Search Console Generative AI Control: Include or Exclude AI Features
What the Search Console generative AI control does in 2026: include or exclude AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features, and its limits.
Search Console now lets site owners choose whether their content appears in Google's generative AI features: AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover. It's a one-click setting with big consequences, so make the choice deliberately and measure it.
- The control rolled out to all sites on 31 August 2026 and sits under Settings > Search generative AI.
- Options are Include (default), Exclude, and Inherit control from parent (default for child properties).
- Exclude removes your links, content grounding, traffic and impressions from these AI features.
- It isn't a ranking signal for the rest of Search and doesn't control AI training.
- Changes usually apply within 1-2 days.
Checked 4 November 2026 (CET) against Search Console Help and Google Search Central documentation. Search Console reports and rollouts change often, and some features only appear for eligible properties, so confirm in your own property. "Our view" marks MentionX opinion. Ledgerline is a fictional company used for illustration.
01What does the control cover?
Google's Search generative AI control help page covers three features:
- AI Overviews in Search results.
- AI Mode.
- Generative AI features in Discover.
Google updated its "control what you share" documentation on 21 October 2026 to include the setting.
02What are the options?
| Option | Effect | Default for |
|---|---|---|
| Include | Pages can appear and be used to ground generative AI features | Top-level properties |
| Exclude | No links, no content used for grounding, no traffic or impressions from these features | None |
| Inherit control from parent | Follows the parent property's setting | Child properties, such as path properties |
03How does it fit with other controls?
| Control | What it affects |
|---|---|
| Search generative AI setting | AI Overviews, AI Mode, Discover AI features |
| robots.txt for Googlebot | Crawling for all of Google Search, including AI features |
nosnippet, max-snippet, data-nosnippet | What text can be shown from your pages in Search, including AI features |
noindex | Removes a page from Google Search entirely |
| Google-Extended | Use of content for training and grounding in some Gemini products, not Search |
| Merchant Center and Google Ads | Their own participation rules; the setting doesn't override them |
See Google-Extended controls and configuring robots.txt for AI crawlers for those settings.
04What should marketers weigh?
For most marketing sites, AI features are a discovery channel, and Exclude means losing visibility in a growing part of Search. For publishers with licensing deals, paywalls or sensitive content, Exclude may be worth the trade-off. Either way, measure first: the generative AI report (lesson 7) tells you what you'd be giving up.
Our view: default to Include for marketing sites. Revisit if AI features consistently answer your queries without sending clicks to pages that drive revenue.
05Choosing a setting
| Situation | Suggested setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Content marketing site that wants reach | Include | AI features can surface your pages as sources |
| Paywalled or licensed content with a clear commercial reason | Consider Exclude | Removes links and grounding from your pages |
| One section with sensitive or regulated content | Exclude on a path property for that section | Child properties can override the parent |
| Unsure | Include and measure for 3 months | Exclude also removes the impressions you'd learn from |
06What Exclude does and doesn't do
| Exclude does | Exclude doesn't |
|---|---|
| Stop your pages being shown as links in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features | Change your ranking in the rest of Search |
| Stop your content being used to ground those answers | Stop AI training (use Google-Extended) |
| Remove generative AI impressions and traffic | Override Merchant Center or Google Ads participation |
| Apply to the property's URLs, with child properties inheriting by default | Remove pages from Search (that's noindex) |
07Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Setting not visible | Not an owner, or rollout | Check permissions (lesson 2) |
| Pages still appear after Exclude | Takes 1-2 days; caching can take longer | Wait a week; check the generative AI report |
| A section behaves differently | Child property set to its own value | Review child properties' settings |
| Traffic dropped overall after Exclude | Unrelated change, or AI feature traffic was significant | Annotate and compare Web clicks before and after |
08How to run an Exclude test safely
If you're considering Exclude for a section, test before committing the whole site.
- Pick a section with clear boundaries, such as
/research/, and add it as a path property if it isn't one. - Export a baseline for that section: generative AI impressions (lesson 7) and Performance Web clicks, impressions and CTR for 8 weeks.
- Set the path property to Exclude and add an annotation on both the parent and child property.
- Wait at least 4 weeks. Changes usually apply within 1-2 days, but caching can delay some content, and weekly noise needs time to settle.
- Compare the section's Web clicks before and after, alongside a similar section you didn't change. If both moved the same way, the setting wasn't the cause.
