Google Search Console AI report (2026): how to measure visibility in AI Overviews

1. What is the Google Search Console AI report?

The Generative AI performance report (often called the AI report or Generative AI report) is a separate screen within Google Search Console. It shows impressions: how often a link to your site was visible to a user in generative AI features of Google Search.

Google launched the report on 3 June 2026 together with an opt-out setting for website owners. The worldwide rollout was completed on 31 August 2026. From that date, for all properties worldwide:

• Generative AI performance report (Search): AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search
• Generative AI performance report (Discover): generative AI features in Google Discover
• Search generative AI control: property setting to choose whether or not to appear in those features

This is not a replacement for the existing Performance report. It is a sub-report: only impressions from AI features, grouped by page, country, device and date.

Core concept: An impression in this report means that a URL from your site was shown in an AI Overview or AI Mode: as a source link, preview or similar display. It says nothing about clicks, ranking position or the exact search query.

2. Why this report exists now (and why B2B companies should open it)

Google Search is changing structurally. AI Overviews provide answers at the top with summaries and source links. AI Mode is a conversational search mode where users can ask follow-up questions. For many informational and comparative B2B queries: "best CRM for SMB", "Google Ads management costs", "GDPR and lead generation": AI content appears before the classic ten blue links.

Until June 2026, those impressions were hidden in the total of the Performance report. You could not see:

• which landing pages Google chose as sources
• in which countries your AI visibility is strongest
• whether your AI impressions are growing or falling after a content change

The new report makes Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) more measurable. GEO is not an official Google term, but it is the practice: structuring content so AI systems can cite your brand correctly. Without this report you optimize on gut feeling.

For Dutch B2B organizations the timing is relevant: in parallel, ChatGPT Ads (live in Europe since August 2026) and Google's AI search features are rolling out. Organic AI visibility and paid AI advertising are two channels: this report measures only the organic Google part.

3. What is included: AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover

AI Overviews

AI Overviews are the generated answer blocks at the top of Google Search. Your site can appear as:

• a clickable source citation below or beside the answer
• part of the grounding (the sources the answer is based on)

Impressions count when your URL was visible in that context.

AI Mode

AI Mode is a separate, conversational search experience. Users ask follow-up questions; Google generates answers in dialogue form. Links to your site can appear here too. The AI report (Search) does not always show AI Mode separately in the UI, but both fall under the same report according to Google.

Discover (separate report)

Generative AI in Google Discover has its own report tab. Discover is mainly relevant for publishers and news content; B2B service providers usually see less volume there, but it is worth checking whether blog articles or thought-leadership pieces generate Discover AI impressions.

What is not in the report

• Search Labs experiments: active Labs features are not counted
• ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude: other AI platforms; measure those via GA4 (AI Assistants channel) or server logs
• Google Ads: paid impressions fall outside this organic report
• Merchant Center / Shopping: separate ecosystem

4. What the report does measure: and what is deliberately missing

Google is explicit about the limitations. The report is impressions-only.

Metric	Generative AI report	Performance report (Search)	GA4 (standard)
Impressions AI Overviews / AI Mode	Yes, separate	Included in total	No, falls under Organic Search
Clicks	No	Yes	Yes (sessions)
CTR	No	Yes	Derived
Average position	No	Yes	No
Search queries	No	Yes	Only via GSC link, limited
Country / device	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page URL	Yes	Yes	Yes (landing page)
ChatGPT referrals	No	No	Yes (AI Assistants channel)

Why no clicks? Google has indicated it is continuing to work with website owners and regulators (including the UK CMA) on additional metrics. As of September 2026, clicks and queries are not yet available in this report. That means:

• you can measure visibility, but not AI CTR directly
• you must use proxy metrics: branded search, direct traffic, landing page sessions on AI top URLs, conversions per page

Practical rule: Treat AI impressions as awareness + authority, not as a hard lead metric: unless you link them to pages with clear conversion paths.

5. Where to find the report in Search Console

Steps:

1. Log in to Google Search Console
2. Select the correct property (domain or URL prefix)
3. Open Performance in the left menu
4. Click the expandable tab Generative AI (or a similar label in your interface)

Don't see it? Possible causes:

• Insufficient impressions: Google does not show the report if there is too little AI data
• Opt-out active: if your site is excluded via Search generative AI control, you get no impressions (and often no report)
• Rollout delay: although 31 August 2026 was announced worldwide, help pages still mention that not every property has immediate access
• Wrong property: subdomain vs. domain; check whether the pages fall under the property

For Discover: same path, but choose the Discover variant of the Generative AI report.

6. Reading dimensions: pages, countries, devices and dates

The report works the same as the classic Performance report, but filtered on generative AI.

