Microsoft yesterday shipped a preview browser extension that gives Bing users a single toggle to enable or disable AI-generated summaries and related features in search results, available on both Chrome and Edge.

What the extension does

Jordi Ribas, President of Search and AI at Microsoft, announced the extension on June 5, 2026, via LinkedIn. According to Ribas, "We just shipped a preview extension in Bing that lets you toggle AI chat-like features on or off with just one click. It's a simple but important step we're taking to ensure that our users always feel confident they have a choice in the search experience we're providing."

The extension, called Microsoft Bing AI Search Choice, is listed on both the Chrome Web Store and the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store. The toggle reads "Enable AI Features - Allow AI summaries and other features in Bing results." Users flip it on for AI-generated summaries or off to see standard search links - nothing more involved than that.

Beyond the AI toggle, the extension carries a second function: it sets Bing as the browser's default search engine and, in the Chrome version, opens Bing on every new tab. According to the Chrome Web Store listing, this means each browsing session starts ready to search on Bing. Preferences apply automatically across searches, giving a consistent experience without needing to reconfigure settings after each session.

Two versions, different states

The Chrome and Edge editions are at slightly different stages. The Chrome version carries version number 1.0.0.3 and was updated on June 6, 2026 - the same day as the announcement. Its file size is 9.39 KiB and it is listed as offered by Microsoft Corporation, headquartered at One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-8300. As of the date of the Chrome Web Store listing, 6 users had installed it.

The Edge version is at version 1.0.0.2 and was last updated on June 4, 2026 - two days before the announcement. Both versions are available in English. The Edge listing notes the extension is rated 0 out of 5 stars, with no reviews yet submitted. The Chrome listing also shows no ratings. Both stores confirm the extension is published by Microsoft Corporation and is flagged as a preview.

The Edge Add-ons page notes it is "Incompatible with your browser" for users not running the new Edge, which is expected behavior: the add-on is built for Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser.

Privacy disclosures

Both listings include explicit privacy declarations. According to the Chrome Web Store listing, the developer has disclosed that it will not collect or use user data. The declaration covers three specific commitments: data is not sold to third parties outside approved use cases; data is not used or transferred for purposes unrelated to the item's core functionality; data is not used or transferred to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes.

The Edge Add-ons listing mirrors this language and adds that "Microsoft Bing AI Search Choice disclosed it doesn't collect personal data." Neither listing references any analytics collection tied to toggle state or user preferences.

This is notable for an extension that, by design, could theoretically log whether a user prefers AI-on or AI-off search. Microsoft has chosen not to collect that behavioral signal - at least according to what is disclosed in the store listings.

The query operator alternative

Ribas added a detail in the comments of his own LinkedIn post that expands the scope of the announcement beyond the extension itself. According to Ribas, users who prefer not to install anything can use the -ai operator directly in a search query. His example: why is the sky blue -ai. This operator strips AI summaries from results for that specific query without requiring any persistent preference or browser modification.

The -ai operator functions as a per-query equivalent of the extension's toggle, which works session-wide. Together, the two mechanisms give users two distinct levels of control: global preference management through the extension, and on-demand suppression through a query modifier. The -ai operator has not been widely documented in Microsoft's public-facing search help pages, and the LinkedIn comment may be the most prominent disclosure of it to date.

Why Microsoft built this

Ribas framed the rationale directly in his announcement. "AI is doing powerful things for search, but research tells us that not everyone wants to use AI for everything all the time. With this extension, you decide which experience is right for you in the moment. I'm proud of the AI experiences we're building in Bing - I've also always taken pride in listening to our users to create products that truly work for them."

The phrase "research tells us" points to user feedback and behavioral data Microsoft has gathered as it has expanded AI features across Bing. Since Microsoft launched Copilot Search in Bing on April 4, 2025, combining conventional search with generative AI, the platform has progressively embedded AI-generated content deeper into the default search experience. Not every user has welcomed this integration equally.

Data tracked by Datos in Q1 2026 showed Bing's US market share peaking at 5.33% in December 2025 before retreating to the 3.2-3.8% range in early 2026. In Europe, Bing reached 4.12% in December before falling back to 2.5-3.0%. Giving users the ability to disable AI features is one way to retain users who might otherwise switch to a search engine that keeps AI out of the default experience.

DuckDuckGo, for instance, took a comparable position in July 2025 when it introduced a toggle to hide AI-generated images from search results, citing its philosophy that users should decide "how much AI you want in your life - or if you want any at all."

The default search engine angle

The bundled default search engine change is the element most relevant to Microsoft's commercial positioning. By packaging the AI toggle with an automatic switch to Bing as the default, the extension converts a user-choice gesture into a distribution mechanism.

Users who value the ability to turn off AI in Bing - and who install the extension to get that feature - also agree to set Bing as their primary search engine. This is not hidden. Both store listings state it plainly. But the combination means the AI choice feature and the default engine switch are not separable. Installing one means accepting both.

