Google Search Console's New Generative AI Report: What It Shows (and What It Doesn't)
By Minel Gunesoglu, founder of Is My Brand in AI · Last updated June 27, 2026
TL;DR: Google's Search Console AI report (the Generative AI features report, launched June 3, 2026) shows how often your pages appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's AI features. It reports impressions only — no clicks, CTR or queries — and excludes ChatGPT and Perplexity.
For two years, the biggest blind spot in AI search has been measurement: your content was showing up inside Google's AI Overviews, but Search Console lumped those appearances in with everything else, so you couldn't see them separately. That changed on June 3, 2026, when Google announced a dedicated Generative AI features report in Search Console, one of the most-requested features in the tool's history. Here's exactly what it does, the real limits of this first version, and how to use it without over-reading the data.
On this page
What is the new Generative AI report?
It's a new section inside Search Console's Performance area, with dedicated views for both Search and Discover. The data reflects where your pages appear inside Google's generative experiences:
- In Search: AI Overviews (the AI-written answer box at the top) and AI Mode (Google's full conversational search).
- In Discover: the AI-powered features inside the Discover feed.
In short, it isolates your presence in Google's AI surfaces so you can finally see it on its own, instead of guessing. The report is labelled Beta, and the rollout is starting with a subset of sites in the UK first, with Google saying it will expand availability globally after the testing phase. So if you're outside the UK or simply don't see it in your Search Console yet, that's expected — keep an eye out over the coming weeks. One useful detail: this generative AI impression data isn't a separate silo. It's still counted inside your overall Performance report too, so the new view is an isolated lens on numbers Google was already tracking, not a brand-new dataset.
What it tracks (and what it doesn't)
This is the part to be clear-eyed about, because the first version is deliberately narrow. It reports impressions only (how often your pages were shown inside these AI features), broken down by pages, countries, devices and dates — with date granularity from hourly all the way up to monthly. (The device dimension is available for Search only, not Discover.) That's genuinely useful, but notice what's missing.
| The report includes | The report does NOT include (yet) |
|---|---|
| Impressions in AI Overviews + AI Mode (Search) | Clicks and CTR — only impressions are shown |
| Impressions in Discover's AI features | The actual queries people typed |
| Breakdown by page, country, device, date (hourly to monthly) | Anything outside Google (no ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini app) |
Two limits matter most. First, no clicks and no CTR: you'll see that you appeared, not whether anyone came to your site from it. Second, and bigger, no query data: you won't know which questions triggered your appearance. For a discipline built on understanding intent, that's a real gap. Google has said it's still working with site owners on which insights are most useful and plans to add more metrics over time, so query and click data may follow. But for now the report answers "how often am I showing up?" and not much more.
Why this matters (even with the limits)
Step back from the feature details and the signal is bigger than the report itself: Google is officially measuring AI search visibility. When the world's dominant search engine builds a dedicated report for "how often you appear in AI answers," it confirms what this whole field has been arguing: that being present in AI-generated results is now a metric worth tracking, not a curiosity.
Practically, three things follow:
- You finally get a free Google-side baseline. Before this, your AI Overview presence was invisible inside aggregate Search data. Now you can watch it as its own line.
- It legitimizes the work. It's easier to justify investing in AI search visibility to a boss or client when Google itself reports on it.
- It's a leading indicator. Even impressions-only data tells you whether your content is being pulled into AI answers at all — and which pages. That's a starting point for getting cited more often.
How to actually use it
With impressions-only data, the useful moves are simple but real:
- Find your AI-visible pages. Sort by impressions to see which pages Google's AI features surface most. Those are your strengths — study what they do well and repeat it.
- Spot the gaps. Pages you expected to appear but don't are candidates for an AI Overview optimization pass: clearer answers up top, better structure, stronger sourcing.
- Watch the trend, not the day. A single day's impressions are noisy. Track the line over weeks to see whether your AI presence is growing as you publish and improve content.
This same impressions data also informs the opposite decision: whether to remove your site from these AI surfaces at all. If you are weighing that, our guide to opting out of Google AI Overviews uses exactly this report as the starting point.
- Segment by country and device. If you're strong in one market and absent in another, that's a content or localization signal.
Resist the urge to over-interpret. Without clicks or queries, this is a presence gauge, not a traffic or intent report. Use it to confirm direction, then do the actual visibility work elsewhere.
Where it falls short — and what fills the gap
The honest boundary of this report is that it only sees Google, and only impressions. Most of your buyers' AI questions don't happen in Google at all. They happen in ChatGPT, which has hundreds of millions of weekly users, plus Perplexity and Gemini. Search Console will never show you any of that.
That's the gap dedicated AI-visibility tools fill: tracking your brand across every major engine, showing which sources get cited instead of you, and turning that into a to-do list. The free Search Console report and a cross-engine tracker are complements, not substitutes:
- Search Console (free): your impression presence inside Google's AI features.
- A GEO tracker: your mention and citation share across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google, with competitor comparison.
If you want to see the dedicated tools that cover the engines Search Console can't, we compare them in our best GEO tools for 2026 roundup. And for a free first look at whether AI engines mention your brand at all, sample them by hand: ask each one your category questions and note whether your brand is named. Our guide to tracking brand mentions in ChatGPT walks through that manual baseline step by step.
How to improve what shows up in the report
A measurement report only helps if you act on it. The levers that increase your impressions in Google's AI features are the same ones that earn citations everywhere:
- Lead every important page with a clear, self-contained answer in the first paragraph — the passage AI features lift.
- Structure for extraction: descriptive headings, short sections, comparison tables, a real FAQ.
- Earn genuine mentions across the web (Reddit, roundups, reviews), which correlate strongly with AI citations.
- Keep dated content fresh and your pages crawlable.
The full playbook for Google's AI answers is in our guide to AI Overview optimization, and the broader strategy across all engines is in how to rank on ChatGPT.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Generative AI report available to everyone? Not yet. As of the June 3, 2026 launch it's rolling out in beta to a subset of sites in the UK first, with Google planning to expand globally after testing. If you don't see it in Search Console, check back over the coming weeks — it should reach more accounts over time.
Does the report show clicks from AI Overviews? No. This first version reports impressions only (how often your pages appeared in the AI features), not clicks, CTR or sessions. Click data may come later, but it isn't in the initial rollout.
Can I see which queries triggered my AI appearances? No. The initial report does not include query data, only impressions broken down by page, country, device and date (with hourly-to-monthly granularity). The missing query layer is the report's biggest limitation for now.
Does it track ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini? No. Search Console only covers Google's own search surfaces (AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover's AI features) — it does not cover the standalone Gemini app. To track your visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, you need a dedicated cross-engine tool — see our GEO tools comparison.
Should I still use a paid AI-visibility tool if this is free? For Google-only impressions, the free report is a fine baseline. But if you care about ChatGPT and the other engines (where most AI conversations happen), or you need clicks, queries, competitor share and recommendations, a dedicated tracker still does far more. They work best together.
The headline isn't really the feature. It's the validation. Google building a Generative AI report in Search Console is proof that AI search visibility has graduated from buzzword to a metric serious teams measure. Use the free report for your Google baseline, fix the pages that should be appearing and aren't, and pair it with cross-engine measurement for the full picture. We'll update this guide as Google expands the report (clicks and queries, hopefully). For the strategy behind moving these numbers, start with how to rank on ChatGPT.
Written by Minel Gunesoglu, founder of Is My Brand in AI — more about us. Reviewed June 27, 2026.