Over the past couple of years, Google has steadily pushed Gemini into almost every corner of its ecosystem. From Gmail’s AI-powered inbox to Chrome’s built-in chat sidebar, it now feels baked into Workspace by default. If you are among those who don’t want AI to sketch out a first draft of your email and find this pushed-to-the-forefront feature more distracting than useful, read on – this how-to is for you.
To turn Gemini off, you will need to switch off two separate sets of settings. The first includes features like Smart Compose that are shared across Gmail, Chat, and Meet, so disabling them in one place removes them from all three apps. The easiest way to do this is through Gmail’s web version.
- In Gmail, tap the cog icon.
- Select See all settings.
- Under the General tab, scroll down to find Smart features.
- Disable Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet
Google notes that in regions such as the UK, Switzerland, Japan, and the European Economic Areathese settings are disabled by default.
Next, turn your attention to Workspace.
- In Gmail, tap the cog icon.
- Select See all settings.
- Under the General tab, scroll down and click Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
- Toggle off smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products.
However, there’s an important caveat: fully switching off these options doesn’t just disable Gemini-powered tools; it also removes long-standing features such as spelling and grammar checks, Smart Compose, and inbox prioritization. Gmail may even stop automatically categorizing emails, with on-screen prompts noting that smart features are required for these functions.
If you want to remove Gemini but still keep some of Google’s other useful features in Gmail and other apps, it’s best to leave the first set of smart features on and switch off the Workspace-specific ones. You can also choose to disable only selected features in the first group while keeping the rest active. Below is a breakdown of those features, with quick explanations for the less obvious ones.
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Autocorrect
- Smart Compose- as you write an email, Gmail will generate predictive writing suggestions
- Smart Compose personalization- as you write, Gmail will tailor Smart Compose suggestions to your writing style
- Nudges- Gmail will generate notifications prompting you to respond or follow up on unanswered emails.
- Smart Reply- Gmail will generate suggestions on how to respond to an email
- Package tracking- Google will display shipping updates inside Gmail
- Desktop notifications- Yes, for some reason, you need the power of AI to get notifications on your PC
While helpful, unfortunately, Google doesn’t offer the same level of control over smart features in Workspace. For example, turning off Gemini in Docs can also affect how other apps, such as Calendar, surface events from Gmail. In short, Google makes it difficult to completely disable these features, effectively discouraging users from switching Gemini off.
How to remove Gemini from your professional Workspace account
If your organization uses Google Workspace, you’ll still find most of these settings in Gmail and can follow the same steps to disable many of Google’s smart features. However, the second step doesn’t completely remove Gemini. You’ll likely still see it in apps like Docs and Sheets even after turning off Workspace smart features.
