Plane-wave DFT methods including semi-empirical dispersion correction are used to study in detail the interaction of different types of armchair graphene nanoribbons with Ag(1 1 1) and Au(1 1 1) surfaces. It is found that the two substrates show considerable differences in their interaction with the nanoribbons, resulting in notably different doping behavior for Au(1 1 1) and Ag(1 1 1). The obtained results are compared with the available experimental data.