Gemini 2.5 Flash with grounding issue

Hey!

I’ve noticed that Gemini 2.5 flash with grounding is searching web almost all the time. If user responds with simple “nice” or “hehe” then Gemini is searching for etymology of these words. This is completely useless. I’ve tried to override this behaviour with system prompt but it doesn’t look like it really works. Any suggestions?

Hi @Nathard, I have tried to use Gemini 2.5 flash with grounding enabled, when passing prompt with simple words as you mentioned like ‘nice’ I observed the model did not perform ground search if possible could you please share the screenshot or references where Gemini perform grounding for simple words. Thank You.

First try in AI Studio

Can I affect model preference for grounding with my system prompt or not at all?

I forgot to mention, I only use it without thinking, this could be the reason

Hey @Nathard. Please use the new updated gemini-2.5-flash-preview-05-20, it should resolve the issue.

Thanks.