Question
Should I allow Google-Extended?
Google-Extended is a robots.txt control for whether your already-indexed content is used to train and ground Gemini. Blocking it does not affect Google Search indexing or ranking. Keep it allowed if you want Gemini to be able to ground answers on your content; block it if you want to opt out of generative training.
What Google-Extended is and is not
- It is: a standalone robots.txt token that governs Gemini app/API training and grounding use.
- It is not: a crawler with its own user-agent — Googlebot still does the actual crawling.
- It does not change how you rank in Google Search or appear in AI Overviews indexing.
How to decide
- Want maximum AI answer surface: allow Google-Extended so Gemini can ground on you.
- Publisher protecting licensed content: block it to opt out of generative use while keeping Search.
- Unsure: allowing is the lower-risk default for visibility-first sites.
robots.txt to block generative use only
# Keep normal Google Search; opt out of Gemini training/grounding
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /Confirm it is in place
curl -s https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt | grep -A1 -i 'google-extended'Related pages: what is Google-Extended, should I allow GPTBot, AI crawler user agents.