How to Read the Generative AI Performance Report in Search Console

Google Search Console now shows how often your pages appear inside Google’s AI-generated answers.

On August 31, 2026, Google completed the global rollout of the Generative AI performance report to every website.

At Google I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai confirmed that AI Overviews now has over 2.5 billion monthly users, while AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly users within a year of launch.

Website owners can now measure AI search impressions across Google’s generative AI features in Search and Discover.

A new Search generative AI control also lets them remove their site from these features altogether.

This guide explains what the report measures and how to make an informed call on the opt-out setting.

Inside the Google Search Console AI Report

The Generative AI performance report shows how often links to your site appear in Google’s generative AI features.

Google built it as a dedicated view inside the standard Performance report, so teams can isolate AI visibility that was previously mixed in with all other web search impressions. 

The traditional Performance report tracks clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position by query.

The Google Search Console AI report tracks impressions and nothing else. Each impression records a moment when a user saw a link to your site inside an AI-generated answer in Search or Discover.

Google also counts these impressions in the overall Performance report under the Web search type.

The new report does not add extra impressions to your totals. It separates the AI share of the impressions you already receive.

The report gives useful context to several groups:

• Business owners who want to know if their content appears in AI answers about their products and services.
• Publishers who depend on organic visibility for audience growth.
• SEO specialists who need hard numbers when a client asks how their brand shows up in Google’s AI answers.
• Agencies that manage several Search Console properties and need consistent AI benchmarks across accounts.

Google Rolls Out the Generative AI Performance Report Worldwide

Google introduced the report on June 3, 2026, alongside new guidance for website owners. Access began with a subset of websites.

Google later updated its Search Central announcement to confirm the worldwide rollout.

Global availability does not guarantee a populated report for every property. Google does not show the report to sites without enough AI impressions.

A small site with little AI visibility can open Search Console and find no data at all.

The update matters because AI answers now shape what people see before they reach the standard blue links.

Until this release, teams relied on third-party rank trackers and manual spot checks to estimate AI visibility. Those methods only sample a limited set of keywords.

The Google AI search performance report draws on Google’s own first-party data, which gives Australian businesses a more reliable baseline for organic search reporting.

Data Available in the Generative AI Performance Report

The report organises AI visibility data into separate views for Search and Discover. Both views use the same impression metric, with slightly different dimensions for each.

AI Search Impressions and Page Visibility

An impression counts each time a user sees a link to your site inside a generative AI feature.

The Pages dimension lists the URLs that appeared, so you can identify which content Google cites in its AI answers.

Google assigns most of this data to the canonical URL.

The report groups impressions by the final URL a generative AI feature links to after any redirects, then credits the canonical version of that page.

A duplicate page that Google cites will therefore show its impressions under the canonical URL.

Accurate canonical tags matter here, because a misconfigured tag sends AI visibility data to the wrong page in your reports.

AI Overviews and AI Mode Reporting

The Search view covers AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google’s two main generative AI experiences in Search.

AI Overviews appear above the standard results for many queries, while AI Mode provides a conversational interface for longer, multi-step questions.

SEO teams can chart AI search impressions over time and change the date view to suit the analysis.

Slow growth in AI impressions over a few months tells you Google’s AI features are citing your pages more frequently.

If the numbers fall sharply in the days after a Google update, that update is the first place to look, since it can change which sources those features prefer.

Discover Data and Reporting Filters

Google Discover has its own generative AI performance report. It records impressions from generative AI features in the Discover feed and lists pages by their canonical URL.

The filters differ slightly between the Search and Discover views:

• Pages shows which URLs appeared in generative AI features.
• Countries shows the country where the search took place or where the Discover content was viewed.
• Devices splits impressions by device category and applies to the Search view only.
• Dates shows how impressions change across the selected period.

What the Generative AI Performance Report Does Not Show

The biggest limitation is the absence of click and query data. The report confirms that your page appeared in an AI answer.

