You can turn off Ecosia AI, and it takes under a minute. The steps are below, because that is what most people landing here actually want. I also want to say why this one stung. Ecosia is not just another search box, and the people angry about this are the eco crowd. They are us.
Ecosia is the tree planting search engine. For years the deal was plain. You search, the ad revenue funds reforestation, and the company says it has helped plant well over 200 million trees. That is the whole reason a certain kind of person switched their default search. So when Ecosia added generative AI, with AI Overviews at the top of the results and a separate AI Chat, a chunk of its most loyal users felt the contract change. The thing they chose because it was the low impact option had bolted on a high impact tool.
The searches people are typing tell you the mood. How to disable it. How to remove it. How to use Ecosia with no AI. Whether the AI is actually sustainable. Whether it uses water. When your users are looking for the off switch before they have tried the feature, the feature arrived in the wrong order. I value what Ecosia funds. I am critical of forcing AI on anyone, and of switching it on by default. Those two things can both be true. This is not personal.
I made two films on this. The earlier one is a Google search alternative. The comments below come from Ecosia, please do not turn into Google.
What did people actually say when Ecosia added AI?
Betrayal, water, and a plea to stay and switch it off.
They said they had already accepted a worse search box in exchange for the trees, and the AI felt like the deal breaking. The comments under that film split into three, and all three are right about a different piece.
Sixty three likes on this.
“What?? Ugh I thought they were the good ones.”
Fifty nine on this.
“I was really disappointed in them when I saw the AI chat being added.
Also, everything a “climate coach” does is literally just stuff you can do yourself by doing your own research.”
Thirteen likes on the leaving threat.
“This is so frustrating.
I switched to @ecosia despite it having a significantly worse user experience than Google because I thought it was worth it for the environmental impact, but I’ll be switching to something else now.”
The second cluster is the resource, not the vibe.
“It’s not just about energy, either. Cooling the data centres is a MASSIVE drain on fresh water supplies.”
Another reader wrote this.
“Missed the billions of litres of water that AI consumes.”
I am not turning that into a new litre total for an Ecosia query. The draft’s energy and water section is the receipt I will stand on. A comment is the pain. It is not a new study.
The third cluster wants you to stay.
“You can turn it off easily! Guys please stick to ecosia, just turn the ai overview off on the settings.”
And someone still hunting a default wrote this.
“What’s the best search engine?
I’m trying not to use Google much because of the Al feature, I recently learnt how much energy it uses and I never read the Gemini answer.
I find it so wasteful.”
So the honest answer is the one the comments are already arguing toward. Turn the overview off. Do not click the chat. Keep the trees if that is why you came. Leave if a default you have to keep hunting is the contract you refuse. The steps are the next sections. The same “I thought they were the good ones” feeling is why the Nestlé timeline and the Quality Street tin exist. A familiar brand is not a clean one.
What actually changed on Ecosia?
Two AI features, plus a nudge into the chatbot.
There are two separate AI features, and people muddle them.
The first is AI Overviews. This is the generative summary that sits at the top of your Ecosia results, above the actual links, on by default where it is available. It uses a small language model. Ecosia was running a Mistral small model for this, having moved away from an earlier OpenAI model, to rewrite the most relevant results into a paragraph. It is in beta and rolling out by country, including the US, the UK, France and Germany at the time of the notes.
The second is AI Chat, a full conversational chatbot on a separate tab, the wall of generated text instead of a page of links. There is also an auto routing behaviour where a query Ecosia decides is complex gets pushed off the normal results page and into the chatbot.
That last bit is the part that gets people. The climate writer Ketan Joshi pulled the design apart and called out that the feature is on by default and that the interface nudges you toward the chatbot. Hitting enter does a normal search, while the prominent button fires up the AI. He named it a dark pattern, the soft funnelling that makes the AI route feel like the path rather than a thing you opted into. I am not adding a new URL for his piece in this pass. The description is the one already in the draft.
The anger is not that a feature exists. It is that it arrived switched on, in front of the results, on the one search engine people picked to consume less.
What does an AI search cost in energy and water?
The receipts already in this file.
Generative AI is not a light bolt on. A query to a large language model uses on the order of ten times the electricity of a standard search, by the International Energy Agency’s own estimate, as this file already states it. Put the rough numbers on it and a single AI style query lands around 2.9 watt hours against roughly 0.3 watt hours for an ordinary search. Ten times the power, to be told something a list of links would often have told you.
Then the water. The data centres that run these models are cooled with water, and they sit on a grid whose generation also uses water. US data centres directly used an estimated 17 billion gallons in 2023, and the hyperscale ones are projected to use somewhere between 16 and 33 billion gallons a year by 2028. Globally the IEA expects data centre electricity demand to roughly double with the AI boom, to about 1,000 terawatt hours. That is the machinery behind a small summary box. I am not adding a newer estimate on top.
Ecosia’s own estimate was that launching the chatbot would lift its emissions by about 5 percent. That is the company that built its identity on shrinking impact, telling you it grew its own.
Does renewable energy cancel an AI query?
No. You do not get a medal for the offset.
