Direct answer: If you want to exclude a Search Console property from Google's generative AI features while retaining ordinary Search inclusion, use the Search generative AI control. If you want to change a particular page's text preview or direct AI input, use the documented snippet directives. noindex removes a page from Google results. The scope and cost of each choice differ.
The practical dilemma is often a service page with public facts and a sensitive section, or a paid report preview that needs to be findable without giving away the full text. Decide first whether the policy applies to a whole verified Search Console property or to particular pages and passages.
First decide whether the whole property should appear in Google's AI features
Google's Search generative AI control is available in Search Console under Settings → Search generative AI. As of August 31, 2026, Google says it is available to all websites worldwide. The default includes the property's links and content in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Discover. Choosing Exclude prevents that content from appearing as links or grounding input in those features; Google says the property will not receive impressions or traffic from them. A child property can inherit or override a parent's choice, so check the property scope before changing it.
Google says this control is not a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search. It also does not govern AI training; Google directs publishers to Google-Extended for that separate purpose. If the goal is to keep ordinary Search results while opting out of the named Google AI features, this is the more direct control than removing ordinary snippets from every page. It is still specific to Google's listed features, not all AI assistants.
Then choose page-level preview rules where needed
Google's robots meta specification documents these controls for individual pages and passages. It warns that other search engines may interpret them differently.
| Control | Scope | Editorial decision |
|---|---|---|
nosnippet |
Page-level text snippet and video preview; also direct input to Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode | Use only if losing the normal text preview is acceptable. |
max-snippet:n |
Maximum characters in a Google text snippet and limit on direct AI input | Set a measured limit, then inspect the result; it is not a guarantee of a specific excerpt. |
data-nosnippet |
Text inside valid span, div, or section elements is excluded from snippets |
Useful for a particular passage, but Google does not explicitly document it as a direct AI-input exclusion rule. |
noindex |
Whole page in Google Search | Use when the page itself should not appear. |
For example, a public service page might keep its clear offer and eligibility visible but mark a short licensed quotation with data-nosnippet for snippet exclusion. A paid report teaser might use a limited excerpt and keep the full report behind access controls. If preventing direct AI input is the actual goal, rely on the documented property control or nosnippet/max-snippet behavior instead of assuming the text-level attribute has that effect. The directive is an implementation detail of an actual publishing policy; it cannot decide which information should be public.
There are two important limits. First, Google's documentation says max-snippet limits may not apply where the publisher separately permits use, such as through certain structured data or a license. It also says structured data within a data-nosnippet element can still be used for search presentation. Audit the page's visible text and its structured data. Second, a robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag must be fetched to be read; a crawl block is not a reliable substitute for a directive carried on the blocked URL. Test the delivered HTML or response header, then check the page's search behavior after Google recrawls.
Do not describe these controls as a universal AI opt-out. The cited Google rules cover named Google search surfaces; another crawler or product has its own controls and terms. The existing OpenAI crawler-controls article deals with OpenAI bots. Google's generative AI guide also cautions that there is no special schema markup required to appear in generative AI Search.
For a website redesign, record the policy per page type: public marketing copy, licensed extracts, paid documents, and private data. Have an owner verify the Search Console property setting and a developer verify any page directives in the delivered response. ARCHV can incorporate this decision into a scoped site plan; the business owner should approve the visibility trade-off before changing a live page.