Google Search Console now tracks AI Overviews impressions
Google launched AI Overviews impression data in Search Console on June 3. No click or query data included. The report covers Google only — not ChatGPT, Perplexity, or the other 7 AI engines.
B
Stephan Ochse
10 min read
June 10, 2026
Share
Google launched Generative AI performance reports in Search Console on June 3, 2026, giving site owners their first official look at how often their pages appear inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. The report tracks impressions by page, country, device, and date, but no click data, no query data, and no position metrics are included in the current release. Rollout started with a subset of UK-based website owners and is expanding globally. The report covers Google's AI features only. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, and the other major AI engines are outside its scope.
BrandCited, the AI visibility platform that monitors brand citations across 9 AI engines, shows how your brand performs inside Google's AI features and all other major AI search engines in a single dashboard. Run a free scan at brandcited.ai to see where you stand.
Google added a dedicated Generative AI performance report to Search Console on June 3, 2026, showing site owners how often their pages appear inside AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search and Discover. The report is the first official measurement tool Google has provided specifically for generative AI visibility, separate from the standard Search performance report.
Atomic fact 1: AI Mode crossed 1 billion monthly users at Google I/O 2026 in May, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch, per Google's I/O 2026 blog.
Atomic fact 2: AI Mode and AI Overviews cite the same URLs only 13.7% of the time across a sample of 540,000 equivalent query pairs, meaning a brand visible on one surface has no automatic presence on the other, per AEO Vision's AI Mode GEO Statistics 2026.
The report breaks down impressions across four dimensions: pages (which URLs appeared in AI features), countries (geographic visibility), devices (for Search results), and dates (daily, weekly, and monthly views). Google has confirmed it will add more metrics over time. The current release shows impressions only. No clicks, no CTR, no query-level data are included.
Track your AI visibility now
See exactly how AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini perceive your brand.
The BrandCited team covers GEO, AI search optimization, and brand visibility strategy. We publish research, practical guides, and product updates every week.
Spot an error in this article? Report it.
Google also published its standalone guide titled "Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search" on May 15, 2026, at Google Search Central. That guide and this new report arrived within three weeks of each other, signaling that Google is treating GEO measurement as a first-class discipline alongside traditional SEO.
Google introduced a second control at the same time as the report: a toggle inside Search Console that lets site owners stop their content from appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Discover, while leaving regular Search results and the Discover feed untouched. Google confirmed the opt-out won't be used as a ranking signal for standard web search.
Atomic fact 1: The opt-out covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI features in Discover at once. There's no per-surface granularity in the current version.
Atomic fact 2: Brands cited inside AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than brands in position one below the AI answer, per data compiled by Heroic Rankings from early 2026 studies.
Before flipping the toggle, check your impression data first. If your pages are appearing inside AI Overviews at volume, removing that presence can reduce traffic even if your standard organic rankings stay the same. The current report doesn't show clicks, but the traffic impact of AI citations is well-documented across third-party research. Run the impression report for at least 30 days before deciding.
BrandCited's AI Visibility Score tracks your citation rate inside Google AI Overviews as one of 30+ audit checks. See your score at brandcited.ai.
The current report is impressions-only. No queries, no clicks, no click-through rate, no position data, and no comparison to how those pages perform in standard web search. Site owners can see that a URL appeared inside an AI feature but can't see which user questions triggered the citation.
Atomic fact 1: Citations from top-ten Google-ranking pages dropped to roughly 38% by early 2026, down from 76% in mid-2025. Ranking and AI citation are now two separate problems requiring separate measurement, per AEO Vision's AI Mode GEO Statistics.
Atomic fact 2: The overlap between top Google links and AI-cited sources across all engines dropped from 70% to below 20%, per GEO firm Brandlight's June 2026 data update, confirming that AI citation behavior has diverged from organic ranking patterns.
The absence of query data is the sharpest gap. GEO practitioners optimize for specific user questions, not just for pages. Knowing a page appeared in AI Overviews 4,000 times tells you the page is getting cited. It tells you nothing about which questions trigger that citation or how to replicate the pattern on other pages. Google has indicated it will add additional metrics over time, but gave no timeline in the June 3 announcement.
What does Google's report miss about your brand's AI search visibility?#
Google's report covers one engine out of nine. Your audience is using ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Copilot, DeepSeek, You.com, and Brave. None of those engines appear inside Search Console. GEO practitioners who rely on Google Search Console alone are measuring a fraction of their brand's AI exposure.
Atomic fact 1: 97% of Google AI Mode responses include at least one citation, but AI Mode and AI Overviews cite the same URLs only 13.7% of the time. The two surfaces within Google's own ecosystem don't agree on which brands to cite.
Atomic fact 2: Perplexity handled an estimated 100 million monthly active users by early 2026 and integrated into Snapchat with a $400 million annual partnership, making it a citation channel brands can't measure through Google Search Console, per GetPanto's Perplexity AI Statistics.
