After spending a few years collecting new AI features on Edge, Microsoft is planning on giving users the option to completely turn all of them off. A new On-device AI setting has appeared in Edge Canary under Settings > Copilot and AI, allowing users to control whether Microsoft’s browser can use AI models running locally on their PC. Windows Report spotted the setting in the latest preview build.
Microsoft has stated that when on-device AI is enabled, Edge can use local AI models for support features. turn it off and those features may stop working. Just one thing you have to remember, Edge doesn’t actually tell you what those features are.
A welcome switch with a big catch
Microsoft already has several experimental local-AI systems inside Edge. Its Prompt API lets websites and extensions interact with Edge’s built-in language model for tasks including summarization, classification, and rewriting. Microsoft currently uses its prerelease Aion-1.0-Instruct model for that developer testing, with the model downloaded locally to supported PCs.
Edge is also experimenting with local APIs for writing assistance, language detection, and translation. though Microsoft hasn’t confirmed whether the new switch disables those APIs or the specific browser features built on top of them. More importantly, nothing here suggests it disables Copilot itself or Microsoft’s cloud-based AI services. So this isn’t quite the AI-free button some users might be hoping for.
Edge could use more switches like this
This move arrives as Microsoft has spent much of 2026 simplifying Edge in other ways. Just a while back, the company retired sidebar app list, removing the ability to pin web apps and services inside Edge’s Side panel. The company aimed on streamlining the browser, while explicitly confirming that Copilot and the side pane remain untouched.
Similarly, Collections had been removed as well as part of Microsoft’s wired browser cleanup, which was another useful Edge feature. But in the meanwhile, the company is still experimenting with local models, Copilot, AI-powered troubleshooting, and whatever comes next.
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