AI Max auto-upgrade timeline: DSA sunset moved to February 2027

By Piyush Sachdeva · Performance marketer. Founder of Performance Marketing News and Social Masla. · Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the linked official sources.

Published Oct 12, 2026Announced Apr 15, 2026Last verified Oct 14, 2026

Google is moving three legacy Search features into AI Max on two different schedules. Campaigns using text customization, formerly automatically created assets, and campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting are being upgraded automatically from September 2026. The Dynamic Search Ads sunset and auto-upgrade were postponed on 11 June 2026 from September to February 2027. The original announcement is dated 15 April 2026; we cover it now because the September upgrades are under way and the DSA date is the one most teams still have wrong.

Key facts
Platform	Google Ads
Feature	AI Max upgrade for legacy Search settings
Announced	Apr 15, 2026
Status	Rolling out
Where available	Voluntary upgrade tools are available in Google Ads now. Automatic upgrades for text customization and campaign-level broad match campaigns began in September 2026. The Dynamic Search Ads auto-upgrade and sunset begin in February 2027 per Google’s 11 June update.
Who is affected	Search advertisers using Dynamic Search Ads, text customization (formerly automatically created assets) or the campaign-level broad match setting.
Action needed	Required planning. Identify which campaigns use each legacy feature, because they are on different timelines. Review generated assets and search terms on campaigns upgraded in September; plan the DSA migration for early 2027.
Sources	Google Ads & Commerce blog: Upgrade to AI Max (updated 11 June 2026) · Google Ads Help: Set up AI Max for Search campaigns · Google Ads Help: About text customization in Search campaigns · Google Ads Help: About the broad match keywords campaign setting

What changed

AI Max for Search bundles search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion into one opt-in. Three older features overlap with it, and Google is retiring each into AI Max:

Text customization, the setting formerly called automatically created assets, generates extra headlines and descriptions for responsive search ads from your landing page, domain, existing ads and keywords. Its help page now says it is part of AI Max, that AI Max must be opted into to use it, and that campaigns using it are automatically upgraded from September 2026. After the upgrade, search term matching and text customization are on by default.
Campaign-level broad match, the setting that converts all keywords in a campaign to broad match and requires a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy. Its help page says these campaigns are automatically upgraded from September 2026 with search term matching on. One behaviour changes: in the legacy setting, broad keywords were treated as both broad and exact for prioritisation; in AI Max they are not, and Google suggests adding exact-match copies if you relied on that.
Dynamic Search Ads, which generate ads and landing pages from your website. The announcement originally scheduled DSA sunset and auto-upgrade for September; the 11 June update moved both to February 2027 “to protect your business results and the performance of your campaigns.” The page’s own generated summary and the older body text still say September. The dated update wins.

The setup page describes a DSA upgrade: Campaigns › Settings, select the campaign, then Upgrade in the Dynamic Search Ads panel. Dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups, DSAs become responsive search ads with the minimum assets generated by text customization, legacy DSAs keep serving until the new ads pass policy review, and legacy URL rules such as “page title contains” become read-only.

Google attaches one figure to the whole migration: advertisers using the full AI Max suite see about 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS than with search term matching alone. The source is “Google internal data, 2026; for non-Retail advertisers.” Google says accounts will be notified before automatic transitions and encourages voluntary upgrades now; no opt-out is described.

Why it matters

The DSA extension is the good news and the distraction. Teams that planned a September DSA migration now have until February, and the voluntary tool preserves the legacy URL controls, so there is no reason to rush a rebuild. The feature that bites now is the other two. From September, any campaign with text customization or campaign-level broad match is being switched into AI Max with search term matching on, and search term matching changes which queries the campaign can serve on. In accounts we see, campaign-level broad match plus Smart Bidding is a common build; those campaigns will quietly widen their query set unless someone looks.

Our view: treat the September wave as a query-matching change, not an asset change. Generated headlines are easy to review; a widened search-term set is where budget leaks. Read the search terms report on every upgraded campaign weekly for the first month. For DSA, use the extra time to run the voluntary upgrade on one campaign and read the generated responsive search ads before touching the rest.

What to do

In Campaigns › Settings, filter for campaigns with text customization on and for campaigns with Broad match keywords set to On. Those are your September cohort; list them with their bid strategy.
Check the Notifications panel for Google’s pre-transition notices, and record the upgrade date per campaign when it lands.
For upgraded campaigns, open the search terms report and segment by Search terms match type. If a campaign relied on broad keywords being prioritised as exact, add exact-match copies of those keywords.
Review generated assets in the ad-level asset report using the “Added by” column, and switch text customization off under Asset optimization if the copy does not meet your approval rules.
For Dynamic Search Ads, pick one campaign and run the voluntary upgrade from Campaigns › Settings › Dynamic Search Ads › Upgrade. Check that legacy URL rules you depend on are still present as read-only, and note that you cannot add new ones after the upgrade.

Still unknown

Google gives “September” without a day, and has not said whether the cutoff for creating new DSA campaigns moved along with the sunset. The original expectation that all eligible upgrades would conclude by the end of September may no longer hold for DSA. No opt-out is documented, and we have not observed an automatic upgrade land in an account; the checks above are how we would catch one.

Frequently asked questions

When will Dynamic Search Ads be sunset?

Google’s 11 June 2026 update says the Dynamic Search Ads sunset and automatic upgrade to AI Max will begin in February 2027, postponed from September 2026. The original April text and the page’s generated summary still say September; the dated update takes precedence.

Which campaigns are auto-upgraded to AI Max in September 2026?

Campaigns using text customization (formerly automatically created assets) and campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting. Both help pages state the automatic upgrade starts in September 2026, and Google says it will notify accounts before transitions begin.

Can I opt out of the AI Max upgrade?

Google’s announcement and help pages describe voluntary upgrades and account notifications but no opt-out from the automatic upgrade. After an upgrade you can still turn individual features such as text customization or final URL expansion off.

What happens to DSA URL rules after upgrading to AI Max?

Legacy rule types such as “page title contains” and “page content contains” become read-only. You can remove them but not add or edit them. Dynamic ad groups become standard ad groups and DSAs are replaced by responsive search ads generated through text customization.

Official sources

Related coverage

Update history

Oct 14, 2026 — Rewritten under the new editorial standard with the per-feature timeline, post-upgrade behaviour from the help pages, Google’s performance claim and footnote, and a practitioner view.
Oct 12, 2026 — Initial manual coverage under the advertiser-impact standard; original announcement date preserved.

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