If you want a clean page of links and Google keeps handing you a generated summary first, you are not short of options, you are short of a guide that compares them honestly. There is no single off-switch, and after Google made AI Mode the default search experience at I/O 2026, the AI answer is now what most people see first rather than something they opt into. This article is the methods-and-extensions reference. It covers every reliable way to hide AI Overviews in June 2026, from the udm=14 web filter and a hide Google AI Overviews Chrome extension to uBlock Origin filters and a change of default engine, with the real trade-off attached to each. If you want the shorter walkthrough and the strategic context for brands, our companion piece on how to turn off AI Overviews and AI Mode covers that ground; this one goes deep on the tooling.
One definition first, because it decides which method fits. An AI Overview is the generated summary that sits above an otherwise normal results page. AI Mode is the fuller conversational experience that takes your question, fans it out into related searches and returns a synthesised answer instead of a list of links. They used to be separate things you chose. Since Google upgraded AI Mode to run on Gemini 3.5 Flash and made it the global default at I/O 2026, with the feature passing a billion monthly users, the two are woven through ordinary search (Google). The good news is that the methods below tend to defeat both at once, because they route you to the classic results page where neither appears. For the wider picture of how this category works, our explainer on what AI search is sets the scene.
Before you start: there is no permanent off-switch
Set expectations and the rest gets simpler. Google treats AI Overviews and AI Mode as core parts of Search, in the same family as Featured Snippets and Knowledge Panels, not optional add-ons you disable in an account setting. As 9to5Google has reported, there is officially no single toggle to switch AI Overviews off, and the company positions these answers as standard product behaviour (9to5Google). What you have instead is a spectrum of workarounds, from a per-search tap to a browser-level default, and the better ones deliver a clean, link-only page nearly every time.
It is worth knowing why anyone bothers. Pew Research analysed the browsing of 900 US adults and found that when an AI summary was present, people clicked a traditional result on just 8% of visits, against 15% when no summary appeared, and clicked a link inside the summary itself only 1% of the time (Pew Research). For people who want sources rather than a paraphrase, the summary is friction, and the methods here remove it.
Method 1: The Web filter (zero setup, per search)
In May 2024 Google added a Web filter to the results page. Run any search, then look at the row of filters under the search box (All, Images, News, Videos and so on). Tap Web, which is sometimes tucked under a More menu, and the page reloads with traditional web results only: no AI Overview, no extra panels, just links. It works on desktop and mobile and needs nothing installed.
The catch is that it is per search. You tap it each time, and Google does not let you set Web as a permanent default from inside Search. For a one-off query where you simply want the sources, it is the fastest route. To make it stick, you bake the same instruction into your browser, which is Method 2.
Method 2: The udm=14 parameter (the most durable fix)
Behind the Web filter sits a URL parameter: udm=14. Adding `&udm=14` to a Google search URL forces the classic, link-only results page. Ernie Smith of the Tedium newsletter popularised it in May 2024 after spotting the new Web filter at that year's I/O, and the single-serving site he built around it, udm14.com, carries the tagline "the disenshittification Konami code" (Tedium). Two years and several search overhauls later, it still works reliably in June 2026, and the reason matters. The parameter leans on Google's own server-side filter rather than hiding elements after the page has loaded. That is what makes it survive the page-structure changes that break other methods.
You can type `&udm=14` onto the end of a results URL by hand, but the durable move is to register a custom search engine in your browser that adds it for you. Set that engine as the default and every search from the address bar lands on the AI-free page automatically.
| Browser | Custom search URL to add |
|---|---|
| Chrome (desktop) | {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14 |
| Firefox (desktop and mobile) | google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s |
| Edge and other Chromium browsers | https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 |
In Chrome, add this under Settings, then Search engine, then Manage search engines and site search, then set the new entry as default. Edge and Brave follow the same pattern under their own search settings. If you would rather not touch any settings, front-end portals such as udm14.com append the parameter for you, and you can bookmark them. One honest caveat: the strict Web view can occasionally strip out the local pack or map results you actually wanted, so keep a normal Google search to hand for "near me" lookups.
Method 3: A hide Google AI Overviews Chrome extension
If editing search settings feels fiddly, a hide Google AI Overviews Chrome extension automates the same idea and is the route most non-technical users reach for. The Chrome Web Store carries several built for this exact job. Hide Google AI Overviews strips the summary block out of the results page with no configuration, and works immediately after install. Bye Bye, Google AI hides the AI Overview by default and adds optional toggles to remove other clutter such as discussion blocks, shopping blocks and sponsored results (Chrome Web Store). Open-source projects such as zbarnz's Google AI Overviews Blocker ship the same behaviour for both Chrome and Firefox.
These extensions split into two families, and the distinction decides how robust they are. Some apply udm=14 or the Web filter under the bonnet, which inherits the durability of Method 2. Others are content filters that match Google's page elements and hide the overview after the page renders. The second kind is the more common, and it is the more fragile, for a reason worth understanding before you trust one.
Method 4: A uBlock Origin filter (for people who already run it)
Want to see this in action?
Check how AI models talk about your brand — free, instant, no signup required.
