You can’t fully “turn off AI overview” in Gmail with a single master switch, but you can effectively disable Gmail’s Gemini/AI summary and smart features by changing a few settings. Below is a blog-style breakdown you can use.

How Do I Turn Off AI Overview in Gmail?

Google keeps renaming and shuffling its AI features, but most of what people call “AI overview” in Gmail comes from smart features, Gemini integration, and AI summaries of emails or threads. You can largely shut this down by turning off Smart features and Google Workspace smart features.

Step-by-step: Turn off AI features in Gmail (Desktop)

  1. Open Gmail in a browser and sign in to the account you want to change.
  1. Click the gear icon (Settings) in the top-right.
  1. Click See all settings.
  1. In the General tab, scroll down and disable:
    • Smart Compose
    • Smart Compose personalization
    • Smart Reply
    • (Optionally) any other “help me write” or AI-writing‑related options you see.
  1. Scroll to the bottom and click Save changes.

These steps remove AI‑driven writing suggestions and quick replies, which are a big part of the AI layer in Gmail.

Turn off “Smart features” and Workspace AI (Desktop)

This is the deeper switch that affects summaries and cross‑product AI signals.

  1. Still in Gmail, go to Settings → See all settings if you’re not already there.
  1. Look for a section called Smart features and personalization or Smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
  2. Uncheck or turn off Smart features. This disables AI‑powered summaries, smart category organization, some event extraction, and similar tools.
  1. Find Google Workspace smart features or Manage Workspace smart feature settings and click it.
  1. Turn off:
    • Smart features in Google Workspace
    • Smart features in other Google products (like Maps, Assistant, Gemini app suggestions).

This is what most privacy‑focused guides recommend if you’re trying to stop Gmail data from being used for AI‑driven experiences across Google’s ecosystem.

Mini‑note: Turning all of this off may also disable “classic” conveniences like spellcheck and grammar suggestions, because Google bundles them under the same smart‑features umbrella.

Turn off AI summaries in the Gmail mobile app (Android & iOS)

On mobile, the wording is similar: “Smart features” often control AI summaries.

  1. Open the Gmail app.
  1. Tap the menu (three lines) in the top-left.
  1. Scroll down and tap Settings.
  1. Tap the Gmail account you want to adjust.
  1. In the General or Smart features section, toggle Smart features OFF.

On Android, this specifically turns off AI summaries that appear at the top of emails or threads. On both Android and iOS, it also cuts down Gemini suggestions and other predictive behaviors.

What about “AI overview” in Google search, not Gmail?

Some people use “AI overview” to talk about Google Search’s AI answers, which can bleed into how you discover emails or links, but that’s separate from Gmail’s inbox. In Chrome or Google Search you can often choose a “Web” tab or turn off experimental AI features in your browser or Google account settings, but that won’t change Gmail’s own smart features.

Simple settings snapshot

Here’s a compact view of what to toggle if you want Gmail as close to “no AI overview” as possible:

  • Turn off Smart Compose and Smart Reply.
  • Turn off Smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
  • Turn off Google Workspace smart features and related toggles for other Google products.
  • On mobile, toggle off Smart features for each Gmail account in the app.

Do those, and most visible AI overviews, summaries, and Gemini‑style helpers in Gmail will disappear or be heavily reduced.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.