- Decide and record the outcome in your decision log, with the owner and the next review date.
09Common questions from stakeholders
| They ask | Answer |
|---|---|
| "Will Exclude stop Google training on our content?" | No. Training is Google-Extended. |
| "Will we rank lower if we Exclude?" | Google says it's not a ranking or inclusion signal for the rest of Search. |
| "Can we exclude AI Mode but keep AI Overviews?" | No. The setting covers AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features together. |
| "Will our Shopping ads stop appearing in AI features?" | The setting doesn't override Merchant Center or Google Ads participation. |
| "Can we exclude a single page?" | The control is property-level. For page-level limits, use snippet controls such as nosnippet, which affect all of Search. |
| "Is it reversible?" | Yes. Switch back to Include; allow time for caching. |
10Edge cases
- Child properties set long ago. A path property someone set to Exclude months ago overrides the parent. Audit every child property's setting once a quarter.
- Domain vs URL-prefix properties. Check which property is the parent for the URLs you care about before changing anything.
- Only owners can change it. If you're a full user, prepare the decision memo and ask an owner.
11Ledgerline walkthrough: auditing child properties
The SEO lead listed every property in the account, opened Settings > Search generative AI on each, and recorded the value. One old path property for /resources/ was set to Exclude by a former contractor. After checking with legal, they switched it to Inherit and annotated the change.
12Worked example: Ledgerline's control decision
Ledgerline is a fictional accounts-payable software company. Details and numbers are illustrative.
Ledgerline's legal team asked whether the help centre should be excluded from AI features because some articles describe compliance processes. The SEO lead exported generative AI impressions: the help centre had few, while the glossary had many. The team created a path property for the help centre, set it to Exclude, kept the main property on Include, and annotated the date. A month later the help centre had no generative AI impressions and the rest of the site was unchanged. (Ledgerline is fictional.)
Walkthrough
- Confirm you're an owner of the property.
- Open Settings > Search generative AI.
- Read the current value: Include, Exclude or, for a child property, Inherit control from parent.
- Before changing anything, export 3 months of the generative AI report as a baseline.
- If you change the setting, add an annotation in the Performance report with the date and reason.
- Check the generative AI report after a week and again after a month.
- Record the decision and owner in your SEO decision log.
13Try it yourself
Write a one-page decision memo for your site:
- Current setting and who owns it.
- Generative AI impressions for your top 20 pages (lesson 7).
- Which sections, if any, have a reason to Exclude.
- Your recommendation and the date you'll review it.
14Quick quiz
1. Does Exclude affect your ranking in regular Search?
Answer: No. Google says it isn't a ranking or inclusion signal for the rest of Search.
2. Does Exclude stop Google using your content for AI training?
Answer: No. That's controlled by Google-Extended in robots.txt.
3. What is the default for a child property?
Answer: Inherit control from parent.
4. How quickly does a change apply?
Answer: Usually within 1-2 days, sometimes longer due to caching.
15What should you check before the next lesson?
- You know your property's current setting.
- You have a 3-month generative AI baseline.
- Any change is annotated with a date and reason.
- Read Google-Extended controls to separate training from Search.
Next: Page indexing report. Or return to the Search Console for Marketers track.
16Common questions
Where is the generative AI control? Under Settings > Search generative AI in Search Console, for owners.
Is this the same as nosnippet? No. Snippet controls such as nosnippet limit what Google shows from a page across Search. The generative AI control is a property-level setting just for generative AI features.
Does it affect Gemini or Google's AI training? No. Google-Extended is the control for training and grounding in some Gemini products.
Questions people ask
3 answersWhere is the generative AI control?
+
Under Settings > Search generative AI in Search Console, for owners.
Is this the same as nosnippet?
+
No. Snippet controls such as nosnippet limit what Google shows from a page across Search. The generative AI control is a property-level setting just for generative AI features.
Does it affect Gemini or Google's AI training?
+
No. Google-Extended is the control for training and grounding in some Gemini products.
Sources
- Search Console Help, Search generative AI controlsupport.google.com
- Google Search Central, AI features and your websitedevelopers.google.com
- Google Search Central, Latest documentation updatesdevelopers.google.com
- Google for Developers, Google's common crawlersdevelopers.google.com
- All accessed 4 Nov 2026.