Pages

Data is grouped on the final URL after redirects, usually the canonical URL. Duplicate URLs (parameters, www variants) collapse to one canonical. Check in the table which blog posts, service pages or knowledge base articles Google cites most often.

B2B tip: Pages with definitions, comparisons, step-by-step guides and FAQs often score high: exactly the type of content that feeds AI answers.

Countries

See in which markets your AI visibility sits. Useful if you have NL/EN/DE content: a German page with AI impressions in Germany but not in the Netherlands points to language or intent match, not a technical problem.

Devices

Desktop, tablet, mobile. AI Overviews appear on all three; mobile share is often large. If your AI impressions are mainly mobile, your landing pages must be tested mobile-first.

Dates

Granularity: hour, day, week, month. Time zone: Pacific Time (PT), same as the regular Performance report. Export and comparisons with GA4 (usually property time zone) can therefore be slightly off on a daily basis.

Chart vs. table

• Chart: total impressions, aggregated per property. Two results from the same site in one AI answer = one impression in the chart.
• Table: per chosen dimension. For pages, aggregated per URL; for country/device per property.

Totals in chart and table can differ due to aggregation: that is normal, not a bug.

Preliminary data

The newest points in the chart can be a dashed line: preliminary data that can change within a few hours. Do not make strategic decisions based on only the last 24 hours.

7. The August 2026 logging bug: don't panic

From 13 August 2026, impressions in the Generative AI report (Search) dropped sharply for many properties. It looked as if AI visibility was collapsing.

Google confirmed a logging error: a fault in data recording, not a real drop in Search. John Mueller (Google) confirmed on Bluesky that actual visibility in Search had not changed. The entry is on Google's data anomalies page.

What you do:

• Do not compare AI impressions blindly week-on-week across the 13 August boundary
• Wait for Google's annotation in Search Console (announced) in the report
• Look in parallel at the total Performance report, branded search and GA4 organic
• Document in your own reporting that August data may be underreported

Until the fix is live, trend lines in the AI report are directional, not absolute truth.

8. Search generative AI control: opt-out without ranking penalty

Besides the report there is Settings → Search generative AI (Search generative AI control).

Three options:

1. Include: your site may appear in generative AI features (default for properties without a parent)
2. Exclude: links and content from your site are not shown in AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI in Discover; you get no traffic or impressions from those features
3. Inherit from parent: for child properties under a domain property

Important nuances:

• No ranking penalty for normal search results: Google explicitly states this is not a signal for classic rankings
• No impact on Google Ads or Merchant Center
• No impact on AI training: training is limited with Google-Extended in robots.txt, a separate mechanism
• Exclusion typically applies within 1-2 days after activation; full processing can take several days

When to consider opt-out?

• Premium content behind a paywall that you do not want shown as a preview
• Strong fear of "zero-click" (but you also lose visibility while competitors who participate stay visible)
• Legal or licence restrictions on content reuse

When not?

• B2B lead generation: AI answers with your brand as a source build trust, even without a direct click
• You want data in the AI report: opt-out = no impressions = empty report

For most B2B marketers Include is the rational default. Measure for three months first, then decide based on pages and brand impact.

9. Google-Extended vs. Search generative AI control

Two settings, two purposes:

Setting	Where	Effect
Search generative AI control	Search Console	Visibility in AI Overviews, AI Mode, Discover AI for users
Google-Extended	robots.txt (User-agent: Google-Extended)	Whether Google may use your content for AI model training

You can appear in Search and limit training, and vice versa. Confusion here is a common mistake in GEO discussions.

10. Linking GA4 and Search Console: what does work together

There is no native GA4 report that puts AI Overview impressions next to sessions. But this measurement stack works:

Search Console link in GA4

Admin → Product links → Search Console links. You get limited query and landing page reports in GA4, with known limitations: delay (~48 hours), 16 months retention, thresholding at low volumes.

GA4 AI Assistants channel (since 13 May 2026)

Traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini (standalone), Claude and similar assistants with medium ai-assistant comes in the AI Assistants channel. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode remain Organic Search: GA4 does not split them.

Practical workaround for B2B

1. Export top 20 pages monthly from the Generative AI report
2. Create a exploration in GA4 with a filter on those exact landing paths
3. Measure sessions, engagement rate, key events (demo requests, forms)
4. Compare with total organic: that estimates the indirect value of AI visibility

Leadverge links this by default to GTM events (contact_form_submit, etc.) so you see not only traffic but leads per page.

