How to Disable Google's Gemini in Chrome

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Lily Hay NewmanSecurityMay 7, 2026 4:31 PMYou Can Disable Gemini in Chrome if It’s Freaking You OutChrome users were caught off guard by a 4-GB Google AI model baked into Chrome, sparking privacy concerns. The good news: You can easily uninstall it. You might not want to.

Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Save this story Save this storyIf you use Google's Chrome browser for desktop, there's probably a Gemini Nano AI model running on your computer right now and taking up about 4 GB of space. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn't know about it and don't want it, there's a way to turn it off. The file started auto-downloading for Chrome users in 2024 after Google built Gemini Nano into the browser.

Technical Details

But a report by That Privacy Guy this week and the ensuing reception it received highlighted how unaware many users were—perhaps a result of a flood of AI services and features across the tech industry that have been difficult for users to keep up with. To uninstall the Gemini Nano file, open Chrome on your computer, in the top right corner click the “More” menu represented by three vertical dots, then go to Settings, System, and then toggle “On-device AI” to be off. The Privacy Guy article noted that if you directly uninstall the Gemini Nano file in the directory, Chrome will silently, automatically redownload it the next time the browser reboots.

A Google spokesperson tells WIRED that the company started rolling out the On-device AI toggle in February so users can turn off the features if they choose and remove the model. “Once disabled, the model will no longer download or update,” the spokesperson says in a statement. The company added, too, that the system is designed so Gemini Nano “will automatically uninstall if the device is low on resources.

”Google built the model into Chrome to enabled on-device AI scam-detection features. It was also aimed at providing a way for developers to integrate AI-related application programming interfaces while keeping data on users' devices when possible and out of the cloud. These features are separate from Chrome's AI Mode, which does not use the local Gemini Nano model.

Industry Implications

Parisa Tabriz, Chrome's general manager, emphasized in a post on X on Wednesday that integrating Gemini Nano “powers important security capabilities like on-device scam detection and developer APIs without sending your data to the cloud. ”Google certainly did announce the Gemini Nano integration into Chrome and discussed it publicly, but for users who simply use Chrome because it is the world's biggest, most recognizable browser and don't necessarily follow every granular update, the lack of an in-your-face notification about a large AI model file sitting and running on your computer may be upsetting. Longtime security and compliance consultant Davi Ottenheimer says that he follows Chrome updates closely but could have easily missed the Gemini Nano integration.

“An on-device model could be a hidden minefield,” he says.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.