Google Search recently started showing AI answers at the top of my results, and it is making it harder for me to find normal website links and reliable sources. I need help figuring out how to turn off Google AI search results or remove AI Overview so I can get the classic search experience back.
You usually cannot fully turn off Google’s AI Overview from your account settings. Google does not give most users a clean off switch. Annoying, yep.
What you can do:
-
Use the Web filter.
After you search, click Web. This strips out a lot of extra clutter and shows standard links first.
If you do not see it, click More, then Web. -
Add this to your search.
-type of query site:reddit.com
No, kidding. Better trick:
Use the Web tab, or add extra keywords so Google stops guessing broad intent. -
Try this URL trick.
Search from:
google.com/search?udm=14&q=your+search
udm=14 pushes a more link-focused results page for many searches. -
Use a browser extension.
Some extensions hide AI Overviews from the page. Search your browser’s extension store for things like “Hide Google AI Overview.” Stuff changes fast, so chek reviews first. -
Switch search engines.
DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Kagi, even Bing in some cases gives a different layout. Startpage is decent if you still want Google results without as much mess. -
Sign out or test Incognito.
Google rolls features out unevenly. Some people see diff layouts signed out.
Short version, there is no solid universal off button right now. Best fix is Web tab plus udm=14. That combo works the most consistantly for normal link hunting.
You probly can’t fully disable it account-wide, but there are a few things people miss that help a lot, and they’re different from what @shizuka already listed.
First, check Search Labs. If your AI stuff came from an experimental toggle, go to Google, open Labs, and turn off anything related to AI results or generative search. It won’t help everyone, but for some ppl that’s literally where it came from.
Second, change how you search in browser settings, not just on the results page. In Chrome you can add a custom search engine that sends your searches to a stripped Google query format. That way you don’t have to manually fix it every single time. Bit nerdy, but less annoying long-term.
Third, if you use Firefox, there are user scripts and content blockers with custom cosmetic filters that hide the AI box. I honestly think this works better than random extensions because a lot of extensions get abandoned fast.
Also, tiny disagreement with the “just use another search engine” advice. That’s fine in theory, but if you specifically want Google’s index, it’s not really a real fix.
Last thing: sometimes adding a time filter like Past year or Verbatim can force more normal results. Not always, but worth trying. Google keeps “helping” when nobody asked lol.