Google's new AI Overviews switch: what it does, and how to check yours
Google Search Console now has a switch that takes your site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode. It's on for everyone by default. Here's how to check nobody has turned it off.
Published 17 September 2026
At a glance
- Where it is: Search Console, then Settings, then Search generative AI.
- What it should say, if your site exists to win customers: Include.
- Who can see it: only people with access to your Search Console.
Since 31 August 2026, Google Search Console has had a switch that decides whether your site can appear in Google's AI answers: the AI Overviews at the top of the results, and the chat-style AI Mode. Every site starts with it on, which is where you want it if your website is there to bring in work. Check it anyway. If someone has turned it off, nothing on your website will show it.
What is the new setting?
It's called Search generative AI, and it sits in the settings of Google Search Console, Google's free tool for website owners. Whoever looks after your site or your SEO almost certainly has a login.
There are two options:
- Include is the default. Google can use your pages to build its AI answers, show them and link to them, and any visits those answers send still reach you.
- Exclude takes your site out of those answers completely. Google is plain about the trade: you get no traffic or impressions from those features.
Why does this matter for being found?
An excluded site can't be named in Google's AI answer, however good its pages are, and the mention goes to someone else.
What makes it nasty is how it looks from the outside. A switch flipped by a previous agency, or by a colleague who was worried about AI, looks exactly like a content problem. You write better pages and nothing changes, because Google was never allowed to use them.
Does turning it off hurt my normal Google rankings?
Excluding your site only affects the AI features. Your pages keep appearing in the ordinary results and Google keeps crawling and indexing them.
How is it different from blocking Google in robots.txt?
robots.txt is a small file on your site that tells crawlers what they may read, and a rule for Google-Extended stops Google using your content to train its Gemini models. The Search Console setting only decides whether you appear in AI answers inside Google Search, and changing one leaves the other alone.
Why can't a tool check it for you?
Google shows the setting only inside Search Console, to the people who own the site there, and doesn't publish it anywhere else. No audit tool can read it. We'd like Vizebel to check it for you, and it can't. If a tool tells you which way it's set, it's guessing.
How do I check it?
- Sign in to Google Search Console and choose your site.
- Open Settings, then Search generative AI.
- Make sure it says Include, unless you've decided otherwise on purpose.
- If you have more than one version of your site set up in Search Console, check each one. A setting made at the top level carries down unless someone has overridden it.
Frequently asked questions
Should I exclude my site from Google's AI Overviews?
Not if your content is there to win customers. In that case a mention and a link in Google's AI answer is visibility you want. Excluding makes more sense when the content is what you sell, such as paid research, and you'd rather people came to your site to read it.
Does this setting affect ChatGPT or other AI assistants?
No, it's Google's alone. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity read your site through their own crawlers, which you manage through robots.txt and your firewall or CDN settings.
I'm not showing up in AI Overviews. Is this the reason?
It might be, and it's the quickest thing to rule out. If the setting says Exclude, Google won't show your site in its AI answers at all. If it says Include, look at your pages next, starting with whether they answer your buyers' questions plainly and near the top.
Written by Olly Barrett
Read next
Cloudflare's new AI crawler rules: stay found, keep control
Cloudflare now lets you refuse AI training without dropping out of search. What changed on 15 September, why the old controls cost sites their visibility, and what we'd set.
The get-found checklist: nine things to check this week
Nine checks you can run on your own website this week, each in half an hour or less, before you pay for a tool. The first is asking the assistants about yourself.
Is an AI visibility dashboard enough?
A dashboard counts how often AI assistants name you. It can't say why the count moved or which page to change, and for most small teams that's the part that matters.
Start with your web address.
Give us your web address. We’ll read the site and suggest your audiences, and the first visibility check is on us. After that, nothing spends credits until you say so.