If you already use uBlock Origin, you can hide the overview with a cosmetic filter and skip a dedicated extension entirely. The community keeps small filter lists for this, such as xolossus's Google AI Overview Hide, which targets the elements Google uses for the summary. You paste a rule into uBlock's My Filters tab, or use the element picker to select the overview box and let it generate the rule.
The honest warning lives in that project's own README, and it applies to every DOM-based method including most content-filter extensions: "Google frequently changes internal class names (like `.GcKpu`, `.hdzaWe`, etc.). If the filter stops working and I have not updated the repository yet, open your browser's DevTools (Inspect Element) and update the selectors." That is the trade-off in one sentence. A cosmetic filter that matches on class names will break for a day or two whenever Google reshuffles its markup, until someone updates the rule. The udm=14 approach does not have this failure mode because it never touches the page structure.
Method 5: Switch engine or use an AI-free front-end
The most complete way to never see a Google AI answer is to stop sending those queries to Google. Privacy-focused engines and AI-free front-ends return traditional, link-first results by default, and several community sites exist purely to give you the ten-blue-links experience on top of a major index. Switching your default engine removes the problem at the source rather than hiding it after the fact. The cost is some of Google's personalisation and local features, which is why many people set a non-AI engine as their everyday default and keep Google for maps and local lookups.
The methods compared
Pick by how permanent you need it and how much fragility you can tolerate. Durability here means how well a method survives Google changing its page layout.
| Method | Permanent | Effort | Durability | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web filter | No, per search | Very low | High | A quick one-off, link-only result |
| udm=14 custom engine | Yes, until changed | Low, one-time | High | Everyday AI-free searching |
| Chrome extension (udm-based) | Yes, while installed | Low | High | Install-and-forget, low fuss |
| Chrome extension (content filter) | Yes, while installed | Low | Medium | Same, but may break on layout changes |
| uBlock Origin filter | Yes, while subscribed | Low to medium | Medium | People already running uBlock |
| Switch search engine | Yes | Medium | High | A clean break from AI answers |
A note on settings, Labs and the publisher opt-out
Three things are easy to mistake for an off-switch and are not. First, Google Search Labs (the beaker icon at labs.google.com) once carried a toggle to switch AI Overviews experiments off for some accounts. As of 2026 that control has been removed for most accounts, and even when present it only reduced Overviews rather than eliminating them. Worth a glance, not worth relying on.
Second, a native Classic-versus-AI switch for Chrome was teased around I/O 2026 but is not in the stable browser as of June 2026, so the udm=14 parameter remains the most dependable opt-out for now.
Third, and most often confused with a user setting, is the Search Console publisher opt-out. From June 2026 Google began letting website owners decide, via a Search Console toggle, whether their content is used to ground AI Overviews and AI Mode, with the controls tested first on a subset of UK website owners. Sites that opt out keep appearing in regular Search and Discover but stop receiving traffic and impressions from AI features. Google says the choice is not used as a ranking signal and does not affect the separate Gemini app, and it began acting on the signal from 17 June 2026 (9to5Google). That is a lever for people who own a website, not for people doing the searching. If you are a searcher, it does nothing for your results. If you run a brand, it is a strategic decision, and the next section is for you.
What hiding them does, and does not, do
Every method above changes only what you see. None of them changes how Google ranks pages, and none of them removes the AI Overview for anyone else. You still get the traditional view drawn from the same index. You simply skip the summary and, occasionally, a few local panels. That is the whole effect for an individual searcher.
For brands, this is the part that matters and the reason opting out deserves a sober look rather than a reflexive yes. Hiding AI Overviews in your own browser, or even removing your site from them via the publisher toggle, protects nothing if your competitors stay in and get named in the answer a buyer reads first. The audience has split into two groups pulling in opposite directions. One routes around AI answers to classic links, the other reaches decisions inside the generated summary. The users who opt out still find you through traditional ranking, which is why classic SEO keeps earning its keep. The users who stay only encounter you if a model chooses to mention or cite your brand, a different discipline governed by how AI models decide which brands to recommend.
The two channels are not in opposition, and the same well-structured, trustworthy content tends to serve both. So for most brands the better move is not to disappear from AI answers but to earn a fair, accurate place inside them, which is what our guide on how to appear in AI Overviews walks through. Whichever way you lean, the decision should rest on data about how often the engines actually name you today, not a hunch, and you can start with a quick AI visibility check.
The bottom line
Hiding Google AI Overviews comes down to choosing the workaround that matches how you search, because Google offers no true off-switch and AI Mode is now the default surface. For everyday use, a udm=14 custom search engine or a udm-based extension delivers a clean, link-only Google with almost no ongoing effort, and it survives Google's frequent layout changes. The Web filter covers the occasional one-off, and content-filter extensions and uBlock rules work well as long as you accept they may break for a day or two after a Google update. For anyone responsible for a brand, the more important point is the one a personal off-switch cannot solve. Opting out hides AI answers for you, not for the rest of the market, so being findable in both classic results and AI answers is the safer strategy, and knowing where you stand starts with measurement rather than guesswork.
