Does blocking Google-Extended remove a site from AI Overviews?

Definition: Google-Extended is a robots.txt product token controlling specified Gemini model training and grounding uses, where grounding supplies Search index content to a model at prompt time. As of 17 October 2026, blocking it does not remove a site from AI Overviews, Google's AI summaries in Search.

Key facts

• Google's common crawlers documentation states that Google-Extended has no effect on inclusion or ranking in Google Search.
• Google's AI features documentation identifies Googlebot as the crawl control for Search. A supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode requires a page indexed and eligible for a Search snippet, the text preview accompanying a result.
• Google's robots meta tag specification states that nosnippet prevents page content from being used as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It also removes text snippets and video previews from ordinary Search results.

What does Google-Extended control?

The Google-Extended documentation covers training future Gemini models powering Gemini Apps and the Vertex AI API for Gemini. It also covers grounding in Gemini Apps and Grounding with Google Search on Vertex AI. These are the named uses governed by the token.

Google-Extended has no separate HTTP request user-agent string. Google crawls with existing user-agent strings and uses the robots.txt token to control the specified uses of that content.

A site-wide rule for that token can take this form:

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

Google's robots.txt specification defines Disallow: / as blocking all crawling for the matched group. Applied to Google-Extended, the group expresses the content-use restriction described above. The file belongs in the site's top-level directory; its rules apply to the host, protocol and port where it is served.

Which controls affect AI Overviews?

Google's robots meta tag specification documents controls with different scopes. A page-level instruction to prevent text snippets and direct input into AI Overviews and AI Mode can appear in the HTML <head>:

<meta name="googlebot" content="nosnippet">

This setting also affects Google's other search results. A static image thumbnail can still appear.

For selected text, data-nosnippet excludes marked HTML regions from snippets. The max-snippet rule limits snippet characters and how much content may be direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Its limit has exceptions for separately permitted uses, including in-page structured data or a licensing agreement. The value max-snippet:0 is equivalent to nosnippet.

The noindex rule excludes the page from search results altogether. Google must be able to crawl a page to read its meta instructions, so combining these instructions with a crawl block can prevent their processing.

How can a website check a change?

Google's preview-control troubleshooting guidance recommends the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to examine the HTML Googlebot received. This checks whether the intended instruction is visible to Googlebot.

Google then needs to recrawl and process the changed controls. The same guidance describes a crawl interval ranging from several days to several months and provides a route to request a recrawl.

Related terms

• Google-Extended
• Googlebot
• Google AI Overviews
• robots.txt
• nosnippet

FAQ

Can I block Google-Extended and keep my pages eligible for Search?

Yes. Google's crawler documentation says this token has no effect on Search inclusion or ranking.

Can I remove a page from Google Search with noindex?

Yes. Google's meta tag specification defines noindex as exclusion from search results. Keep the page crawlable so Google can read the instruction.

Does allowing Googlebot ensure an AI Overviews link?

No. Google's AI features documentation requires indexing and snippet eligibility for supporting links, and states that meeting its requirements leaves crawling, indexing and serving subject to Google's systems.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "AI features and your website", 10 December 2025
2. Google Crawling Infrastructure, "List of Google's common crawlers", 15 October 2026
3. Google Search Central, "Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications", 24 March 2026
4. Google Crawling Infrastructure, "How Google interprets the robots.txt specification", 31 August 2026

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