Why I Turned Off Google AI Overviews and How You Can Too

Gone are the days of saying, “See? I’m right because Google says so.”

For a while now, users have been complaining that search quality has taken a hit. And just when things couldn’t get more frustrating, Google added a giant AI-generated box to the top of almost every results page.

Sure, the answers have improved since the early apply glue-on-pizza days. But they’re still often outdated, confusing, or flat-out wrong. And even when they’re close, I still find myself fact-checking them.

So here’s the question: if I’m going to double-check everything anyway, why not just skip the AI and go straight to the real results? That’s exactly what I did.

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I turned off AI Overviews — and honestly, it felt like getting the old Google back. Here’s how you can do the same.

What Are AI Overviews in Google Search?

If you haven’t noticed yet, for most searches on Google now, you’ll likely see an AI Overview section at the top of the results. It’s an auto-generated summary that uses AI to pull pieces of information from various web pages and stitch them into one box.

Sounds helpful, right? The reality is often different.

These summaries frequently pull from outdated or questionable sources—including social media—and sometimes even hallucinate completely incorrect answers.

Why You Might Want to Turn Off AI Overviews

Here’s why many people (myself included) are opting out:

• It sounds confident, even when it’s wrong. AI mixes real info with made-up stuff so smoothly that you might not notice unless you already know better.
• It often shows outdated results. I saw it pulling year-old info for things that change quickly, like stock market news or current world records.
• Real content—blogs, forums, expert sites—gets pushed way down. You have to scroll past AI fluff to find anything useful.
• There’s no true “off” switch. Even disabling Search Labs doesn’t fully remove it.
• It hurts creators. Google shows a summary instead of sending you to the sites that wrote the content.
• It doesn’t actually save time. I still verify everything, so what’s the point?

How to Turn Off Google AI Overviews on Desktop

There’s no official “off” switch yet—but there are a couple of easy workarounds.

Method 1: Use a Browser Extension

Install the Hide Google AI Overviews Chrome extension from the Web Store. Once it’s active, AI Overviews will disappear from your search results.

It works on Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, such as Brave and Edge. No need to tweak any other settings.

If you use Firefox, there’s a version for that too, made by the same developer. 

The AI summary still loads in the background, but at least you won’t have to see it. Sometimes, the AI overview appears as a second result instead of the first; in such cases, this extension may struggle to hide it in such cases, but overall, it’s a simple and effective solution. 

Method 2: Manual Search Engine Tweak (No Extension Required)

If you don’t want to use a third-party extension, or you use Safari or any other browser that does not have a proper extension, you can hide the AI overview yourself manually by modifying the default search URL. To do that, 

1. Open Chrome and go to: chrome://settings/searchEngine. Alternatively, you can open Chrome Settings > Search Engine.
2. Scroll to Site Search and click Add.
   
3. Fill out:
   • Name: AI-Free Google
   • Shortcut: @web
   • URL: {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14
     
4. After adding, click the three dots next to it > Make Default.
   

From now on, your searches will skip the AI Overview and go straight to the classic web results.

This redirects your searches to the “Web” tab of Google, skipping the AI Overview. But heads-up: it also removes sections like People Also Ask, videos, Images, and Info from the Knowledge Graph and Forums. You get the classic 10 blue links—and that’s it.

How to Disable Google AI Overviews on Mobile

Blocking AI Overviews on iPhone and Android is slightly more complicated, but still possible.

Option 1: Use TenBlueLinks on Chrome

1. Open Chrome and visit tenbluelinks.org.
2. Open a new tab and search for anything on Google. Don’t skip this step.
3. Tap on the three-dot menu in the bottom right corner. (Top right corner on Android).
4. Choose Settings in the pop-up.
   
5. In Settings, select the Search Engine option.
6. Select Google Web in the Recently visited section.
7. Finally, tap Done to set Google Web as your default search engine.
   

That’s it. Your searches now default to the Web tab, just like on desktop. As mentioned, this also removes “People Also Ask,” forum discussions, videos, etc., from the search results and only gives you 10 blue links.

Option 2: Firefox Custom Search Engine

You can also add a custom search engine in Firefox:

1. Open the Firefox app on your phone.
2. Tap the three–dot menu in the top right corner and go to Settings.
3. Tap Search.
   
4. Then tap Add Search Engine.
5. In the Title field, type: AI-Free Google.
6. In the Search String URL field, paste: https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s
7. Tap Save.
   
8. Now go back to the search engine list, tap Default Search Engine, and select the one you just created.
   

That’s it. You can remove AI Overviews by simply switching to a custom search engine. However, most other mobile browsers don’t currently support this method.

You Deserve Better Answers

Google Search is no longer what it used to be. AI Overviews try to summarize the web for you, but end up getting in the way more often than not.

If you want your search experience to feel trustworthy again, you don’t have to wait for Google to fix it. You can take back control right now.

I did it — and now you know how to do it too.

Also Read:

• How to Turn Off Google Trending Searches on Any Device
• Google Maps Can Now Scan Your iPhone Screenshots to Save Locations
• How to Set Preferred Sources on Google Search
• How to Use Google Lens on iPhone or iPad