How Do AI Overviews and AI Mode Show Up in Search Console?

What does each report show?

Google's launch post said the AI data stays in the overall Performance report, and the new report is a separate, dedicated view. A matching report covers generative AI features in Discover. Data from Search Labs experiments is excluded from both. Sites with too few AI impressions may not see the new report at all, and so may sites that have excluded themselves from generative AI features, as covered in whether you could have opted out of AI Overviews.

Does Google Search Console show AI Mode clicks and impressions?

Yes, but not separately. Google's help page on impressions, position and clicks says that clicking a link to an external page in AI Mode counts as a click, standard impression rules apply, and position follows the same method as a normal results page. Those clicks and impressions appear in the Performance report under the Web search type, alongside ordinary results.

Two details affect what you see:

• Follow-up questions are new queries. When a user asks a follow-up in AI Mode, the impressions, positions and clicks in the new response are counted against that new query. A single AI Mode conversation can therefore produce several query rows.
• AI Mode searches subtopics. Google says AI Mode splits a question into subtopics and searches each at once, so your page may be shown for a query that looks broader or longer than the searches it normally ranks for.

The Generative AI performance report adds AI Overview and AI Mode impressions, combined, by page, but it does not show clicks. Search Console cannot give you AI clicks. To see whether AI exposure is turning into visits, compare a page's AI impressions with its total clicks in the standard report over the same period, and watch how the two move together.

Can Search Console identify whether an impression came from AI Mode or an AI Overview?

No. The Generative AI performance report includes both AI Overviews and AI Mode, and its help page offers no way to separate them: the dimensions are pages, countries, devices and dates, and the only filter is search type (text or multimodal). The standard Performance report does not label either feature.

What you can do:

• Compare trends. A page whose AI impressions rise while its standard impressions stay flat is likely being shown more in AI features.
• Look at query shape. Long, conversational queries in the standard report are more often AI Mode searches, as covered in how to use Search Console long-tail queries to find AI prompts. This is a clue, not proof, and some long queries come from tracking tools, as explained in whether AI visibility tools create fake queries in Search Console.
• Check manually. Search your key queries and note whether an AI Overview appears and cites you.

The report also counts differently from a citation list. In the chart, if two links from your site appear in the same AI feature, they count as one impression for the property.

Does an AI Overview citation count as a position one result in Search Console?

Only if the AI Overview itself is at the top of the page. Google's help says an AI Overview occupies a single position in search results, and all links in the AI Overview are assigned that same position. When the overview sits at the top, every cited link, whether it is the first source or the eighth, is recorded at position 1. If the overview appears lower on the page, all its links share that lower position.

This has two effects on your reports:

• Average position can improve while clicks fall. A page cited in an AI Overview at the top gets position 1 even if searchers read the summary and do not click.
• Position no longer means rank among the links. A position 1 query may be an AI Overview citation, not the first blue link. Check the results page before celebrating.

Why a page can rank well but still not be cited is covered in why a page can rank in Google but not appear in AI answers.

How should you use the two reports together?

1. List your top pages by AI impressions in the Generative AI report each month.
2. Pull the same pages' clicks and impressions from the standard Performance report for the same dates.
3. Flag pages with rising AI impressions and falling clicks. Before reading a rise as real demand, check whether a tracking tool started running test searches for those queries in the same period; its searches are counted too. These may be answered in the AI feature without a visit, so consider what the page offers beyond the summary.
4. Flag important pages with no AI impressions, and check whether they answer the questions people ask.
5. Track the ratio over time, not single days, since the newest data is preliminary and can change.

The usual limits apply: the table shows up to 1,000 rows, and chart and table totals can differ because the chart counts by property and the page table counts by page. Why Google does not provide a fuller view of AI visibility is discussed in why there is no Search Console equivalent for AI search.

We have not compared the report's numbers with our own observation of AI Overviews at scale. This page is based on Google's June 2026 announcement and its Search Console help pages.

What might this look like in practice?

Consider an illustrative garden supply retailer, Mirrnell, whose lawn care guide showed an average position of 1.3 and falling clicks. The Generative AI performance report showed the guide among the site's top pages for AI impressions. Searching its main queries showed an AI Overview at the top citing the guide, which explained the position. The team added a seasonal treatment calendar and a product comparison that the overview did not reproduce, and tracked clicks against AI impressions each month.

What do people ask about AI data in Search Console?

Does the Generative AI report show clicks?

No. It shows impressions only. Clicks from AI features are in the standard Performance report, mixed with other results.

Can I see which queries triggered an AI Overview?

No. The Generative AI report has no query dimension.

Is AI Mode data included in my normal Search Console totals?

Yes. It is counted in the Web search type of the Performance report.

Why don't I see the Generative AI report?

Your site may have too few AI impressions, or you may have excluded it from Search generative AI features.