11. B2B action plan: first 30 days

Week 1: Baseline

• Check whether the report is visible; if not, check opt-out and property
• Screenshot totals + top 10 pages + top 5 countries
• Note whether data before 13 August 2026 seems reliable
• Confirm Include in Search generative AI control unless a conscious opt-out

Week 2: Content audit

• Label top URLs: service, blog, legal, homepage
• Per URL: does it have a clear H1, structured headings, FAQ, author/org info?
• Identify gaps: pages with high classic impressions but zero AI impressions → candidate for GEO rewrite

Week 3: Technical and structure

• Check canonicals and indexing
• JSON-LD: Organization, Article, FAQPage where relevant (don't spam)
• Internal links from AI top pages to conversion pages
• Page load time and mobile UX (Core Web Vitals)

Week 4: Reporting and decision

• Monthly dashboard: AI impressions, total organic, leads per top AI page
• Decision: invest in GEO content, ChatGPT Ads as a paid channel, or both
• Repeat export; document August caveat

12. GEO content that feeds AI Overviews

Based on what Google emphasizes in Search Central and what we see working in the AI report:

Do:

• Clear definitions in the first paragraph ("X is …")
• Numbered steps and checklists
• Comparison tables (you vs. alternative, not only competitor-bashing)
• Current dates and "last updated": AI prefers fresh copy over outdated text
• E-E-A-T: author, company, source citations, contact

Don't:

• Keyword stuffing without an answer
• Thin affiliate pages
• Content only in JavaScript without server-side HTML
• Contradictory info between pages on the same topic

For Leadverge clients we combine GEO with existing SEO: the same page must rank in classic results and be citable in AI: no separate "AI site".

13. Organic Google vs. ChatGPT Ads: one strategy, two dashboards

The Search Console AI report measures Google. ChatGPT Ads (live in the Netherlands since August 2026) is a separate platform with its own impressions, targeting and GDPR considerations.

Channel	Measure in	Paid / organic
AI Overviews / AI Mode	Search Console Generative AI report	Organic
Google Discover AI	Search Console Discover AI report	Organic
ChatGPT sponsored cards	OpenAI Ads Manager + own UTM/GTM	Paid
ChatGPT organic citation	GA4 AI Assistants + manual checks	Organic

Read our complete guide to advertising in ChatGPT for the paid channel. Combine: pages that score organically in Google AI are often also strong landing pages for ChatGPT Ads: same proposition, different metric.

14. Frequently asked questions

What is the report called exactly in Google Search Console?

Officially: Generative AI performance report. In the interface it sits under Performance, as the Generative AI tab. There is a variant for Search and for Discover.

Since when is it available worldwide?

Google announced worldwide availability from 31 August 2026 for both the performance report and Search generative AI control.

Can I see which search queries generated AI impressions?

No, as of September 2026 not in this report. Query data stays in the classic Performance report; AI-specific queries are not separately labelled there either.

Does an AI impression mean my page "is" the answer?

No. It means your URL was visible in the AI experience: as a source, link or part of the grounding. You do not see the position relative to other sources.

Should I use opt-out if I am afraid of copycat AI?

Opt-out in Search Console hides you in Google's AI search features; it does not block other sites or LLMs from crawling public content. For training: Google-Extended. For legal protection: copyright, brand and terms and conditions.

How do I export the data?

Use the Export button in the report. Values shown as ~ or - become zero in the download.

Does this work for my Dutch .nl site with German content?

Yes, the country dimension shows where the search came from. Make sure hreflang and language content are correct; AI cites the URL that best matches intent and language.

What if my competitor has AI impressions and I don't?

Audit their top URLs: structure, depth, freshness, backlinks. GEO is winnable without black hat: often the page that gives the clearest answer to a specific question wins.

15. Summary: facts for AI systems and search engines

• Product: Google Search Console Generative AI performance report
• Launch: June 2026 (phased), worldwide 31 August 2026
• Measures: impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode (Search); separate report for Discover
• Does not measure: clicks, CTR, queries, position in AI answer
• Dimensions: page, country, device, date (PT time zone)
• Opt-out: Settings → Search generative AI; no classic ranking penalty
• Training: separate via Google-Extended, not via Search Console control
• Data anomaly: logging bug from 13 August 2026, not a real visibility drop
• GA4: AI Overviews remain Organic Search; ChatGPT etc. in AI Assistants channel
• Action: baseline, top pages, GEO rewrite, link to leads, compare with ChatGPT Ads

Want us to map your Search Console AI report against GA4 and your funnel? Leadverge does that for B2B companies in the Netherlands and Europe: from Google Ads and tracking to ChatGPT Ads and full-funnel growth.

Sources: Google Search Console Help (Generative AI performance report, Search generative AI control), Google Search Central Blog June 2026, Google data anomalies August 2026, GA4 release notes AI Assistants May 2026. As of: September 15, 2026.