How to Disable AI Features in Firefox

Firefox now ships with a stack of AI-powered extras: link previews, AI tab grouping, alt text for PDFs, translation, and a chatbot in the sidebar. Some readers want all of it gone, others just want the chatbot out of the way.

Firefox Settings has an AI controls page that handles both cases. The block switch turns everything off at once, and the individual toggles let you keep the tools you actually use.

In this guide, I have covered:

Turn off Firefox’s built-in AI features

You want the AI out of Firefox, and you’d rather not click through every panel to find the switches. Firefox ships a set of built-in tools that lean on artificial intelligence: link previews, AI-enhanced tab grouping, alt text for PDFs, translation, and a chatbot in the sidebar. You can turn the whole set off in one move, or pick off the ones that bother you.

The fastest route is the master switch on Firefox’s AI controls page. Mozilla’s Firefox AI controls support guide notes that this switch also suppresses the promotional messages Firefox shows about its AI features.

1. Open the Firefox menu on the menu bar.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select AI controls in the left sidebar.
4. Turn on Block AI enhancements.
5. Close Settings and check that the disabled features no longer appear.

Your choice is saved, and it should hold when Firefox updates. Come back to the same page whenever you want to change a single setting or bring the AI features back.

Turn off one AI feature at a time

Maybe link previews earn their keep and the sidebar chatbot does not. For that mix, leave Block AI enhancements off and use the individual switches instead. They behave like Firefox’s other per-feature settings, such as the per-site exceptions you set when you allow pop-ups temporarily for one site.

1. Open the Firefox menu.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select AI controls in the left sidebar.
4. Turn off each feature you don’t want: Translations, Alt text in PDFs, AI-enhanced tab grouping, Link previews, or AI chatbot in sidebar.
5. Close Settings and test the features you turned off.

To bring a feature back later, return to AI controls and flip its switch on again. The list of controls and the exact wording can differ between Firefox releases.

Firefox’s AI controls cover features built into the browser. They don’t disable AI tools, chatbots, or generated content on third-party websites, and they don’t remove AI-related extensions you installed yourself.

Remove the AI chatbot from the sidebar

The chatbot sitting in the sidebar has its own switch, so you can remove it without touching the rest of the AI features. You don’t need the master block for this.

1. Open the Firefox menu.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select AI controls in the left sidebar.
4. Turn off AI chatbot in sidebar.
5. Close the sidebar if it’s open, then reopen it to confirm the chatbot is gone.

The sidebar holds other panels too, and you can hide the ones you never open. Those are separate controls from the AI switch, so check the sidebar’s own options after you finish here.

What to do if the AI controls are missing

You opened Settings and there’s no AI controls entry in the sidebar. That section arrives with newer Firefox releases, so check your version first: the AI controls are available in Firefox 148 and later.

1. Open the Firefox menu.
2. Select Help.
3. Select About Firefox to open the version information page.
4. Select Update Firefox if an update is available.
5. Restart Firefox if the update requests it.
6. Open Firefox → Settings → AI controls again.

If the section still doesn’t appear after updating, Firefox may be managed centrally by your organization. A policy can restrict which preferences you’re allowed to change, and that includes hiding this page.

RELATED: Remove Unwanted Content from the Firefox New Tab Page

Check that the AI features are disabled

You’ve flipped the switches. Now confirm they actually stuck. Restart Firefox, then run through the features you turned off, since the result depends on which setting you changed.

• Open a page with plenty of links and watch for previews.
• Open the sidebar and check whether the chatbot is listed.
• Open a PDF and see whether Firefox still offers alt text.
• Run a translation to confirm the tools you left on are the ones that respond.

If a feature is still there, go back to AI controls and check that Block AI enhancements is on. Confirm you’re using the desktop Settings page and not an older menu or a managed configuration. When a Firefox switch looks on but nothing changes, a restart is the usual first fix, then the same checks you’d run for a Request Desktop Site toggle that stops working.