Turn off AI assistant
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I have noticed that WordPress is trying to make generative AI tools more and more prominent in its hosting capacity recently, which I have done my best to just ignore. Lately, though, there is an AI assistant popping up when I try to write posts, and though I can minimise it I can’t get rid of it altogether, and it keeps re-opening every paragraph or two. It’s distracting and annoying. The whole reason I am with WordPress is because I like writing and editing. I don’t particularly want help with that! Does anyone know how I can disable this? I can’t find anything in settings.
For reference, this is what I’m talking about:
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi @louloureads, @yewhoenterhere
I understand how annoying this can be. Let’s turn this off.
Please, follow this article https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/02/17/wordpress-ai-assistant/. Under the section “How to enable the WordPress AI Assistant” it shows how to enable/disable this feature.
Let me know if it worked!
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Something else I’ve found out: if you install a plugin that restores the Classic editing mode, the AI is automatically disabled. Tried it, and it’s working! No AI Assistant at all.
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@bfernandessp This didn’t work for me. In fact, it made the whole thing that much stranger. When I followed the instructions to ‘enable’ the AI assistant, my settings indicated that I needed to upgrade my plan since the AI tools are available on paid plans. I’m tempted to turn on the classic editor but I’m used to the block editing.
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Yes, I’ve had the same thing – it just tells me to upgrade my plan to get access to the AI tools, which is weird! And unfortunately when I tried to switch to classic editor it turned out I would also need to upgrade my plan for that.
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According to WPcom, AI features are disabled by default and in order to enable them, you need to be on a paid plan and enable the setting in your My Site’s Dashboard https://wordpress.com/sites and then by clicking on the three dots >Settings>AI Tools (early access). https://wordpress.com/support/ai/ai-assistant/
If I understand correctly from reading the OP’s post,, that is not what is being referred to. It looks to me like the Assistant icon is appearing at the bottom of the Post/Page Editor sidebar and looks to be a replacement for the Circle ? icon that used to be present in the top Toolbar in the Editor.
I agree that the current version of the Assistant icon is intrusive in the Editor workspace and in some cases may actually prevent access to other features.
I’ve gone ahead and tagged this thread for Staff attention to your feedback on this feature. Thanks for your patience.
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Thank you! Yes, I know that’s WPcom’s stated position, but I am on a free plan and the AI assistant has appeared regardless. I definitely haven’t intentionally enabled anything. It’s not just the icon placement that’s a problem – that’s annoying, but while it was just that I worked around it. It’s the fact that now the AI assistant expanded box keeps popping up like Clippy as I’m typing, and even when I minimise it it pops back up again. As you say, it gets in the way of other features.
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@louloureads Thanks for clarifying.
It would be great if it were possible to dismiss the AI Assistant from the Editor Workspace altogether. Barring that, then minimized to the toolbar
Just for fun I asked the AI Assistant how I could deactivate the AI Assistant in the WordPress Editor. That was several minutes ago and it’s still thinking…. and then it timed out “-)
Let’s wait now for a staff reply unless there is other relevant info for them. Each time we reply it pushes this thread down in their queue.
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Hi @louloureads, @smorespookystories, @yewhoenterhere, and everyone following this thread.
Thanks for reporting this and for your patience while we looked into it.
This is a bug. The AI assistant floating bar is appearing in the post editor even on sites where it should not, including Free plan sites and sites where the AI toggles are turned off. Our team is actively investigating and working toward a fix.
There is currently no way to dismiss or disable it from within the editor. I’ve logged this thread with the team working on the fix so they have full visibility into the impact. I don’t have a specific timeline to share yet, but this is being actively worked on.
@justjennifer, thank you for flagging this for staff attention and for the detailed observations. That was exactly the right call.
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