Search Engine Land's commentary on AI Search Console measurement put it directly: the measurement gap is half-closed, not closed. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the other engines need to build their own reporting, and until they do, third-party tools that run queries across all engines fill the gap.
BrandCited monitors your brand's citation rate across all 9 major AI engines. Where Google Search Console shows impressions inside Google's features, BrandCited shows citation gaps, engine-by-engine query analysis, and a scored fix list ranked by impact. Run a free check at brandcited.ai.
OpenAI: GPT-5.5 Instant is rolling out to all ChatGPT users. Paid users can keep using GPT-5.3 Instant for three months via model configuration settings before retirement. (OpenAI Help Center)
Google Search Console: Generative AI performance reports live for a subset of UK-based site owners as of June 3. Global rollout date unconfirmed. (Google Search Central Blog)
Perplexity Comet Plus: Perplexity launched a $5/month subscription that pays publishers when their content grounds an AI answer. The Comet browser increased average user question volume 6-18X in early data. (Perplexity Hub)
ChatGPT memory upgrade: OpenAI upgraded ChatGPT's memory with automatic updates and twice the memory capacity for Plus and Pro users, starting in the US. (OpenAI News)
Google I/O AI Mode: Google made AI Mode the default search experience globally at I/O 2026. AI Mode surpassed 1 billion monthly users in its first year. (Google Blog)
How does BrandCited audit AI Overviews and other engine citations?#
BrandCited runs queries across all 9 major AI platforms and checks whether your brand appears in the response. For Google AI Overviews, BrandCited checks your citation rate, the query types that trigger your brand mention, and the content signals on your site that drive or block citations, including FAQ schema, Organization schema, and structured data completeness.
Atomic fact 1: BrandCited's 30+ audit checks cover every major citation signal identified in Google's official generative AI optimization guide, published May 15, 2026 at Google Search Central.
Atomic fact 2: BrandCited generates an AI Visibility Score from 0-100, tracking changes week-over-week across all 9 engines, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the 7 engines outside Google Search Console's current reporting scope.
Run a free BrandCited scan now. See your citation rate, engine-by-engine gaps, and every fix ranked by impact at brandcited.ai.
1Check Search Console for the AI performance report. If you're a UK-based site owner, access is likely live now. Go to Search Console and look for the Generative AI performance section. Pull impression data by page to identify which URLs are appearing inside AI features.
2Don't flip the opt-out toggle without data first. Run the impression report for at least 30 days before opting out of AI Overviews. Brands cited inside AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks than uncited competitors. Removing your presence without evidence is a mistake.
3Add FAQ schema to your top pages. Google's May 2026 GEO guide identifies FAQPage schema as a direct citation signal for AI Overviews. Add 4-6 question-and-answer blocks to your highest-traffic pages and mark them up correctly.
4Complete your Organization schema. AI engines use Organization schema to understand what your brand does and who it serves. A complete block (name, description, sameAs links, URL) is one of the lowest-effort, highest-signal changes a GEO audit will surface.
5Map citation gaps across all 9 engines. Google Search Console covers Google. Your brand's presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and the other 7 major engines needs its own measurement. BrandCited's free scan shows your citation rate across all 9 engines in 30 seconds.
6Track query-level citation data. BrandCited tracks by query type across all 9 engines, showing exactly which customer questions your brand answers inside AI systems, and which ones competitors answer instead.
Does the Google Search Console AI performance report show clicks?
No. The current version shows impressions only, broken down by page, country, device, and date. Click data, click-through rate, query data, and position metrics are not in the initial release. Google has stated it will add more metrics over time, but gave no timeline in the June 3 announcement.
Who has access to the new Search Console AI performance report?
Google launched the reports on June 3, 2026 and is rolling them out to a subset of UK-based website owners first. Global availability has no confirmed date. Check your Search Console account under the Generative AI performance section to see if your property has access.
Will opting out of AI Overviews hurt my standard Google Search rankings?
Google confirmed the opt-out won't be used as a ranking signal for regular web search results. Your standard organic ranking stays unchanged. The opt-out removes your content from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Discover. That removes the 35% click uplift that cited brands see relative to uncited position-one results.
Does Google Search Console track Perplexity or ChatGPT citations?
No. Google Search Console's AI performance report covers only Google's own AI features: AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover AI. Citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Copilot, You.com, Brave, and DeepSeek are outside the report's scope. BrandCited tracks all 9 engines in a single dashboard.
How is AI Mode different from AI Overviews in the new report?
Google has not confirmed whether the report separates AI Mode impressions from AI Overviews impressions in the initial release. Both surfaces appear under the Generative AI performance label. AI Mode and AI Overviews cite the same URLs only 13.7% of the time across equivalent queries, so a combined impression total can hide whether your citations are concentrated on one surface or distributed across both.
