot turn off the ten blue links, or the spell-check, or the knowledge panel on the right. AI Overviews were deliberately filed in that second category, and that decision, not a missing button, is why there is no switch.

The mechanics reinforce it. When you search, Google's servers decide what the page contains and send you finished HTML. The AI Overview is written before the page leaves the data center. Your browser is just a window displaying what arrived. A setting on your side cannot un-generate something that already happened on Google's side. This is why every "secret setting" video is wrong: there is nothing on your device that could control it.

So the real question becomes: can you ask for a page that never had an Overview in it? Yes. That is the Web filter. Clicking "Web" reloads your search through a different serving path, identified in the URL by `&udm=14`, which returns only text-based links. Google documents this openly as the way to see results "without features like AI Overviews." It is not a loophole; it is a supported filter.

The catch is persistence. The Web filter applies to one search. Click a related search or type a new query and the Overview returns. The fix is to move the filter upstream — make `udm=14` part of the URL your browser sends every time by registering it as your default search engine. Then you are never asking for the AI page in the first place.

An example that makes it click

A vending machine dispenses a granola bar with every drink. You want just the drink. You search the machine for a "no granola bar" button. There isn't one — the bar drops from the same mechanism as the can.

But slot B7 on the same machine dispenses drinks only. Punch B7 and no bar comes out. You did not disable anything; you picked the slot that was never wired to the bar dispenser. The Web filter is B7. And if you get tired of remembering to punch B7 every time, you tape over the keypad so the machine only accepts B7 — that is what setting udm=14 as your browser default does.

How to do it

  1. Run your search on google.com as usual.
  2. Look at the filter row directly under the search box: All, Images, Videos, News, Web, More.
  3. Click "Web". On phones, tap "More" first — Web is often hidden there.
  4. The page reloads showing only text-based links, with no AI Overview. Check the URL: it now contains udm=14.
  5. To make it permanent in Chrome: Settings → Search engine → Manage search engines → Add. Name it "Google Web", keyword g, URL https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14. Set as default.
  6. In Firefox: use a custom search-engine add-on or bookmark keyword with the same udm=14 URL.
  7. Repeat the check every few months — Google has moved and renamed this filter before.

Key facts

Infographic: How to turn off AI overview — short answer and key facts
Visual summary — How to turn off AI overview?
▶ The 60-second explainer (script)

You cannot turn off AI Overviews. Google says so in writing: AI Overviews are a core Search feature, like knowledge panels, and features cannot be turned off. Stop looking for the setting. It does not exist, and here is why. The AI Overview is written on Google's servers before the page ever reaches your screen. Nothing on your computer can un-generate it. But you can ask for a page that never had one. Do this. Run your search. Look at the row under the search box: All, Images, Videos, News, Web. Click Web. On a phone, tap More first. The page reloads with plain text links and no AI Overview. Google documents this itself. Look at your URL now — see udm equals 14? That is the whole trick. Copy it. In Chrome, go to Settings, Search engine, Manage, Add. Paste google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14. Make it default. Now every search you type skips the AI automatically, forever, without clicking anything. That is as close to an off switch as exists.

What authoritative sources say

Google Search Help — Find information in faster & easier ways with AI Overviewsofficial — Google states AI Overviews are a core Search feature that cannot be turned off, and that the Web filter displays only text-based links without features like AI Overviews. source ↗
Google Search Help — AI Overviews (iPhone & iPad)official — Google publishes the same AI Overviews guidance for iPhone and iPad, including the Web filter workaround. source ↗
Google Search Help — "AI Mode" in Search Labsofficial — AI Mode is a separate feature managed through Search Labs, independent of AI Overviews. source ↗

People also ask

Is there any hidden setting that disables AI Overviews?

No. Google's help page states directly that the feature cannot be turned off. Any video claiming a hidden toggle is describing the Web filter, a browser extension, or something that no longer exists.

Does the Web filter stay on?

Not by itself. It lasts for one search. To make it stick, set a custom search engine using the udm=14 URL as your browser default.

What is udm=14?

It is the URL parameter Google uses for the Web filter's text-only results. Adding it to a search URL loads the plain-links page directly.

Do extensions that block AI Overviews actually work?

They hide the block after it loads, which solves the visual problem but does not stop Google from generating it. That is fine for most people.

Will paying for Google One remove AI Overviews?

No. Google offers no paid tier of Search that excludes AI Overviews as of 2026-07.

The same question, asked other ways

This page answers all of these. Their searches are counted together in the ranking — one question, 13 phrasings. How we rank →

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