In short. max-video-preview sets a video preview duration limit in seconds, with 0 allowing at most a static image and -1 imposing no duration limit.

Definition: As of 17 October 2026, max-video-preview is a robots rule that sets the maximum duration, in seconds, of a video preview for videos on a page in Google search results. It supports a static-image-only setting and an unlimited-duration setting.

Key facts

Google's robots specification defines 0 as allowing at most a static image and -1 as imposing no duration limit.
Google's preview controls announcement, published on 24 September 2019, introduces video duration alongside separate controls for text length and image size.
Google's AI features guidance lists nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as controls for limiting information shown from pages in Search.

What do the values mean?

Google's specification for video previews measures the limit in seconds. With no rule, Google chooses the preview duration. With 0, any static image remains subject to max-image-preview, the rule governing image preview size. With -1, there is no duration cap.

An unparseable number causes Google to ignore the rule. The documented scope includes web search, Google Images and Google Videos. The value describes a maximum permitted preview duration, rather than a requested playback duration.

How is the rule added to a page?

Google's announcement of preview settings describes placement in the HTML <head> or delivery through the X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header. It also shows that preview controls can be combined in the same robots tag.

The following HTML follows the syntax in Google's robots specification and allows at most a static image:

<meta name="robots" content="max-video-preview:0">

The equivalent response header is:

X-Robots-Tag: max-video-preview:0

The specification permits any robots meta rule in this header. The URL carrying the instruction must remain accessible to the crawler: a robots.txt crawl restriction prevents Google from reading the page's preview controls.

How does this relate to AI search controls?

Google's AI features guidance directs publishers to the separate controls listed above to limit information shown from their pages. For checking implementation, it recommends the URL Inspection tool to examine the HTML received by Googlebot, Google's search crawler.

The same guidance says Google must recrawl and process changes before they take effect. It describes recrawling as taking several days to several months, depending on how often a page needs refreshing, and allows a recrawl request after changes.

FAQ

Does zero remove every visual preview?

Google's robots specification allows a static image with max-video-preview:0. The max-image-preview setting governs that image.

Where can I check whether Google sees my setting?

Google's AI features troubleshooting guidance recommends URL Inspection to view the HTML Googlebot received. You can check the robots tag there and allow time for recrawling after a change.

Sources

Check how a page reads to answer engines. Open the GEO score analyzer