It does not show the search query that triggered the appearance or if anyone clicked through to your site.

An AI impression and a website visit are separate events. An impression records exposure on Google’s results page.

The visit itself, along with any enquiry or sale that follows, only shows up in GA4 or your CRM.

Higher AI visibility does not automatically produce more traffic. A 2026 YouGov report found that only 31% of Australians who use AI for search typically click through to the links their AI assistant provides.

Fifteen per cent say they usually stop searching once they read the AI answer. A page can gain thousands of AI impressions and still send very few users to your site. 

The report works best as a visibility signal paired with your other analytics data.

Comparing AI impressions with GA4 organic sessions and conversions shows if visibility changes match the results your marketing attribution model credits to organic search.

How to Use the Generative AI Performance Report for SEO

The report appears as an expandable tab under the main Performance report in Search Console.

Anyone with access to a property can open it there or through the direct link in Google’s help documentation.

The Pages dimension is the most useful starting point. Sorting pages by impressions reveals which content Google cites most frequently in AI answers.

It also exposes important pages that receive no AI visibility at all.

These findings help set content priorities. A page with strong AI impressions and falling organic clicks deserves a closer review of its title and on-page answers.

A page with no AI impressions on a topic your business specialises in is a candidate for clearer structure and more direct answers.

This work forms part of generative engine optimisation, which applies sound SEO practice to AI-generated results.

Impression growth alone does not justify a content investment. The report’s filters and export button help test each finding against wider performance data:

• Weekly or monthly views smooth out daily volatility and show if AI visibility grows over time.
• Country filters reveal how much AI visibility comes from Australian searches compared with overseas markets such as New Zealand.
• Device filters show if mobile users see your content more than desktop users.
• The export button downloads chart and table data, so analysts can match AI impressions with the wider impression data in Search Console and with page-level clicks.

How the Search Generative AI Control Affects Website Visibility

Alongside the report, Google released the Search generative AI control, a setting that gives site owners a direct choice over their participation in AI search.

Including or Excluding Your Site From AI Search

The control is a property-level setting under Settings in Search Console.

The default option allows a site’s links and content to appear in generative AI features and serve as a source for AI responses.

Switching the setting excludes the property from generative AI features in both Search and Discover.

Changes apply to the whole property and its subpages, as the toggle does not offer page-by-page choices.

What Happens When a Website Opts Out

Opting out removes the site from generative AI search features entirely. Google states that opted-out sites receive no traffic or impressions from these features.

The Generative AI performance report will therefore show no data for that property.

Google confirms the control does not act as a ranking signal for search results outside generative AI features.

An opted-out page can still rank in standard organic results and earn clicks there.

The control also has no effect on AI model training, which Google manages through separate tools such as Google-Extended.

Making the Opt-Out Call

The decision weighs visible exposure against outcomes the report cannot measure. Staying in AI search puts your content in front of a very large audience.

The report still cannot prove that this exposure drives visits.

A February 2026 Ahrefs study of 300,000 keywords found that AI Overviews correlate with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page.

Leaving AI search does not restore those clicks. The AI answer still appears for the query and cites other pages in place of yours.

What you need from search traffic should settle the question. A brand that relies on awareness and authority gains from regular AI citations.

A publisher with ad-funded content or premium research can lose more value than it gains when AI answers summarise its work.

For most small and medium-sized businesses, staying included and monitoring the data for several months provides a stronger basis for any future change.

Put Your AI Search Visibility in Context

The Generative AI performance report gives website owners their first view of AI search visibility based on Google’s own data.

It measures impressions only, so AI visibility and attributable website traffic need separate tracking.

Regular monitoring alongside GA4 and conversion data turns these impressions into usable insight and supports a sound decision about the Search generative AI control.

Accuracy is the only safeguard against misleading visibility metrics.

Tell No Lies helps businesses connect Search Console data with GA4 and CRM reporting that reflects real outcomes.

Contact us today to set up AI search reporting you can trust.