By Stephan Charles | Last fact-checked: <time datetime="2026-06-15">June 15, 2026</time>
On June 3, 2026, Google activated a toggle inside Search Console that lets any website block its content from appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews in Discover. The toggle takes effect June 17 — two days from today. Google also launched dedicated Generative AI performance reports in Search Console on the same date, giving site owners AI impression data for the first time. BrandCited, which monitors brand citation rates across 9 AI engines, has analyzed both changes. This post covers what the opt-out means, who should use it, and what to check before the deadline.
What is Google's AI search opt-out and when does it take effect?#
The toggle sits inside Google Search Console under the new "AI content controls" section. When activated, it tells Google not to use a site's content to ground AI responses in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews in Discover. Google confirmed the signal takes effect June 17, 2026 for websites in the UK, with global expansion planned after that test phase.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority forced the change under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The CMA called it "a world first" — the first binding conduct requirement imposed on Google under the new legislation, and the first mandatory AI search opt-out enforced by any regulator worldwide.
Three things the opt-out does NOT do:
Affect your standard organic search rankings (Google confirmed this is not a ranking signal)
Remove you from the Gemini app — the toggle does not cover it
Cover any AI platform except Google's own features — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, and DeepSeek are unaffected
The toggle is binary. You're either in Google's AI features or you're not. No option exists to allow AI Overviews but block AI Mode, or to opt out by query type.
What do the new Search Console AI performance reports show?#
Google's June 3 Search Central announcement confirmed: the new Generative AI performance reports show impressions your content received from AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device, and date.
One hard limitation: the reports show impressions, not clicks. Google isn't disclosing how many users navigate from AI responses to your site. Search Engine Journal flagged this gap as a structural problem: Google gives sites the opt-out control without the click data that would make an informed opt-out decision possible.
What you can work out from impression data alone:
Which pages Google pulls into AI answers most often
Whether your AI impressions are growing or shrinking week over week
Which countries show the strongest AI Overviews presence for your content
What you can't see from Search Console:
Your citation rate on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or any other AI engine
Whether your competitors are earning more AI citations than you
Your AI visibility score relative to your category or competitors
For that cross-engine picture, you need a tool that queries the AI engines by name. BrandCited runs those queries across 9 platforms and returns a score from 0 to 100 for each, with every failing check ranked by impact.
The top-ranking organic result on a query with an AI Overview present sees 58% fewer clicks than the same query without one — yet that page's content is still inside the AI answer.
That gap is what makes the opt-out decision harder than it looks. Your content IS being used to answer queries. You're getting impressions without clicks. Opting out removes the impressions without recovering the clicks, because the behavior — users reading AI answers instead of clicking links — exists regardless of whether your specific content appears in the answer.
Case 1: Publishers that earn revenue from ad-supported page views. If your revenue model requires clicks — display advertising, subscriptions with a metered paywall — AI Overviews consume your inventory. Every query answered by an AI Overview may have sent a reader to your site. Opting out is a reasonable test for this model.
Case 2: Sites handling sensitive topics where AI errors create liability. Legal, medical, and financial content can be misquoted, stripped of context, or combined with other sources in ways that produce inaccurate answers. If your content appears in AI answers about topics where an error harms users, the liability exposure may outweigh the impression value.
Case 3: Brands whose content drives high AI impressions but zero traffic growth. If Search Console's new reports show high AI impressions but your organic traffic has declined, your content may be satisfying user intent without earning any brand recognition. Some niche publishers are finding this pattern.
For most product companies, SaaS brands, and B2B businesses, none of these cases apply. AI impressions build brand recognition even without clicks. Staying in Google's AI features is the default right choice for most brands.
Opollo's 2026 AI Search Benchmark Report found that AI-sourced sessions convert at 14.2% versus 2.8% for traditional organic search. The sessions are smaller in volume today — AI referral traffic accounts for 1.08% of all website traffic, per Conductor's 2026 Benchmarks — but the users who click through buy more often.
Opting out of Google AI features surrenders that traffic for good. Competitors who stay in will accumulate citation authority, brand recognition in AI answers, and the trust signals that come from repeated AI citations over months. That gap compounds.
There's also a timing argument. The new Search Console AI performance reports just launched. You'll have impression data within weeks. Making the opt-out decision before seeing your own numbers means betting on industry averages that don't reflect your site's specific situation.
: The June 17 deadline is two days away. If you use the opt-out toggle and later reverse it, Google will need time to re-include your content. Don't opt out before checking your Search Console AI impression data — the reports are already rolling out to UK sites.
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See how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and 4 other AI platforms mention your brand.
The Google opt-out covers three AI surfaces. It leaves seven unprotected.
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, Copilot, and You.com have no opt-out mechanism. They crawl the web and index your content on their own schedules. If a user asks ChatGPT to recommend a tool in your category, your brand either appears or it doesn't — and no Search Console toggle changes that.
