How to Turn Off or Hide Google AI Overviews (Desktop, Android, iPhone)

If you are looking for how to turn off Google AI Overviews, the short answer is that you cannot. Google's help page says AI Overviews are "a core Google Search feature, like knowledge panels" and that features "cannot be turned off" [1]. What you can do is hide them. Google offers a Web filter that shows only text links, and a few workarounds make that view stick.

How Anobee tested this: on 26 October 2026 we searched "how does compound interest work" in Chrome on a desktop computer, signed in to Google, and in an Android phone view emulated in a desktop browser, signed out. Both showed an AI Overview on the All tab. We then tried each method below and noted what changed. We did not test the Google app or a real iPhone, and we did not install any extension.

How to turn off Google AI Overviews: what works and what does not

Use the Web filter (official method)

The Web filter is Google's own answer. Its help page says the filter "displays only text-based links without features like AI Overviews" [1]. Google added it in May 2024, announced by Search Liaison Danny Sullivan [3].

On a computer:

1. Search on Google as usual.
2. Under the search box, select Web. If you do not see it, select More, then Web.

In our test, Web sat inside the More menu. After selecting it, the AI Overview and the sources panel beside it were gone, leaving a plain list of links.

On Android or iPhone: the filters sit in a row under the search box. Swipe the row sideways until you see Web. In our emulated Android view, Web came after News.

One detail worth knowing: when we picked Web from the menu, the address bar showed udm=web. Older guides, and the shortcut below, use udm=14. Both opened the same Web view on 26 October 2026.

Still, the filter is not fully permanent. When we typed a new query into the search box on the Web results page, Google kept us on Web. A fresh search from the Chrome address bar or the Google homepage went back to All, with the AI Overview.

Make the Web view your default with udm=14

To skip AI Overviews on every search, point your browser's search engine at the Web view. The address is:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14

The %s stands for whatever you type. When we opened a search URL with &udm=14 added, Google loaded the Web view with no AI Overview, on desktop and in the emulated phone view.

Desktop Chrome

Chrome's help page lists these steps [2]:

1. Open Chrome Settings, then Search engine, then Manage search engines and site search.
2. Next to Site search, select Add.
3. Fill in the three fields. Use any name, such as "Google Web". Pick a short shortcut such as gw. In the URL field, paste the address above.
4. Select Add.
5. Open the three-dot menu next to the new entry and select Make default.

This is the closest Chrome gets to a real answer for how to turn off Google AI Overviews. From then on, anything you type in the address bar opens Google's Web view. You can still reach the normal All results by selecting All under the search box.

Android and iPhone

Phones are harder. Safari on iPhone offers a short list of search engines, such as Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo, rather than a field for a custom address. We did not find a simple equivalent of the desktop "Add" form on phones either. Two practical options:

• Use the Web filter each time, from the swipeable filter row.
• Save a bookmark to https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q= and search from it, or add it to your home screen. Typing a new query from that results page keeps you on Web, as it did in our desktop test.

We could not confirm these phone steps on a real device for this guide. If your phone shows something different, the Web filter is the method Google documents for every platform [1].

Add -ai to your search

Adding -ai to the end of a query hid the AI Overview in our test. For "how does compound interest work -ai", Google showed normal All results with no AI Overview.

However, the minus sign is Google's exclusion operator. It removes results containing the word "AI". For example, when we compared "what is seo" with "what is seo -ai", the top result changed from Google's own SEO Starter Guide to a university page. Google's guide mentions AI, so it was filtered out. For topics where AI comes up often, such as SEO, marketing or software, -ai can hide the very pages you want. Treat it as a quick trick, not a fix.

Browser extensions

Several Chrome extensions hide AI Overviews, typically by hiding that block on the results page. They keep the All tab, so you still get videos, images and other features, which the Web filter removes.

Before installing one, check three things on its Chrome Web Store page: when it was last updated, how many users and reviews it has, and what it asks permission to read. An extension that hides AI Overviews needs access to Google's search pages. Anything that asks for access to all websites is asking for more than the job needs. Also, Google can change its page layout at any time, so an extension that is not updated often may stop working. We did not install one for this guide.

What does not turn off AI Overviews

Search Labs. Many guides on how to turn off Google AI Overviews point to Labs. Google's help page does have a toggle called "AI in Search" there. It lets you opt out of new experiments and their email notices [1]. However, it is not an AI Overviews switch. Google describes AI Overviews separately, as a core feature that cannot be turned off [1].

Your Google account settings. There is no setting for AI Overviews in your account or in Search settings. Signing out did not help either: our signed-out phone view still showed one.

Feedback buttons. The thumbs up and down under an AI Overview send feedback to Google [1]. They do not hide future overviews.

Why AI Overviews are not showing up

Some people have the opposite problem. Google shows AI Overviews only "when our systems determine that generative AI can be especially helpful", and only in supported countries and languages [1]. Not every query gets one. Not every query gets one, so a missing overview is often just the query.

So if AI Overviews have vanished for you, check whether one of the methods above is still in place. A default search engine with udm=14, a bookmarked Web view, or an extension will all keep them hidden until you remove it.

For site owners, the bigger question is what AI Overviews do to clicks. Anobee explains how Google AI Overviews work and how to track AI Overviews traffic in Search Console.