How to disable Spotlight web and Siri suggestions on a Mac

Every time you type in Spotlight, macOS sends your query to Apple's servers to fetch web results and Siri suggestions. If you'd rather keep searches local — for privacy, speed, or because you just don't need Google snippets in your file search — here's how to turn those off.

Turn them off in System Settings

This is the most complete method, and the one that stays reliable across macOS updates.

1. Open System Settings → Siri & Spotlight.
2. Scroll down to the Search Results section.
3. Untick Siri Suggestions, Web Searches, and Spotlight Suggestions.
4. While you're there, also untick Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Look Up — this stops the right-click Look Up menu from querying Apple's servers too.

The changes take effect immediately. Spotlight will still search your local apps, files, contacts, calculator, dictionary, and mail — it just won't reach out to Apple for supplementary web cards.

The Terminal approach

For the Look Up suggestions specifically, there's a defaults key you can flip:

# disable Look Up web suggestions
defaults write com.apple.lookup.shared LookupSuggestionsDisabled -bool true

To reverse it:

# re-enable Look Up web suggestions
defaults delete com.apple.lookup.shared LookupSuggestionsDisabled

For Spotlight's own web and Siri results, the most reliable method remains System Settings — the underlying preference keys Apple uses for those toggles have shifted across macOS versions, so the System Settings UI is the stable anchor. If you're scripting a Mac setup, apply the System Settings change first and use the Terminal key above for Look Up.

What you lose (and what stays)

With web and Siri suggestions off, you lose:

• Google and Bing snippet cards in Spotlight results
• Siri natural-language answers ("How many days until Christmas?")
• Movie showtime cards, sports scores, stock quotes
• Web look-up results when you right-click and choose Look Up

You keep everything local and fast:

• App search and launching
• File and folder search across your Mac
• Calculator (type any expression directly in Spotlight)
• Dictionary definitions
• Contacts, mail, calendar events
• Unit conversions and currency (these are computed locally)

For most people who already have a browser tab open, the web cards in Spotlight aren't adding much. Turning them off gives you a faster, quieter search bar that never sends queries over the network.

Disable Look Up in Safari

Safari has its own Look Up setting separate from Spotlight. If you want right-click lookups in Safari to stay local:

1. Open Safari → Settings → Search.
2. Untick Include Spotlight Suggestions and Include Safari Suggestions.

This stops Safari's address bar and Look Up from forwarding text to Apple, independently of what Spotlight does.