Mozilla finally landed today the long-anticipated AI Kill Switch controls for Firefox, which let users strip the open-source web browser of any AI-powered features, and you can test it right now in Firefox Nightly.
In December 2025, when Mozilla appointed its new CEO, the company developing the popular Firefox web browser revealed that it was working on an AI kill switch that would let users completely disable all the AI features that had been included in the past few releases, estranging more and more loyal users.
Now, the AI kill switch is finally a reality as it landed today with the latest Firefox Nightly update. The implementation is called “AI Controls” and can be found in Firefox’s settings as a standalone section. From there, users can toggle a setting called “Block AI Enhancements” to remove any AI features.
They should never have rolled out any of these AI features without this already implemented. I think it really speaks to their priorities that they rolled it out in this order.
Mozilla’s CEO also recently said they would be building new products based on pre-established trust. I think they got their chronology wrong on that too…
Right, what trust? The trust they lost by putting dumbass MBAs in charge who don’t know shit and chase short term profits over sustaining a healthy community?
As a Firefox user, this is not long-awaited. It’s a tepid excuse for a dead project. The forks of Firefox are the only real alternatives if you value privacy over convenience. If you don’t, then there are faster browers than FF anyway.
As a 10-year FF user, do you have any recomendations to what to switch to?
Waterfox if you want something that still feels like a modern browser, LibreWolf if you don’t mind having stricter defaults. If you want the nuclear option, Mullvad browser is good, it is very inconvenient thoygh. At least for desktop. On mobile I use Vivaldi/Fennec/Vanadium depending on need
I tend to like Zen browser. It looks and feels a bit different, but to me that feels refreshing.
I haven’t personally yet, but a lot of people suggest switching to LibreWolf on PC and to either Fennec or Waterfox on mobile. At least on Android, since I can’t be bothered to look up the availability on iOS.
on android ironfox is more similiar to librewolf
I went to Librefox. It has some harsh defaults that I ended up tuning, but so far it works well. Could just port over bookmarks and such.
I think it’s a good thing: we complained and they listened. FF is far from being perfect and I’m definitely not a fan of some of the decisions they made recently, but it’s still the best browser out there. It’s great that there is forks but they are only possible if FF base keeps being updated.
Same. This is easy for me and great for the best browser. Better late than never.
Moz: We’re an AI first browser. There’s AI in everything now!
Everyone: Boooo *uninstalls*
Moz: We’re not an AI first browser. We’ve added these control features so you can reduce the AI.
Disable the AI*
After all that’s the only reason for a “killswitch”, no?
Oh my sweet summer child
My question is whether or not disabling the AI feature also disabled the feature that have had AI integrated into them. The article is unclear on that.
i don’t think they claimed to be ai first i think they claimed about pushing responsible people first ai, which is a noble goal.
Too little, too late for me. I’ve already moved to Librewolf on everything with a GUI. Ironfox on my phone
There should never need to be a “kill switch” for a feature the developers have full control over.
Just make it opt-in. An AI kill switch makes me think that they’ve got a setting that will block all known AI interfaces and generated content, which is not what this does.
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appreciate how it’s not buried in the options; it’s right in the main menu in the settings page.
I’m just using the Firefox ESR client until its phased out.
Most forks use the ESR builds for stability. So if you ever want to switch one of those, the transition should be smooth.
I’m just using Zen. Has a ton of improved features and aesthetics.
Did they ever tackle all the data collection they introduced? iirc it was opt out not opt in
Nope… And ads built in is still a thing
Where?
Sponsored stories, sponsored top shortcuts, even the weather is sponsored. There used to be an “off” switch directly in the NTP settings, but they pushed it into the settings menu.
There a bunch of sponsored stuff on the new tab page they get paid for.
… Those can be removed with a few clicks, mate.
They sure can… They shouldn’t be there at all however
I’m curious how you think Mozilla should provide a 100% free product with the things everyone wants without paying any developers?
Are you serious? Mozilla gets almost a billion dollars a year from Google. Stop posting if you are this clueless.
Show me the adverts that GNOME or the KDE project pushes. How do I block ads in my Linux kernel? Where are the ffmpeg adverts? What about the curl ads? Where do you go about finding adverts in LibreOffice? I’ve never seen any ads in nginx, but maybe I’ve missed them.
There’s so much free software out there.
Mozilla gets money, they can also apply for funding if things get that tight. Given that they’re pouring money into useless projects no one has ever asked for, that’s widely unpopular and has lost them a tonne of goodwill among their userbase, I don’t think money is a massive problem for them.
What the hell, i didnt know about that, i guess im still happy with Librewolf
Same here
Alternative interpretation: the CEO had the focus on pushing the imaginary game-changer and so the controls came later.
Better nate than the lever at least, especially when you look at chrome in comparison.
They lost me already. I’ve migrated away from base Firefox.
The fact that they can’t find enough utility in AI to make people want to use it is telling.
where is the single user data collection and selling kill switch
“let me parrot what people say about chrome to ff”
I’ve always seen “kill switch” being used in a negative tone, so with how the headline is written, it sounded like some AI feature that could kill the browser itself was implemented.
I mean, Mozilla themselves are calling it that, or at least were
