When I read Daily Dot’s story last month about turning off Gemini in Gmail, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) feature, I quickly followed their steps to turn Gemini off in my Google Workspace Business Essentials account as well as my personal Gmail account.
Google made the decision, an unpopular and anti-user decision, to turn Gemini on by default.
Resulting in the Gemini icon displaying as a “feature” in everyone’s Gmail account in mid-January 2025.
And causing all kinds of havoc when I tried to compose an email message, recommending words and inserting phrases into my messages.
Turning Off Gemini
I managed to get Gemini turned off in my personal Gmail account, though the Gemini icon still displays at the top of the screen.
However, my steps to turn Gemini off in my paid Google Workspace account didn’t work for Gmail.
I kept searching for solutions online, reviewing my options in the Google Workspace Admin console under Generative AI > Gemini for Workspace.
But found no options to turn it off.
Imagine my surprise when I read in my Workspace Admin console that I could only turn off Gemini in Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus plans.
Premium plans that I don’t currently have. And don’t want.
I kept searching and today found a forum discussion about turning off Gemini in Google Workspace, which led me to the 9to5Google story about Gemini and Google Workspace.
Where I finally found the solution.
Contact Google Workspace Support
The options to turn off Gemini in Google Workspace can only be found when Google customer support updates your Google Admin console with new menu options.
And the only way I found my way to chat with a Google support person was to answer “No” about six times in Google’s online help chat after I logged into the Workspace admin account.
Which finally gave me the option to chat with a real person.
Added bonus, when I finally got to the menu to chat with a real person, I was first in the queue!
In less than 30 seconds, Shanu quickly greeted me, asked me what the issue was.
When I replied, “I can’t turn off Gemini in my Android Gmail. I’m looking at the Google Workspace Admin dashboard, in Generative AI > Gemini for Workspace, and there are no options,” Shanu responded:
I understand your concern, do no worry. I will enable this for you so that you can turn off the features, Deborah.
Kindly refresh your admin console and go to Menu > Generative AI > Gemini for Workspace to turn off the features and Save.
Voilà!
I refreshed my Admin console, and the options to turn off Gemini for Gmail, Drive and Docs, and Meet displayed.
I quickly turned off Gemini and thanked Shanu.
Less than three minutes after I contacted Google support, I had a fix for the annoying Gemini feature.
Note: according to Shanu, it would take up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect.
Three hours later, I checked my Android Gmail and the annoying Gemini icon no longer displayed. (I waited to publish this post later today so I could confirm the changes.)
Wrapping Up
If you’re a paying Google Workspace customer who is frustrated with not being able to turn off Gemini in your Admin console, contact Google Support and ask them to enable the options to turn it off.
I can’t understand why Google would take the steps to enable Gemini AI by default for all their Workspace customers.
But what really makes me frustrated and angry is Google chose to add wording to lead paying Workspace customers to believe they had to upgrade to a premium plan in order to turn the Gemini “feature” off.
Not true.
I’m thankful for the online forums and 9to5Google for helping me to find the solution.
