On June 3, 2026 Google announced a Search Console control that lets a site decide whether it appears in, and helps ground, AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI Overviews in Discover. Sites that opt out get no traffic or impressions from those features but stay in regular Search, and Google says the setting is not a ranking signal outside them. It launched as a test with UK sites, and Google said it had reached all websites worldwide on August 31, 2026.
Why it matters for your business
Read the incentives before you reach for this. The opt-out was built for businesses whose revenue is the click, where an answer that satisfies the reader on Google's page is a lost session. Almost no marketing site is in that position. If your revenue comes from being considered, recommended and eventually contacted, then removing yourself from the answer removes you from the shortlist while your competitors stay in it, and you will not get a notification when that happens.
There is one narrow case worth thinking about: a page whose entire value is the thing a summary would give away, such as proprietary benchmark data or a calculator. Even there, the usual answer is to publish a citable summary and keep the irreplaceable part behind the click, rather than to exit the surface. Treat this as a publisher story you should understand, not a setting you should change.
Sources
- New opportunities, control and insights for website owners (Google, June 2026, updated August 2026)