This structure matters in the context of ongoing regulatory scrutiny of default search engine arrangements. Microsoft itself has benefited from and pursued default agreements. Microsoft's search advertising revenue reached $13.9 billion for fiscal year 2025, up 21% year-over-year, with default engine placements contributing meaningfully to that volume. An extension that sets Bing as default while offering a genuine user-benefit feature is, from a product strategy standpoint, a distribution play.

The Apple DMA-related browser choice screen changes announced in August 2024 illustrate how regulators have approached default engine placement. Microsoft's extension approach operates in browser extension stores rather than at the operating system level, placing it in a different regulatory category - but the commercial logic is structurally similar.

Context in Bing's AI search trajectory

The extension arrives at a moment when Microsoft has been technically documenting how its AI search index differs from traditional web crawling. A post published May 6, 2026 by Krishna Madhavan, Knut Risvik, and Meenaz Merchant described how indexing for AI grounding prioritizes different signals than conventional ranking - freshness, structured signals, and citation suitability over raw link authority.

Separately, Microsoft this year has moved to give publishers visibility into how AI systems cite their content. The AI Performance dashboard launched in Bing Webmaster Tools on February 10, 2026, providing metrics on citation counts, average cited pages per day, grounding queries, and page-level activity. On March 23, 2026, Microsoft expanded that dashboard to connect grounding queries directly to specific cited pages - the most-requested enhancement following the February launch.

These publisher-facing tools and today's user-facing toggle represent two sides of the same infrastructure question: how much AI should appear in any given search interaction, and who decides. For publishers, the question is whether their content gets cited in AI answers. For users, the new extension reframes it as a simpler binary: AI on, or AI off.

Jordi Ribas has been a consistent and visible communicator of Microsoft's search strategy, having compared Copilot Search and Google AI Mode publicly on July 21, 2025, and serving as the author of several foundational posts on Microsoft's grounding infrastructure. His choice to announce the AI toggle extension on LinkedIn - where it collected 137 reactions and prompted him to add the -ai operator detail in the comments - reflects a deliberate effort to surface the feature within professional and developer communities before broader marketing.

Technical details and format

The Chrome extension weighs 9.39 KiB. That is a small footprint, consistent with an extension that primarily modifies a default engine setting and communicates a preference flag to Bing's servers rather than running local inference or large content scripts. The Edge version does not list a file size in its store page.

Both extensions are categorized as "Tools" in their respective stores. The Chrome listing is tagged under "Extension" and "Tools," and had 6 users as of June 6, 2026. The Edge listing is categorized under "Search tools." Neither listing provides source code links or references to a developer GitHub repository.

The listing on both stores notes the extension is a preview. Microsoft's standard preview communications invite user feedback before a feature reaches general availability, and Ribas explicitly asked for feedback in his LinkedIn post: "This is just a preview, so we want your feedback. Let us know what you think."

What it means for search and advertising

From a marketing and advertising perspective, the user's AI preference state has direct downstream effects. When a user disables AI summaries in Bing, they see traditional search result links - the format that search advertising has been built around for over two decades. When AI summaries are active, the search results page is reorganized around AI-generated answers, with links appearing as citations or follow-up options rather than primary results.

Microsoft's grounding infrastructure, positioned publicly by Jordi Ribas in February 2026 as the connective tissue between generative models and web information, is what powers those AI summaries. If a user disables the AI features via the extension, that grounding layer is effectively bypassed for their session, returning the page to a link-based format. What happens to ad placements in each mode - whether Microsoft Advertising campaigns show differently when AI is off versus on - is not addressed in the extension's store listings or the LinkedIn announcement.

The preview status suggests the current implementation may change before any formal integration with Microsoft Advertising's campaign reporting or targeting infrastructure. Search and news advertising at Microsoft reached $13.9 billion in fiscal year 2025, a market at enough scale that any persistent shift in user AI-preference adoption would eventually surface as a variable in campaign performance data.

Timeline

Summary

Who - Microsoft Corporation, through Jordi Ribas, President of Search and AI, announced and shipped the Microsoft Bing AI Search Choice extension. The extension is published by Microsoft Corporation from Redmond, Washington.

What - A preview browser extension available on both the Chrome Web Store and the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store that gives users a single toggle to enable or disable AI-generated summaries and features in Bing search results. The extension also sets Bing as the default search engine and, in the Chrome version, opens Bing on every new tab. An alternative for users who prefer not to install the extension is the -ai query operator, which disables AI features on a per-query basis.

When - The Chrome version (1.0.0.3) was updated and made available on June 6, 2026, the same date Ribas announced it on LinkedIn. The Edge version (1.0.0.2) had been updated on June 4, 2026. Both are currently in preview status.

Where - The extension is available on the Chrome Web Store for Chrome users and on the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store for Edge users. The -ai operator functions within the Bing search interface on any browser, without requiring installation.

Why - According to Microsoft, research showed that not all users want AI features active during every search session. The extension formalizes user control over the AI search experience while simultaneously distributing Bing as a default search engine - a combination that serves both user preference and Microsoft's search market positioning.