A featured snippet is a Google search result that reverses the usual format: it shows a short extract from a web page first, in a box, and the link to that page second. It usually sits at the top of the results, and can also appear in the "People also ask" section or next to Knowledge Graph information.
How featured snippets work
Google's systems decide whether a page would make a good featured snippet for a query and, if so, promote it. There is no markup that requests one. Google says it picks extracts by how well they answer the question and how helpful they are, and shows the format when it thinks people want an answer that fits in a short piece of a page. Usually there is one box, sometimes more.
Clicking a featured snippet takes the reader to the section of the page it came from, scrolling there automatically where the browser supports it. Google introduced the format in January 2014.
Site owners can opt out. The nosnippet rule blocks all snippets for a page, and text marked with the data-nosnippet attribute is left out. To avoid featured snippets while keeping regular snippets, Google suggests lowering the max-snippet setting, though it says only nosnippet guarantees the result.
Featured snippets also carry their own content policies. One says snippets on public-interest topics, such as civic, historical, medical and scientific issues, should not contradict well-established expert consensus. A site with many snippets that break the rules can lose featured snippets altogether.
Why featured snippets matter for AI answers
The controls that govern featured snippets also govern Google's AI features. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet to appear as a supporting link in Google AI Overviews or Google AI Mode, and it names nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as the ways to limit what those features show. A page that blocks all snippets to stay out of featured snippets also gives up eligibility as a supporting link.
Outside Google, Microsoft told publishers in February 2026 that clear headings, tables and FAQ sections help AI systems reference content accurately in Copilot and Bing's AI answers. Our guide on how to structure a page for AI answers covers the details.
An example: Roman time at night
In 2018 Google described a featured snippet that went wrong. A search for how Romans told time at night showed a snippet suggesting sundials, which are useless in the dark. The extract was really an answer to the broader question of how Romans told time; Google had shown the near-match because it lacked confidence about the night-time question. It later showed a better answer, water clocks, which the same source page did explain.
Common misconceptions
- "You can mark up a page to win one." Google's documentation says you can't. Its systems choose.
- "The snippet is the objectively best answer." In the same 2018 post, Google said searches asking whether reptiles are good pets and whether they are bad pets returned contradicting snippets, because its systems favored pages that matched the wording of each query.
- "Opting out only removes the box." The nosnippet rule removes regular snippets too, and with them eligibility as a supporting link in Google's AI features.