Search Console AI Mode Report: How to Track AI Traffic

Since June 2026, Google Search Console has been rolling out a report that site owners have asked for since AI Overviews first appeared: a view of how often your pages show up inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. It is called the Generative AI features performance report, and if you have been wondering whether Google’s AI answers mention your site at all, this is the first official place to look.

There is a catch. The report shows impressions only. No clicks, no click through rate and no queries. In this guide we explain what the report shows, how to find it, how to read it alongside GA4 and what to do with the numbers once you have them.

What the Generative AI report shows

The report counts an impression each time a URL from your site appears in a generative AI feature. According to Search Engine Land, that covers AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search, plus AI Overviews in Discover. A citation card, an inline link inside the answer text or a link in a carousel can all count as an impression.

You can slice the data four ways:

Pages: which URLs on your site are being cited.
Countries: where those impressions happen, which is useful if you sell in the US, UK and Australia.
Devices: desktop, mobile or tablet. This view is available for Search, not Discover.
Dates: daily, weekly or monthly views, so you can line changes up with content updates.

What it leaves out matters just as much. There are no clicks, no CTR, no average position and no query data. Google has said it may add more metrics based on feedback, but for now you learn that you were seen, not whether anyone visited.

How to find the report in Search Console

Open Search Console and choose your property.
Look for the Generative AI option under Performance in the left menu. On some properties Google also shows a prompt at the top of the main Performance report inviting you to see your performance in generative AI features. Click Open report.
Set the date range to the last 3 months so you have enough data to see a trend.
Switch between the Pages, Countries and Devices tabs to see where you are being cited.

Google is releasing the report gradually. It started with a group of UK site owners and is reaching more properties over time. If you cannot see it yet, nothing is wrong with your setup. You will simply have to rely on your normal Performance data until it arrives.

One detail catches people out: AI impressions are a subset of your normal search impressions, not extra ones. Do not add the two numbers together or you will count the same appearance twice.

Why the missing click data matters

For a small business, impressions alone are half an answer. Being cited in an AI Overview is good for brand visibility, but the answer often satisfies the searcher without a visit to your site. Crawlraven’s analysis of the report calls this the clicks problem: citations are becoming less tied to traffic.

We see the same pattern on our own site. Our guide on how to rank in Google AI Mode collected more than 100 impressions in its first ten days across searches such as “how to rank in google ai mode”, “rank in google ai mode” and “how to rank in ai mode”. Clicks for those searches stayed at zero. The visibility is there, but the traffic has not followed yet, which is exactly why you need more than one view of the data.

How to estimate AI Mode clicks in GA4

Search Console will not give you AI clicks, so use GA4 to fill part of the gap. Visitors who click a link in AI Mode or an AI Overview arrive from google.com, so GA4 groups them with your normal Organic Search traffic. You cannot split them out perfectly, but you can spot the signal:

Export your AI impressions by page from the Generative AI report.
Open GA4, then Reports, Engagement, Landing page, and add a filter for Session default channel group equals Organic Search.
Compare the two lists. Pages with rising AI impressions and flat organic sessions are being cited but not clicked. Pages where both rise are winning real visits.
Track the other AI tools separately. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini send referral traffic you can isolate. Our guide on how to see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics shows how to build that report.

What changed in AI Mode in October 2026

The report is arriving at a useful moment, because Google changed how AI Mode and AI Overviews show links on October 15, 2026. In its announcement, Google said:

Inline links inside AI answers have grown substantially and will appear higher in responses more often.
It is testing a section at the top of some answers that highlights official websites when only one or two sites are the right source for a task.
Carousels of timely articles are rolling out to more locations and languages and favour Preferred Sources. Google says use of Preferred Sources has grown more than 7x since the start of the year.
Related article links at the end of answers now show image thumbnails and are easier to click.

More links in AI answers mean more chances to earn an impression in the new report. We covered the change in detail in our post on the October 2026 AI Mode and AI Overviews link update.

How to turn AI impressions into visits

Once you know which pages AI features cite, make those pages work harder:

Lead with the answer. Put a clear 40 to 60 word answer directly under each question heading. AI features pick up short, direct answers.
Give people a reason to click. Add things a summary cannot replace, such as a price table, a calculator, a downloadable checklist, real screenshots or case study results.
Use structured data. FAQPage, HowTo and Organization schema help Google understand who you are and what each page answers.
Keep pages fresh. Update dates, figures and examples. Timely content is what the new article carousels favour.
Show who is behind the content. Clear contact details, an About page and third party profiles such as Clutch are trust signals that AI systems look for.
Check speed and crawlability. If Googlebot struggles to load a page, it is less likely to cite it.

Our step by step guide on how to rank in Google AI Mode goes deeper on each point.

Should you opt out of AI features?

Alongside the report, Google is testing a setting that lets site owners exclude their content from AI Overviews and AI Mode. For now it is limited to a subset of UK sites. Opting out means no impressions or visits from those features, though Search Engine Land reports that it is not meant to affect your regular rankings.

For most small businesses, opting out would be a mistake. AI answers are becoming a front door to search, and being cited builds recognition even when the visit comes later through a branded search or a direct visit. The exception is publishers whose entire product is their content, who may decide the trade is not worth it.

A simple monthly routine

On the first working day of each month, export the Generative AI report by page.
Export GA4 organic landing pages for the same date range.
Mark pages that gained AI impressions but no visits, and improve one of them using the checklist above.
Note any page that lost AI impressions and check whether a competitor published something newer.
Record the totals in a spreadsheet so you can judge the trend over a quarter rather than a single week.

The whole routine takes about 30 minutes, and it gives you a far clearer picture than guessing whether AI search is helping your business.

Sources

Want help getting your pages cited in AI answers? See our SEO services.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Search Console Generative AI report?

It is a Search Console report that shows how often your pages appear in Google’s generative AI features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search and AI Overviews in Discover. You can view the data by page, country, device and date.

Does the report show clicks from AI Mode?

No. The first version shows impressions only, with no clicks, CTR, position or query data. Use GA4 organic landing pages alongside it to estimate whether AI citations turn into visits.

Why can’t I see the Generative AI report in Search Console?

Google is releasing it gradually. It started with a group of UK site owners and is reaching more properties over time, so some sites do not have it yet.

How do I track Google AI Mode traffic in GA4?

Clicks from AI Mode arrive from google.com, so GA4 counts them as Organic Search. Compare organic landing pages in GA4 with the pages cited in the Generative AI report to see which citations bring visits.

Will opting out of AI Overviews hurt my rankings?

According to reporting on the test, the opt out setting is not meant to affect regular search rankings. You would lose impressions and visits from AI features, which is why most businesses should stay included.

Search Console Generative AI Report: How to Track Google AI Mode