Google has officially rolled out Search Generative AI performance reports inside Google Search Console, giving website owners their first dedicated view into how content performs across AI-powered search experiences including AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Discover.
The new reports give site owners dedicated visibility into impressions within generative AI features on Search, covering AI Overviews and AI Mode, as well as generative AI features in Discover. This data runs alongside the overall performance report, where it continues to be tracked as part of a broader site visibility overview.
What the New Reports Cover
The reports cover five data dimensions: impressions (how often URLs appeared in generative AI features), pages that appeared within AI features, country-level visibility, device breakdowns for Search results, and date granularity at hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly levels.
There is, however, one significant gap. The reporting includes impressions, pages, countries, devices, and dates but does not include click data. No click-through figures. No query-level breakdowns. For an industry that has spent two years asking how much AI search actually drives traffic, the answer remains incomplete.
Both the new AI reports and a companion opt-out toggle are initially rolling out to a subset of website owners in the United Kingdom first, with no confirmed date for global expansion. The announcement was co-authored by Hillel Maoz, Search Ecosystem Engineering Manager, and Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead for Search Console.
Why This Update Matters: The Numbers Behind AI Search
The launch comes as AI-powered features have reshaped search behavior at a scale that can no longer be ignored.
AI Overviews now trigger on approximately 48% of all tracked search queries, a 58% year-over-year increase from February 2025, covering more than 200 countries and territories across 40+ languages.
The CTR impact is stark. Click-through rates drop from 15% to 8% the moment an AI Overview appears on a results page. In AI Mode, 93% of searches end without a single click, more than double the zero-click rate of AI Overviews, where 43% of searches result in no click at all.
For publishers, the damage has been severe. CTR reductions of 34% to 46% are now documented across independent studies when AI summaries appear, with some publishers reporting nearly 90% declines for specific search categories.
However, brands earning citations inside AI Overviews are seeing a completely different story. Being cited delivers approximately 120% more organic clicks per impression compared to uncited brands appearing on the same queries. Pages referenced as sources inside AI Overviews see CTR increases of up to 35% versus non-cited pages on the same SERP. Brands mentioned regularly in AI responses also see a 91% lift in branded paid CTR, a halo effect that extends well beyond organic.
An Opt-Out Toggle Is Also Being Tested
Alongside the reporting update, Google confirmed it is testing a site-level control that allows website owners to decide whether their content appears in generative AI search features at all. Sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Overviews in Discover. Google has also confirmed this opt-out will not be used as a ranking signal for traditional search results outside of these generative AI features.
The UK rollout is directly tied to regulatory pressure. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is legally requiring Google to give publishers more control over how their content is used across AI features, including the ability to opt out of content being used for AI model fine-tuning. For site owners in the initial UK cohort, the control is available to configure now but will only take effect in Google Search from June 17, 2026.
Worth noting: Microsoft already launched AI Performance reporting inside Bing Webmaster Tools in February 2026, with query-level citation data included. Google’s new reports currently omit that layer entirely.
What Brands Should Be Doing Now
The broader data makes one thing clear. Being cited by AI is now a performance metric in its own right.
Organic CTR on queries without AI Overviews has climbed from 2.8% in early 2025 to 3.8% by February 2026, as users who still click through are increasingly looking for depth beyond what the AI summary provides. Early adopters of Answer Engine Optimization are seeing up to 527% year-over-year growth in AI-driven search traffic. Structured content with comparison tables earns 25.7% more AI citations, while pages averaging 10 words or fewer per sentence see up to 18.8% more citations across AI platforms.
Rankings alone are no longer the metric. The question is whether AI will reference your brand when a user asks for a solution, and Google has now formally started building the infrastructure to measure exactly that.
