Google's new AI Overviews switch: what it does, and how to check yours
A setting in Google Search Console decides whether your site can appear in AI Overviews. Here is what it does, why it matters, and how to check yours in two minutes.
Published 17 September 2026
At a glance
- A new Google Search Console setting decides whether your site can appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
- It is on by default, and for most businesses it should stay on.
- Turning it off removes you from Google's AI answers but doesn't touch your normal search rankings.
- No tool can read the setting for you, so check it yourself in Search Console. It takes two minutes.
Google has added a simple on/off switch that decides whether your website can appear in its AI answers: the AI Overviews at the top of search results, and the chat-style AI Mode. It lives in Google Search Console, it is switched on for every site by default, and for most businesses the right move is to leave it that way. It is still worth two minutes to check, because nothing on your website will tell you if someone has turned it off.
What is the new setting?
Since 31 August 2026, Google Search Console has a setting called Search generative AI. Search Console is Google's free tool for website owners, and whoever looks after your site or your SEO almost certainly has access to it.
The setting has two options:
- Include is the default. Google can show and link your pages in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and use them to build its answers. Any visits those answers send you still arrive.
- Exclude takes your site out of those AI answers completely. Google is plain about the trade: you won't receive any traffic or impressions from those features.
Why does this matter for being found?
More and more buyers read Google's AI answer and stop there. If your site is excluded, Google can't name you, quote you or link to you in that answer, however good your pages are. A competitor gets the mention instead.
That makes this the simplest way to disappear from Google's AI answers, and the easiest to miss. A switch flipped by a previous agency, or by a well-meaning colleague worried about AI, looks exactly like a content problem from the outside. You write better pages, and nothing changes.
Does turning it off hurt my normal Google rankings?
No. Excluding your site only affects the AI features. Your pages still appear in the ordinary search results as before, and Google still visits and indexes them.
It is also a Google-only switch. It says nothing to ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity, which each have their own ways of reading your site.
How is it different from blocking Google in robots.txt?
They answer different questions. robots.txt is a small file on your website 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 is only about whether you appear in AI answers inside Google Search. You can change one without touching the other.
Why can't a tool check it for you?
Google only shows this setting inside Search Console, to the people who own the site there. It doesn't publish it anywhere a tool can read, so no audit tool, including ours, can tell you which way it is set. If a tool claims to, it is guessing.
What Vizebel can do is take you straight to it. When you connect Search Console, the Technical tab links to the right page for your site.
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 have deliberately decided otherwise.
- 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.
It is a one-off check, and it is the only switch for Google's AI answers that sits outside your website itself.
Frequently asked questions
Should I exclude my site from Google's AI Overviews?
For most businesses, no. If your content exists to win customers, being named and linked in Google's AI answers is visibility you want. Excluding makes more sense if your content is the product you sell, such as paid research, and you would rather people came to your site to read it.
If I exclude my site, will I lose my Google rankings?
No. The setting only covers AI Overviews and AI Mode. Your ordinary search listings, and Google's crawling of your site, carry on as before.
Does this setting affect ChatGPT or other AI assistants?
No. It only applies to Google Search. Other assistants use their own crawlers, which you manage through your robots.txt file and your website or firewall 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, the reason lies elsewhere, usually in whether your pages clearly answer the questions your buyers ask.
Written by Olly Barrett
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