How to opt out of Google AI with Google-Extended
Google-Extended is a robots.txt user-agent token Google provides so site owners can opt out of having their content used for certain Google AI products. Crucially, it is a standalone control: disallowing Google-Extended does not affect Googlebot crawling or your appearance in Google Search.
What Google-Extended is
Google-Extended is a robots.txt token Google introduced to let publishers manage whether their content helps improve certain Google AI products. Google documents it as a standalone control that you set in robots.txt like any other user-agent group.
It is not a crawler that fetches pages with a separate 'Google-Extended' identity in the way Googlebot does; it is a signal Google reads from your robots.txt to decide eligibility for the AI uses it governs.
The rule and what it does not touch
To opt out site-wide:
User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: /
Google states this does not affect Googlebot or how your site is indexed and ranked in Google Search. So you can decline the AI use while remaining fully crawlable for search.
- Token: Google-Extended
- Does NOT affect Googlebot crawling
- Does NOT affect Google Search ranking or indexing
How it appears in analytics and logs
Google-Extended is a policy token, not a distinct crawler you will necessarily see by that name in logs. Disallowing it signals an opt-out for the AI products it governs; it does not change Googlebot's crawl behaviour.
Diagnostic use case
Opt out of Google's generative-AI use of your content while keeping normal Googlebot crawling and search indexing intact.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID keeps Googlebot and AI-crawler activity separate in your view, so you can confirm that opting out of Google-Extended has not disturbed normal search crawling.
Common mistakes
- Assuming Google-Extended blocks Googlebot or hurts search ranking — it does not.
- Blocking Googlebot itself when you only meant to opt out of AI use.
- Expecting it to control non-Google AI crawlers.
Privacy and accuracy notes
This is a content-usage policy choice, expressed in a public file. It does not involve visitor data and is not a security control.
Related pages
- Writing an AI crawler policy for robots.txt
An AI crawler policy is a deliberate decision about which AI-related tokens you allow and which you disallow in robots.txt. This page offers a structured way to make and document those choices, while staying realistic: robots.txt is a request to compliant crawlers, not a legal or technical guarantee.
- How to block GPTBot in robots.txt
If you do not want OpenAI's training crawler fetching your site, you can disallow GPTBot in robots.txt. This page gives the exact rule, clarifies that it does not affect ChatGPT-User or OAI-SearchBot, and is honest about the limits of robots-based blocking.
- AI visibility analytics
Track AI-crawler and search-crawler activity separately.
Sources and verification notes
- Google — Google-Extended and AI crawler controlsDocuments Google-Extended as a standalone robots.txt control.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.