AI opt-out here means the ways a website can limit how Google’s generative search features use its content, which are AI Overviews and AI Mode. Other results for the term describe account privacy settings and are not covered here.
At a glance
- Type
- Search Console setting plus robots meta controls
- Affects
- AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover
- Values
nosnippet,max-snippet,data-nosnippet,noindex, tokenGoogle-Extended- Since
- August 31, 2026 for all websites worldwide (Search generative AI)
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What options are there?
The Search generative AI control in Search Console manages a site’s inclusion in AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover. Inclusion is the default. Google says content is generally excluded within one to two days after a change, though some can take longer, and that the control was available to all websites worldwide as of August 31, 2026. It does not affect AI training, and it is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search.
Google also lists nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as controls to limit the information shown from your pages in Search. According to Google’s robots meta tag documentation, nosnippet also prevents the content from being used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and max-snippet limits how much of it may be used that way. data-nosnippet applies to individual sections, and noindex removes the page from the search results altogether.
Google-Extended is a robots.txt token that controls whether crawled content may be used for training Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini apps. It does not affect a site’s inclusion or ranking in Google Search. According to Search Console Help, it also limits training of the models used to generate responses in Search generative AI features.
| Rule | Where it's set | What it controls in Google Search | Effect on AI Overviews and AI Mode |
|---|---|---|---|
nosnippet | whole page (robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag) | no text snippet or video preview; a static image thumbnail may still appear | content isn't used as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode |
max-snippet:[number] | whole page | caps the text snippet at that many characters; 0 equals nosnippet, -1 lets Google choose the length | limits how much content may be used as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode |
data-nosnippet | single text section (attribute on span, div or section) | the marked text isn't used in the snippet | listed by Google as a control for limiting content in AI features in Search |
max-image-preview:[none|standard|large] | whole page | maximum size of the image preview; without it, a default-size preview may be shown | Google only lists web search, Google Images, Discover and Assistant here, no AI features |
noimageindex | whole page | images on this page aren't indexed | no statement from Google |
unavailable_after: [date] | whole page | the page stops appearing in search results after that date; Googlebot then crawls the URL much less often | no separate statement from Google |
indexifembedded | whole page, only together with noindex | content may be indexed when embedded in another page through an iframe or similar tag | no statement from Google |
noindex (for comparison) | whole page | page doesn't appear in search results | listed by Google as a control for AI features; a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode requires an indexed page |
noarchive | whole page | no longer used by Google and ignored; the cached link it controlled no longer exists | none (Google ignores the rule) |
According to Google, a page can only be shown as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode if it's indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. All rules only work if crawlers are allowed to fetch the page. When rules conflict, the more restrictive one applies. For AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems, Google points to Google-Extended. Sources: Google Search Central: Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications (last updated 2026-03-24); Google Search Central: AI features and your website (last updated 2025-12-10). Last checked: .
Example
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">
Google then shows no text snippet for the page.
Sources
- Search generative AI control – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
- AI features and your website – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Google Common Crawlers (Google-Extended) – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
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