For almost two years, measuring a brand’s visibility within AI-generated responses has been a leap of faith. We knew that AI-generated Views and AI Mode were intercepting searches, but Search Console did not separate that data from the rest. That has just changed: the Generative AI report in Search Console It’s already being rolled out and, for the first time, Google is showing how often your website appears within its AI features.
The short answer, for those in a hurry: the Generative AI report in Search Console Shows the impressions your site receives in AI-generated views and in AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device and date. It does not include clicks, CTR or queries. It is not yet available for all properties.
What exactly is the Generative AI report in Search Console?
This is a new report, separate from the standard Performance report, which Google launched in June 2026. According to the official Search Console documentation, it enables three specific things:
- See how your organic impressions evolve over time within generative AI features.
- Identify which pages generate the most (and least) impressions in those roles.
- Find out where these impressions come from, for example by country or by device type.
Google specifies which features are included in the calculation: the AI-generated views (known in English as ‘AI Overviews’) and the AI Mode. The company adds that it plans to update this list as Search evolves. Search Labs experiments are excluded, as they are still in the development phase. There is a separate, equivalent report for Google Discover.
It’s worth emphasising something that many articles overlook: Google is rolling this out gradually, «to a subset of website owners». If you log in to your account and don’t see anything, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done something wrong. If you’d like to brush up on the basics of the tool, we have a A comprehensive guide to what Google Search Console is.
What data does the report contain, and what is still missing?
This is the part that causes the most confusion. The report focuses on printouts, defined as the number of times links to your site have been displayed within a generative AI feature in Search.
There are four sizes available:
- Pages: Groups by the final URL reached after redirects. As in the Performance report, the data is assigned to the canonical URL, not to the duplicate URLs.
- Countries: groups them according to the country from which the search originated.
- Dates: per day, week or month, always in Pacific Time (UTC-8).
- Devices: computer, tablet or mobile phone.
What you won’t find, at least for now, are clicks, CTR or a breakdown by search queries. This is a significant limitation and it’s worth stating quite plainly: the report tells you that you appear in the results, but not whether that brings you traffic or which queries the AI associates you with.
The usual limitations of the Performance report also apply: the 1,000-row limit and the time period restrictions. Furthermore, the most recent data may be preliminary – indicated on the graph by a dotted line – as it is still being collected and may change in the coming hours.
Why this report is changing the conversation about SEO
Until now, when a client asked us, «Do we appear in ChatGPT or in Google’s search results?», the only honest answer involved using third-party tools that simulate searches and estimate the number of mentions. These are useful, but they are, after all, just estimates.
This report provides first-hand information. And that has an immediate practical consequence: Visibility in AI is no longer just a hunch; it has become a reportable metric. If a website’s organic traffic falls whilst its AI-driven impressions rise, this is no longer a mystery, but rather an identifiable pattern. This is precisely the area we cover when discussing Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
Beware of the opposite temptation. A rise in impressions does not necessarily mean business is improving. An impression on an AI-generated view may resolve the user’s query without them ever visiting your website. It’s visibility, not a visit, and certainly not a sale. Confusing the two would be exactly the same mistake we made years ago when we celebrated rankings without looking at conversions.
You can’t see the report: possible reasons
Google lists two main causes, and a third, related one:
- Partial deployment. Not all properties have access yet. That is the most likely explanation.
- Insufficient volume. Your site has not received enough impressions on the generative AI features to generate data.
- Active exclusion. Your site may be excluded from Search’s generative AI features. Google has a specific control for including or excluding content from these features.
It is this third point that is generating the most debate within the sector. Opting out protects content from being summarised, but it also means forgoing the opportunity to appear in the search results where an increasing number of users begin and end their searches. It is a strategic, rather than a technical, decision, and depends on each website’s business model: a media outlet that relies on display advertising is not the same as a service provider whose aim is to be cited as a reference.
How to make the most of the report from this week onwards
Based on the information available today, these are the actions that make sense:
- Check whether you have access. Log in to Search Console and look for the Generative AI Performance report. If it appears, export the data as soon as possible: the export button downloads both the chart and the table.
- Set a baseline. Save the current print volume before making any changes. Without a baseline, it will be impossible to attribute any subsequent changes.
- Flip through the pages of the Classic Performance Report. Identify which URLs generate impressions in AI and compare them with those that generate organic clicks. Any discrepancies provide valuable insights.
- Check your exclusion settings. Check whether anyone has, at any point, enabled the AI features block. This happens more often than you might think when there are several people managing the website.
- Document every change. Search Console has introduced annotations. Use them to flag posts, migrations or content changes, so you can later analyse fluctuations in rankings with context.
Frequently asked questions about the generative AI report in Search Console
Does the report include data from ChatGPT or Perplexity?
No. It only covers generative AI features within Google Search: AI-generated views and AI Mode. To measure presence on other assistants, different tools are required.
Since when have data been available?
Google does not specify a start date for the shared history across all properties in its help documentation. Several industry sources suggest mid-May 2026 as the start date for the series, but we cannot confirm this based on the official documentation we have consulted. It is advisable to check the date range available for your own property.
Will opting out of AI features affect my normal search ranking?
According to Google’s documentation on the exclusion control, the decision affects visibility in generative AI features. We have not found any statement in the official documentation we have consulted that links this exclusion to a penalty in traditional organic search results. If this decision is under consideration within your organisation, it is advisable to review the updated documentation before implementing it.
Why don’t the graph and the table match up?
This is to be expected. Google explains that the chart aggregates the data by property, whilst the table changes its aggregation method depending on the chosen dimension: by country, device or date, it aggregates by property; by page, it aggregates by page. This difference leads to legitimate discrepancies in the totals.
What we’ll be keeping an eye on
The report, as it stands today, is a first step rather than a fully-fledged tool. Without clicks or queries, it serves to identify trends and prioritise pages, not to calculate return on investment. The interesting question is what Google will add in future iterations and how quickly it will roll out the feature.
In the meantime, our advice to our clients is simple: start looking at the data now, even if it’s incomplete. When, in a few months’ time, this report becomes standard practice and AI visibility is discussed at every results meeting, those who have been building up historical data for half a year will have context. Those who start on that day will be faced with a blank screen.
At Vandelay We specialise precisely in that intersection between traditional SEO and visibility on generative search engines. If you’d like to see how your brand appears in AI-generated responses and which pages are driving that presence, let’s have a chat.
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