Snippet controls for AI Overviews and AI Mode

The controls

Rule	Where	Effect on AI Overviews and AI Mode
nosnippet	<meta name="robots"> or X-Robots-Tag header	No text snippet, and the content is not used as a direct input
max-snippet:[number]	same	Limits snippet length and how much content may be used as a direct input
data-nosnippet	HTML attribute on elements	Excludes those elements’ text from snippets
noindex	same as nosnippet	Page is dropped from Google Search entirely

nosnippet: “Do not show a text snippet or video preview in the search results for this page.” Google states this applies to all forms of search results, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. It also prevents the content from being used as a direct input for those features.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

max-snippet:[number] sets a maximum number of characters for a text snippet. It applies to AI Overviews and AI Mode too, “and will also limit how much of the content may be used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode.”

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Google’s AI features guide names nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as the controls “to limit the information shown from your pages in Search”, and points to Google-Extended only for Google’s other AI systems.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Examples

<!-- Whole page: no snippet, not a direct input for AI features -->
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">

<!-- Whole page: at most 160 characters -->
<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:160">

<!-- Part of a page -->
<p>Shown in snippets. <span data-nosnippet>Not shown in snippets.</span></p>

For non-HTML files, send the same rules as an HTTP header: X-Robots-Tag: nosnippet.

Crawlers must be able to read them

These settings “can be read and followed only if crawlers are allowed to access the pages that include these settings.” A page blocked in robots.txt cannot tell Google nosnippet or noindex.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Trade-offs

• nosnippet also removes the snippet from classic results, which usually lowers click-through. To leave AI features only, use the site-wide Search generative AI control in Search Console (rolled out to all sites by August 31, 2026) instead.
• Changes apply after Google recrawls the page; use the URL Inspection tool to check what Googlebot saw.

Related

• Google-Extended — controls Gemini training and grounding, not Search.
• robots.txt — controls crawling, not what is shown.