Ecosia is not Google. It uses a small, more efficient model on purpose, it avoids heavy uses such as AI video generation, and it says it generates more renewable energy than its AI features use. Funding renewables does not unburn the fuel a query just called for. Offsetting is not erasing.
The world’s greenest AI is a marketing line, not a number, until the actual energy per query is published openly, which it still mostly is not. Misleading claims stay misleading when the company has good intentions and a forest to its name. We cover that accounting in the tech sustainability guide.
Why does this matter beyond one search engine?
Because the tool was chosen for you.
This is a story about consent, and about whether the tools we use match the values we hold. Conscious consumption on this site usually means food, clothes, and what you grow. The same lens belongs on the screen. What you search is consumption too.
There is a difference between choosing to ask a machine and having a machine inserted in front of you, switched on, before you have decided. One is a choice. The other is something done to you. The reason people reached for Ecosia was a small daily act that said searching could plant something. Default AI quietly inverts that. Switching it off is not a fear of tools. It is people keeping the contract they thought they signed.
How do you turn off Ecosia AI Overviews?
Uncheck them in settings.
These are the steps from Ecosia’s own help pages as recorded in June 2026. They can move. If the labels have shifted, the intent is the same. Find the overview control and turn it off.
Go to your Ecosia search settings. The page is ecosia.org/settings. Scroll to Overviews, sometimes shown as AI Overviews. Uncheck the box. Save the settings. Your results return to a page of links. You can also turn it off from the feature itself when it appears on a results page.
One catch. Ecosia stores this preference in a browser cookie. If you clear cookies, or you browse in private mode, the setting can reset and the AI can return. Set the preference in a normal session first, then open private mode. If the summary reappears after a cookie clear, toggle it off again.
Where do you keep an eye on digital claims?
Use the My Ideal World app.
The same standard is on the Nestlé record and on Quality Street, made by Nestlé. Download the My Ideal World app for the longer file.
Download the My Ideal World app for the longer file. It holds deep transparency data on two million brands. Scores, verdicts and findings stay free. Create your free account on the web now. The app is due in the App Store and Google Play before December.
Points for zero waste, sustainable and local actions unlock Keys to deeper reports. Refill a bottle, visit a farm shop or rescue food, and use those actions when you want the longer file. I am not inventing a barcode trick that the app does not have.
Should you leave Ecosia because of the AI?
Not necessarily. Turn it off and keep the trees, or leave if the default is the line.
Ecosia’s trees, the renewable projects, and the fact that it is a not for profit pouring its profits into climate work rather than shareholders, are real and rare. Switching off the AI and carrying on searching keeps funding that, while you opt out of the bit you object to. That is a coherent position.
If any default AI in search is a line you will not cross, leave for a tool that respects it. That is coherent too. What is not coherent is being funnelled into a higher impact tool you never asked for and not knowing there is an off switch. The off switch is in your Ecosia settings under Overviews.
Would you keep searching with a tree planting engine if it meant one checkbox to refuse the AI, or has the trust gone? Either way, choose the tool that matches your values, not the one that quietly chose for you. The tech guide is the longer read on the green label that does not add up.
Your questions about turning off Ecosia AI, answered
Can you turn off Ecosia AI?
Yes. AI Overviews can be unchecked in Ecosia search settings. The steps below were taken from Ecosia’s help pages as recorded in June 2026.
Where is the setting?
On the Ecosia settings page, under Overviews or AI Overviews. Uncheck the box and save. You can also turn the summary off from the results page when it appears.
What is the difference between AI Overviews and AI Chat?
Overviews are the summary above the links. AI Chat is a separate chatbot tab. A complex query can also be routed into the chatbot unless you decline that redirect.
Which model does the overview use?
The notes say a Mistral small model, after Ecosia moved away from an earlier OpenAI model. It was in beta in the US, the UK, France and Germany.
Why are people angry if Ecosia plants trees?
Because the AI arrived on by default, on the search engine people chose in order to use less. The trees and the default are two different facts.
How much energy is an AI query in this file?
On the order of ten times a standard search, with the rough figures at about 2.9 watt hours against about 0.3 watt hours. That is the International Energy Agency estimate as already recorded here.
What water figures are in the file?
US data centres were estimated to use 17 billion gallons directly in 2023, with hyperscale sites projected between 16 and 33 billion gallons a year by 2028. I am not adding a new study.
Did Ecosia say the chatbot changed its emissions?
Yes. Its own estimate was about a 5 percent lift. It also says it generates more renewable energy than the AI features use. Renewable generation does not unburn a query.
Will the setting survive private browsing?
Not reliably. The preference is stored in a cookie. Set it in a normal session. If you clear cookies, the AI can return and you toggle it off again.
Can you remove the AI Chat button?
Ecosia has said that is not currently possible. The chat does not run unless you open it. Decline the auto redirect the first time it appears.
What happens if you turn off chat history?
The file says no new chats are saved and previously saved chats are permanently deleted. That is the stated behaviour, not a test I repeated tonight.
Should you stop using Ecosia?
Not necessarily. Turn the AI off and keep funding the trees, or leave if a default AI is a line you will not cross. Both are coherent.