How Often Do Google AI Overviews Appear in Search Results: 48% or 1.3%?

Why do the figures differ so much?

Four things drive the differences:

• Which queries. Tracked commercial keyword sets differ from all searches people actually make, which include many navigational and very short searches.
• Which industries. Health and education queries trigger far more AI Overviews than shopping or entertainment queries.
• When. Coverage changed month to month in 2025, rising sharply in spring and summer and falling back later in the year.
• How it was measured. Location, device, login status and whether an overview must load fully all affect counts.

A figure without its query set and date cannot be compared with another.

What percentage of AI Overview triggers are informational searches?

Most, but a shrinking majority. Semrush found 91.3% of keywords that triggered an AI Overview in January 2025 were informational. By October 2025 that share had fallen to 57.1%, as commercial, transactional and navigational queries triggered more overviews. "How", "what" and "why" questions remain the most likely triggers. How long and complex queries behave is covered in whether long-tail and complex queries are more likely to trigger Google AI Overviews.

Are Google AI Overviews appearing for transactional keywords?

Yes, increasingly. Semrush found the share of transactional keywords triggering an AI Overview rose from 1.98% in October 2024 to 13.94% by late 2025. Commercial keywords rose from 8.15% to 18.57%. Buying-stage searches are still less likely to show an overview than informational ones. Google often shows shopping results, ads and local packs instead for those searches. But the gap has narrowed.

Do Google AI Overviews appear for exact-match brand searches?

Rarely for a bare brand name, more often for brand questions. Searching a brand name usually brings up the brand's site, sitelinks and knowledge panel. Semrush found navigational queries triggering AI Overviews rose from under 1% to about 10% during 2025. That covers searches such as "[brand] pricing", "is [brand] legit" or "[brand] vs [competitor]", which do often produce overviews. Those are the brand searches worth monitoring, because the overview's description of you may be the first thing a searcher reads.

Do high-CPC keywords trigger Google AI Overviews?

Less often than low-CPC keywords, so far. Semrush found AI Overviews appeared mostly on low-cost, low-volume keywords. Nearly 60% of triggering keywords had 100 or fewer monthly searches. High-cost commercial keywords are more likely to show ads, shopping results and local packs. Commercial and transactional coverage grew through 2025, though, and Google now places ads above, below and inside AI Overviews. Whether AI Overviews affect paid traffic is covered in whether Google AI Overviews reduce paid search traffic too.

Does AI Overview visibility vary by industry or niche?

Dramatically. BrightEdge's tracked keywords show the range:

Semrush's broader dataset showed lower rates, with Science (about 26%), Computers and Electronics (about 18%) and People and Society (about 17%) highest in November 2025. Both agree on the direction: topics that need explanation get more overviews than topics where people want to buy or browse.

Which topics appear most often in Google AI Overviews, and why is ecommerce rare?

Health, science, technology, education and how-to topics trigger AI Overviews most often, because searchers want explanations that combine several sources. Ecommerce searches trigger them less often because Google has other formats built for shopping. Product listings, prices, reviews and merchant offers from its Shopping Graph serve people ready to compare and buy better than a paragraph does. Shopping questions that involve research, such as "best running shoes for flat feet", are the exception. They increasingly produce overviews alongside product listings.

Do AI Overviews appear less often on mobile or desktop searches?

Studies do not agree, and many trackers measure only one device. Reported differences depend on the tool, the keyword set and the date, and some studies find overviews take up more of the screen on mobile. The practical answer is to check both. If most of your customers search on phones, track mobile results specifically, since that is where they will see an overview or not.

How do you measure your own exposure?

1. List your important keywords and questions, split by intent: informational, commercial, transactional, navigational and brand questions.
2. Track AI Overview presence for them with a rank tracker that records overviews, on the devices and locations your customers use.
3. Check Search Console's generative AI performance report for impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode on your pages.
4. Record whether you are cited in the overviews that appear.
5. Review monthly, since coverage changes quickly.

Your own share is the only figure that matters for planning. A local plumber's keywords, a SaaS company's comparison terms and a hospital's condition pages will show very different rates.

What might an illustrative measurement look like?

Consider an illustrative online homeware retailer that reads a headline saying AI Overviews appear on half of all searches and fears for its traffic. It tracks its 400 main keywords. AI Overviews appear on 9% of its product and category keywords but on 61% of its advice keywords, such as "how to choose a duvet tog". Its product traffic is largely unaffected, but its buying guides are losing clicks. The retailer rewrites its top 20 guides with direct answers and specifics, and gets cited in overviews for several of them. It keeps its product pages focused on Shopping listings and feeds.

What do people ask about how often AI Overviews appear?

Are AI Overviews still growing?

Across tracked commercial keyword sets, yes, through early 2026. Broader datasets showed rises and falls during 2025.

Do AI Overviews appear outside the US?

Yes, in more than 200 countries and territories and many languages, though rates vary by market.

Why did AI Overviews disappear for some of my keywords?

Google adjusts when overviews appear. Coverage for particular query types can drop as well as rise.

Should I track AI Mode as well?

Yes. AI Mode is a separate experience with its own citations. Search Console reports impressions from both.