Published: 4 November 2026
Google will switch off Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search for K-12 student accounts until a school administrator turns them on, the company announced on 3 November 2026. Schools can enable each product separately, but Search now comes with its AI built in. Students at a school that restricts AI altogether “will not have access to Search”, Google’s education chief Chris Phillips told The New York Times.
Admins can switch each product back on, but Search keeps AI Mode and AI Overviews
The change flips the default. A school will start with all four products off for students. Nothing comes on until an administrator says so. Google told Engadget that admins can enable the products one at a time, so it is not all or nothing. A school can allow Search and keep the Gemini app off, for example.
What a school cannot do, based on what Google has said so far, is give students the classic list of links without AI. In a clarification on X, Google described AI Mode and AI Overviews as part of the Search it will offer schools. “Search and AI are deeply integrated,” Phillips told the Times. Students at a school that keeps all AI off will see a message from their school that Search is not available. Google has not said whether a links-only version will exist.
When will Gemini and Search be switched off for students?
Google has not given a date. Its blog post says schools will get more details “in the coming months” before the change rolls out. TechCrunch reports it is planned for next year. The post names no country or region. K-12 is the US term for primary and secondary school, and Google has not said whether schools in Europe get the same default at the same time.
The move follows pushback from teachers. In August, Google switched on some AI features in Classroom by default. Educators pushed back, Engadget reported, citing The New York Times. Public schools in New York City and Los Angeles have since restricted generative AI for younger students.
Google wants AI Overviews to coach students instead of handing them answers
Google’s case for keeping AI inside student Search is Guided Learning. This mode walks a student through a problem step by step instead of giving the answer. Google is building it into Search for student accounts, starting with a pilot in selected US schools later this month. Since 3 November, teachers can also assign Guided Learning activities in Google Classroom worldwide and see where their class needs extra help. Google says its research shows measurable learning gains, but the announcement gives no numbers.
Decide on Gemini and Search one by one before Google’s default decides for you
For school boards, this turns AI policy from a document into a setting. Until now, many schools could postpone the question because the tools were simply there. Under the new default, someone has to decide for each product whether students get it, and the Search decision is now an AI decision too. That choice belongs in the school’s AI and privacy policy, agreed with teachers and parents, not in an admin console on the day the switch flips.
The same pattern is reaching workplace software. AI is being built into tools people cannot work without, so “AI off” increasingly means “tool off”. The useful question for any organisation is therefore less “AI or no AI” and more “which features, for whom, and under what conditions”. Schools that settle it now can use the coming months to prepare:
- Write down, per product, who gets access and why: Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Search.
- Check with a test account in the student group what students see once Search is off, and choose an alternative search engine if you go that way.
- Train teachers on Guided Learning and AI Overviews before you switch anything on for students.
- Outside the US, ask your Google partner whether and when the new default reaches your schools.
For more information, visit the official announcement of Google’s new school AI controls on the Google blog.
