Google adds AI search opt-out controls and new Search Console reporting

Google’s newest Search Console controls give publishers a lever they have wanted for months, but it is not the clean escape hatch some agencies may hope for. The company has started testing a new opt-out for AI-powered search experiences, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, while also rolling out AI performance reporting that finally shows how sites surface inside those systems.

The scale matters. Google said AI Overviews now reaches more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, and AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users. That makes this less about a niche experiment and more about a growing layer of discovery that sits between searchers and publishers. Google also said it is adding more inline links, website previews, Preferred Sources, and subscription labels, a clear sign that it wants to keep referral paths alive even as AI summaries become more central.

The catch is that opting out is not the same as turning AI off. Google’s control only affects whether a site is eligible to appear in those experiences. If a publisher opts out, the user still gets an AI answer. Google simply fills that slot with another source, which is why the move can protect content in one sense while handing visibility to a rival in another. The company says sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from its generative AI features, but those same sites can still appear in standard search results. For agencies trying to balance brand control against lost discoverability, that is the real tradeoff.

The measurement problem makes the decision even harder. The new Search Console AI performance report shows impressions, but not clicks, CTR, or query-level data, so teams still cannot cleanly tie AI visibility to downstream traffic or conversions. Barry Schwartz and other industry watchers have pointed to that gap as the key limitation: Google has opened the door to control, but not yet to a full performance picture.

Google said it is testing the control first with a subset of website owners in the United Kingdom and is engaging with regulators such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority as user preferences evolve. That regulatory pressure is part of the backdrop here. The UK Competition and Markets Authority confirmed on October 10, 2025 that Google has strategic market status in general search and search advertising, and that status has helped push the company toward clearer publisher controls.

For agencies, the strategic answer is not automatic opt-out. It is deciding when exclusion from AI surfaces protects the brand, and when it becomes self-sabotage by surrendering share of attention to competitors. In a search market where AI answers are becoming the default layer, disappearing from the experience may cost more than being imperfectly represented in it.