You may have noticed an email from Google in your inbox on June 1, 2026. The subject line was unassuming, but the contents were anything but. For the first time in eight years, Google is overhauling its Terms of Service. When the new rules come into force on July 1, they will affect almost every way you do business with the platform.
Don’t be fooled by the long stretch since the last update in 2018; this is no small matter. It’s a complete reworking of the legal side of things to fit the world of AI as it stands in 2026.
The old terms are out as of June 30. The new ones will be in effect without you having to click a box or sign on the dotted line. If you’re running ads with Google, you are bound by them, whether you read them or not. So it is in your interest to know what has been altered.
Why the shift now?
Google says it’s about the platform maturing and the fine print having to follow suit. But there’s more to it. Look at what has been introduced in the last couple of years: Gemini for campaign creation, a host of “Advisors,” AI Max for Search and Shopping, and auto-generated assets on a scale we didn’t have before. In Q4 2025, Google’s AI churned out some 70 million of these on its own. When the system is building so much of your content from your feeds and landing pages, the contract that says who is on the hook for what becomes very important.
There are seven main areas of change in the July 2026 version. Some are nitty-gritty, some are purely legal, and a few have the potential to put a dent in your wallet.
Your data, their AI
This is the one you’ll see right away. Any data you put in while setting up a campaign—be it in a chat with Gemini or through one of the new setup flows for AI Max—can now be used by Google to make your campaigns (and others) work better.
Put simply: when you type up a description or answer a prompt in Ask Advisor, you are feeding a pool of data that Google can draw from well past the campaign you are in the middle of. The terms are written to cover any like-minded features they put out down the road.
If you have some proprietary ad copy or a brand voice you’ve put a lot of work into, be mindful of what you let the AI have. There is nothing in the new TOS to say they can’t use your inputs to improve the system as a whole.
Crawling your site
Then there is the matter of URLs and accounts you give Google access to for the sake of automation. We’re talking about when you link up a Merchant Center or turn on Performance Max.
Google has been going through advertiser sites to put together headlines and the like for a while. But until now, that was just how the product worked. As of July 2026, it is a hard-and-fast right in the contract. You can no longer claim that turning on a feature doesn’t mean you’ve given them permission to index and crawl.
The bottom line on liability
This is the part where you should stop and think. The updated terms are clear on who is in the driver’s seat: you.
You have to make sure you have the rights to what you put in, and you have to keep on top of everything the AI spits out. The emphasis is on “continued” responsibility. An AI Max or Performance Max campaign will serve up new mixes of text and images on its own. If one of those auto-generated headlines makes a false promise, treads on a trademark, or runs afoul of policy, don’t point to the algorithm. Under the new rules, that’s on you. It’s a bit of a minefield for agencies. Say a client hands you a landing page and you put the automated asset tools to work: the terms don’t let you off the hook as an intermediary. The onus is on the account holder. So you have to have some solid internal processes in place to keep an eye on what the system is churning out, and your clients should be made aware that by switching on AI, they’re taking on more of the legal risk.
The Arbitration Overhaul: Local Courts, Batch Claims, and a 30-Day Window
We’ve done a complete rework of how we handle disputes. You won’t see ICDR’s international rules anymore; we’re going with the American Arbitration Association. That means if it comes to it, arbitration will be in your local county, not over in Santa Clara. We’ve also opened the door for small claims court for the little things, and put in place batch rules so we can deal with 25 or more like-minded claims in one go.
Then there’s the 30-day opt-out. You can fill out a form on our site and be done with arbitration altogether. Do it in time and you can still take us to court if you want to. For any business with a heavy ad budget or who has been burned before over billing or policy issues, it’s something to mull over. But once the window is up, the clause is in effect.
Why the change now? Well, in May 2026, Keller Postman and co. started a mass arbitration effort after 2016, pointing to antitrust and the $728 billion in U.S. ad spend we’ve seen. They were after thousands of companies. Our updating of the framework — and in some places, dropping the clause — is us being proactive about how we settle things with advertisers.
Automation Liability: The “Optional” Shield is Off
You’ll notice the new terms are more direct. In the past, we might have worded it in a way that made our automated features seem like a courtesy or an option. Not any more. If our system makes or changes an ad, a target, or a landing page, and it’s running from your account, it’s on you. You can no longer make the case that an AI error is our problem because the feature was just a suggestion.
Fees, Support, Data, and Where We Draw the Line
There are some other nitty-gritty updates in here too. We’ve put in for regulatory or jurisdictional fees where they exist. Put a tax on digital services and we can pass it on. And when it comes to ad credits, we issue them at our discretion, plain and simple.
As for support, you can no longer email ads-support@google.com to cancel. It has to be done in the portal or with your rep. We’ve also taken the EU label off our data terms so they apply everywhere, and we’ve put a hard stop on our ability to unilaterally change those.
The liability cap is tighter, too. It used to be 30 days of overall spend; now it’s tied to the particular account in question. Run a few accounts and your exposure is limited to each one. We’ve also added a whistleblower clause so either side can flag non-compliance with the authorities without a confidentiality breach — something you won’t find in the 2018 version.
And for our friends in Brazil, you’ll be signing on with Google BR, our local arm, instead of the U.S. parent. With these new terms, we’re putting it in writing: Google BR is the one with the go-ahead to put Google LLC’s ad inventory in Brazil to work and make some money from it. It’s a matter of tax, regulation, and where you end up if there’s a dispute. You’ll see this kind of thing in Brazil; it’s in line with how we’ve been tailoring our regional policies for some time.
A few things to have in mind before July 1
1. Have a look at the terms for your own country and currency. They aren’t one-size-fits-all; some of what you read won’t apply everywhere.
2. Make a note on the calendar if arbitration is something you want to be in the know about. The 30-day period to opt out begins on July 1 when the terms are in force. You can find the form at ads.google.com/nav/arbitration
3. Take stock of any automation you’re using. If you have AI Max or Performance Max with auto-created assets, or are running a conversational campaign, check on what’s live in your account.
4. Tweak your internal processes to be more hands-on with auto-generated material. With the way the language is written, a once-a-quarter review doesn’t cut it if your campaigns are churning out new assets every week.
5. For those in regulated markets, put aside some room in the budget for fees that may show up on your bill depending on the jurisdiction.
