Does blocking Google-Extended take you out of AI Overviews? No. Can it take you out of the Gemini app's answers? According to Google's documentation, yes. That asymmetry is the most useful thing to know about getting cited by Gemini, and it follows from how Google splits its controls: Googlebot decides whether you are in Google's index at all, Google-Extended decides whether Gemini apps may use what Google crawled, and a newer Search Console setting decides whether you appear in Search's own AI features.
What Google-Extended controls, in Google's words
Google's list of common crawlers describes Google-Extended as "a standalone product token" that lets publishers manage whether crawled content may be used "for training future generations of Gemini models that power Gemini Apps and Vertex AI API for Gemini and for grounding (providing content from the Google Search index to the model at prompt time to improve factuality and relevancy) in Gemini Apps and Grounding with Google Search on Vertex AI."
It also says Google-Extended "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search."
Read that closely and two things follow:
- It is about training and grounding, not only training. Grounding is the step where Gemini pulls pages from the Search index while answering. Disallow Google-Extended and the documented consequence is that the Gemini app should not ground its answers in your pages, which is where Gemini's citations come from.
- It is not a crawler. Crawling happens through Google's existing user agents. You will not see "Google-Extended" in your logs; you only set it in robots.txt.
Which control governs which surface?
Since 31 August 2026 there are three site-level controls, not two. The new one is Search Console's Search generative AI control, which Google says excludes a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover, takes effect within one to two days, and "isn't used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search." It launched for UK sites in June 2026 after a CMA requirement and reached every site worldwide on 31 August (Search Engine Land).
| Control | Google Search results | AI Overviews and AI Mode | Gemini app answers (grounding) | Gemini model training |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block Googlebot in robots.txt | Out | Out | Out (page is not in the index grounding draws from) | Not crawled, so not used |
| Disallow Google-Extended | No effect | No effect on appearance | Out | Out |
| Search Console Search generative AI control | No effect | Out (also Discover AI features) | Not covered by Google's description | No effect; Google points to Google-Extended |
nosnippet / max-snippet | Limits snippets | Limits what AI features can show | Not documented | Not documented |
Built from Google's common crawlers, AI features and Search generative AI control documentation. "Not documented" means Google says nothing either way.
The practical reading for anyone who wants Gemini citations: leave Googlebot and Google-Extended open. If you want out of AI Overviews but into Gemini, the Search Console control now makes that combination possible; before August it wasn't.
The reverse mistake is still common in published guides: disallowing Google-Extended "to opt out of AI Overviews." That never worked. It only removes you from the surface those guides weren't talking about.
How is the Gemini app different from AI Overviews?
They share an index and a model family, and that's about it. AI Overviews and AI Mode live inside Google Search and are governed by Search's controls. The Gemini app (gemini.google.com and the mobile apps) is a separate assistant whose use of your content is governed by Google-Extended. The same question asked in both often cites different pages, so check them separately.
Gemini is also worth checking on its own merits. Similarweb reported Gemini's US monthly users up 31% between June 2025 and May 2026, while ChatGPT's share of chatbot web visits fell from over 80% to about half (PPC Land). And Gemini leans harder on recent pages than the other engines Seer measured: in Seer Interactive's 2026 study, 78% of the pages Gemini cited had been updated within the past year (ChatGPT 73%, Perplexity 65%), with marketplaces and comparison pages prominent among them.
Two other Gemini surfaces come up in guides:
- Deep Research. Free users can run it a few times a month, with higher limits on paid plans (Search Engine Journal, March 2025). It gathers far more sources than a standard answer. Whether that gives specialist sites better odds is our inference, not a measurement.
- Workspace and Android. Gemini runs inside Gmail, Docs and Android too. We have not found Google documentation on how it attributes web sources there, so treat those surfaces as unmeasured.
What about Gemini inside AI Overviews?
Gemini models also power AI Overviews, and model changes show up there. When Gemini 3 became the default for AI Overviews on 27 January 2026, SE Ranking found 42.4% of previously cited domains replaced across 100,000 keywords, mostly in long-tail queries. That is a Search story, and it is covered in how AI Overviews choose sources.
Reporting follows the same split. Search Console's generative AI report, available to all sites since 31 August 2026, shows impressions for AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features. It does not cover the Gemini app.
How to check whether the Gemini app cites you
There is no publisher report for the Gemini app, so you sample.
- Write 10–20 questions your audience would ask, phrased conversationally.
- Ask each in the Gemini app and, separately, in Google AI Mode. Note which domains each one cites. The overlap (or lack of it) is the most direct evidence you'll get that these are different surfaces.
- Repeat over several days and record a rate rather than a yes/no. How to track AI citations covers how many runs that needs.
For automation, the Gemini API's Grounding with Google Search returns the cited URLs and the search queries it ran. API answers are not identical to the Gemini app's, so label that data as API data. citelity tracks Gemini this way and marks it with an "official API" badge for that reason.
The writing side (answer early, self-contained sections, attributed facts) is the same as for every engine; see what is AEO.
Will I see Google-Extended in my server logs?
Does Google-Extended also affect apps built on Google's AI platform?
Sources
- Google Search Central — Google's common crawlers (Google-Extended)
- Google Search Central — AI features and your website
- Google Search Console Help — Search generative AI control
- Search Engine Land — Search Console AI performance reports and Search generative AI control rolling out globally, 31 Aug 2026
- PPC Land — Similarweb data on chatbot web share, Jul 2026
- Seer Interactive — Content recency's impact on AI visibility in 2026
- Search Engine Journal — Google opens Gemini Deep Research to free users, 14 Mar 2025
- SE Ranking — Gemini 3's impact on AI Overviews, 26 Feb 2026
- Google AI for Developers — Grounding with Google Search
Updated October 1, 2026: added the Search Console Search generative AI control as a third control and rebuilt the article around a controls-by-surface table; corrected Deep Research availability (free with limits since March 2025); removed unsourced claims about Workspace and Android attribution.