How to Remove the “AI Summary” Button from Safari

Safari’s “AI Summary” label can mean two different things, depending on what you are seeing.

• On iPhone and iPad, the most common “AI summary” control comes from Safari Highlights, a feature that surfaces a summary plus extra info like people, places, and media details.
• On iPhone, iPad, and Mac, you can also see Summarize inside Reader, where Safari offers a summary at the top of the Reader view.

This guide walks through both, then shows the cleanest ways to hide the button, limit where it appears, or switch it off entirely.

First, identify which “AI Summary” you mean

Before you change settings, confirm where the button shows up. The fix depends on it.

You are probably dealing with Highlights if:

• You see a small panel or prompt that looks like a “summary card” on a webpage.
• Safari shows “highlights” that include directions, links, or quick info about people, music, movies, or TV shows.

You are probably dealing with Reader Summarize if:

• You tap the page menu, open Reader, and then see Summarize at the top.

Once you know which one you want gone, use the matching section below.

1: Turn off Safari Highlights (most direct fix on iPhone and iPad)

If the “AI Summary” you hate lives in Safari’s highlights experience, disabling Highlights is the most reliable way to remove it.

Many builds place the Highlights toggle in Safari settings under the privacy section, and turning it off stops Safari from showing Highlights summaries and related cards.

Disable Highlights on iPhone or iPad

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and tap Apps.
3. Tap Safari.
4. Scroll to Privacy & Security.
5. Find Highlights.
6. Turn Highlights off.

Highlights can surface more than summaries. It can also surface quick info and links tied to the page. When you turn Highlights off, you remove all of that, not just summaries.

If you only want to hide a button without losing extra features, use the next option too.

2: Remove “Summarize” from Safari’s Page Menu (hide the control without killing features)

On iPhone, Safari lets you customize what appears in the Page Menu. If “Summarize” appears there, you can often remove it from the menu so you stop seeing it as a tap target, even if the underlying feature still exists. Apple documents that the Page Menu can be edited to add or remove actions.

Edit the Page Menu

1. Open Safari.
2. Open any webpage.
3. Tap the Page Menu button next to the address/search field.
4. Tap the More button.
5. Tap Edit.
6. Look for Summarize (or Highlights actions, depending on what your build shows).
7. Remove it from favorites or disable it in the list, then tap Done.

Disabling features can feel heavy-handed. Editing the menu is cleaner when your main problem is visual clutter or muscle memory taps.

If you do not see a Summarize toggle here, your build may only expose Summarize inside Reader. In that case, use the Reader section below.

3: Avoid Reader Summaries by changing how you use Reader

Safari’s Reader has two separate ideas:

• Reader view itself, which strips clutter.
• The Summarize control is at the top of the Reader.

If you only see the “AI Summary” button after you enter Reader, then the practical answer is simple: do not enter Reader, or enter Reader and ignore the summary option.

Confirm Reader Summarize is what you are seeing

1. Open a webpage in Safari.
2. Tap the Page Menu button.
3. Tap Show Reader.
4. Look at the top of the page for Summarize.

What you can and cannot do here

• You can exit Reader any time by choosing Hide Reader.
• Apple’s public guides explain how to use Summarize, but they do not describe a dedicated “disable Summarize in Reader” toggle in Safari settings.

So if your goal is “remove the button entirely,” you usually need to disable the system feature set that powers it, or use restrictions.

That leads to the next option.

4: Turn off Apple Intelligence features that feed summaries (system-level switch)

If your Safari “AI Summary” is tied into Apple Intelligence features on a supported device, disabling Apple Intelligence removes the AI layer across the system, not just in Safari.

Recent versions of Apple’s platforms have also enabled Apple Intelligence by default on compatible devices, which is why more people suddenly started seeing AI features show up in normal workflows.

Steps: Turn off Apple Intelligence (broad, but effective)

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apple Intelligence & Siri.
3. Turn Apple Intelligence off.

You remove more than Safari summaries. You also reduce or remove other Apple Intelligence tools that rely on the same system layer.

If you share a device with family or you want a harder lock, use restrictions.

5: Use Screen Time restrictions to block Apple Intelligence features

Screen Time offers a way to restrict parts of Apple Intelligence. Apple documents a set of controls under Content & Privacy Restrictions for Intelligence and Siri items.

This approach works well for:

• Parents setting up a child’s phone.
• Shared iPads.
• Anyone who wants the feature blocked and protected by a Screen Time passcode.

Restrict Apple Intelligence features with Screen Time

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Screen Time.
3. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
4. Turn Content & Privacy Restrictions on.
5. Tap Intelligence & Siri.
6. Adjust the items you want to block, such as Writing Tools and other Intelligence features.

This does not target Safari summaries by name in Apple’s public wording, but it can reduce the available intelligence features at the OS level, which often stops AI tools from appearing across apps.

Troubleshooting: why the button still shows up

The setting is not on your device

Highlights are not available in all regions. If you cannot find a toggle, your device, language, or region may not support that feature set.

You are mixing up Safari summaries with Google’s AI Overviews

Some people call Google’s AI Overviews an “AI summary in Safari” because they see it while browsing in Safari. That is not a Safari feature. It is part of Google Search, so Safari settings will not remove it.

If the summary appears at the top of Google results pages, you will need Google-side workarounds, not Safari toggles.

You updated recently, and the settings changed

Apple has adjusted how and when AI features are enabled by default on supported devices, so updates can resurface things you previously never saw.

Best “clean Safari” setup if you want fewer AI prompts

If your priority is a simple browser with fewer AI surfaces, this setup usually delivers the cleanest result:

• Turn off Highlights in Safari settings (iPhone and iPad).
• Edit the Page Menu and remove Summary-related actions when available.
• If you still see AI tools, turn off Apple Intelligence system-wide, or lock it down with Screen Time restrictions.

That combination covers the most common “AI Summary” buttons people run into today.

FAQ

Summary

• “AI Summary” in Safari usually comes from two places: Safari Highlights on webpages or the Summarize button inside Reader mode.
• Safari Highlights can be fully disabled from Safari settings on iPhone and iPad, which removes summary cards and related info panels.
• The Summarize option can sometimes be hidden by editing Safari’s Page Menu, reducing visual clutter without turning off features system-wide.
• Reader Summarize appears only inside Reader view, and Safari does not offer a dedicated toggle to disable just that button.
• Turning off Apple Intelligence removes AI-powered summaries across the system, including Safari, but also affects other intelligence features.
• Screen Time restrictions provide a stricter way to block Apple Intelligence features, useful for shared or child-managed devices.
• Some “AI summaries” seen in Safari actually come from Google Search, not Safari, and cannot be removed through Safari settings.

Conclusion

In short, removing the “AI Summary” button from Safari comes down to identifying where it appears and choosing the least disruptive fix. For most users, turning off Safari Highlights or editing the Page Menu is enough to clean things up. If summaries still show up, disabling Apple Intelligence or using Screen Time restrictions provides a stronger system-level solution. Once configured, Safari returns to a quieter, more traditional browsing experience, with fewer prompts and more focus on the page you actually came to read.