ChatGPT reached 900 million weekly active users as of February 2026 (per OpenAI's announcement). Gemini holds 27.3% of AI referral traffic, and Claude has tripled its share in the past year, per ppc.land's AI traffic analysis). Together, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude cover the majority of the AI search market — and none of them honor a Search Console opt-out.
The Google opt-out is a Google-specific control. Your AI visibility strategy must cover all 9 engines, independent of whatever you decide for Google.
The opt-out also doesn't cover the Gemini app itself, only the AI features built into Google Search. A user asking Gemini a question will still see content from your site if Gemini has indexed it — the opt-out won't change that.
How BrandCited audits your AI visibility before you decide#
BrandCited's AI visibility audit runs 30+ checks across 9 AI engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Copilot, You.com, and Llama. The audit returns a score from 0 to 100 for each engine, with every failing check ranked by citation impact.
Before you make the opt-out decision, run a scan to answer three questions:
What is your current citation rate on ChatGPT and Perplexity, separate from Google?
Which of your pages are getting cited most across AI engines?
Where are your competitors winning AI citations that you're missing?
1Open Search Console and find the AI content controls. Check whether the toggle is visible on your account. UK sites got it first; global rollout is underway. Note your current setting before June 17.
2Review your AI impression data. Google's Generative AI performance report shows which pages appear in AI Overviews. Look at this before making any decision. If your pages have no AI impressions yet, you don't have an opt-out decision to make.
3Run a BrandCited scan. Get your AI visibility score across 9 engines at brandcited.ai. Your Google Search Console data covers Google only. BrandCited shows the other 8 engines your opt-out decision won't touch.
4Add FAQPage schema to your top 5 pages. Whether you stay in or opt out of Google AI features, structured FAQ markup improves citation rates on ChatGPT and Perplexity. Write each question as a user would type it into an AI chatbot. Use this JSON-LD format:
1Don't opt out before you have two weeks of impression data. The Google reports are just rolling out. The decision based on your own numbers will be better than any decision based on industry averages.
2Set a 30-day review. The CMA is monitoring Google's compliance. More granular controls are coming. Check your AI visibility strategy every 30 days.
Google AI Overviews opt-out takes effect June 17: The Search Console toggle blocking content from AI Overviews and AI Mode goes live for UK websites on that date. (Search Engine Land)
ChatGPT market share drops below 53%: ChatGPT's share of AI referral traffic fell to 52.7% as of May 2026, down from 76.5% in February 2025. Claude tripled its traffic share over the same period. (ppc.land)
Gemini overtakes Perplexity in AI search traffic: Gemini's referral share rose to 27.3% as Perplexity dropped from its April 2025 peak of 12% to 7% of AI traffic. (AIVIS Blog)
Google confirms AI spam enforcement is active: Google's spam policies — extended to AI Overviews and AI Mode on May 15 — are being enforced against brands attempting to manipulate AI citations. (Search Engine Land)
GPT-5.2 retired from ChatGPT: OpenAI removed GPT-5.2 on June 12, with existing conversations moved to GPT-5.5. (OpenAI release notes)
What is Google's AI Overviews opt-out and how does it work?
The opt-out is a toggle in Google Search Console, launched June 3, 2026. When activated, it tells Google not to use your site's content to ground AI responses in AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Overviews in Discover. The toggle takes effect June 17, 2026 for UK sites, with global expansion planned. It won't affect your standard organic search rankings — Google confirmed this is not a ranking signal.
Will opting out of Google AI Overviews hurt my SEO rankings?
No. Google confirmed the opt-out toggle won't be used as a ranking signal in standard search. Your organic rankings stay unchanged whether you opt in or out. The only effect is on AI-generated features: AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews in Discover.
Does the Google AI opt-out cover ChatGPT and Perplexity?
No. The opt-out covers only Google's AI features. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, and other AI platforms have no opt-out mechanism linked to Search Console. Those platforms crawl the web on their own and will continue to index and cite your content regardless of your Google setting.
What data does the new Google Search Console AI report show?
The new Generative AI performance report shows impressions your content received from AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device, and date. It does not show click data. Google is not disclosing how many users navigate from AI responses to your site.
Should my brand opt out of Google AI Overviews?
Most product companies and B2B SaaS brands should stay in. AI impressions build brand recognition even without clicks, and AI-sourced sessions convert at 14.2% versus 2.8% for organic search when users do click through. Publishers who depend on ad-supported page views have stronger reasons to consider opting out. Run a BrandCited scan first to see your current AI visibility across all 9 engines: brandcited.ai.
What happens if I opt out and then change my mind?
Google has not published a processing timeline for reversing the opt-out. When you remove the block, Google will need time to re-crawl and re-include your content in AI features. Don't opt out as a test unless you're prepared to stay out for weeks while Google re-processes your site.
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The BrandCited team covers GEO, AI search optimization, and brand visibility strategy. We publish research, practical guides, and product updates every week.
