Search Console Generative AI Report: What It Shows and Hides
Google Search Console now shows how often AI Overviews and AI Mode cite your pages, but not the clicks. Here is how to read the report and put a rupee value on what it hides.
Since 31 August 2026, every website on Google Search Console can see how often its links appear inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. The Search Console generative AI report shows those impressions by page, country, date and device. It shows no clicks and no queries, so on its own it tells you where Google cites you, not what that citation earns.
That gap is the whole story. Below, we walk through the report click by click, show how to pair it with the old Performance report, and do the rupee maths Google leaves out.
What does the Search Console generative AI report actually measure?
The Search Console generative AI report measures one thing: impressions, meaning how many times links to your site were shown to a user inside AI Overviews or AI Mode on Google Search. It splits them by page, country, date and device, and it excludes Search Labs experiments. Clicks, CTR, position and queries are not in it.
1metric in the report: impressions
4dimensions: Pages, Countries, Dates, Devices
31 Aug 2026date Google opened the report to all websites worldwide
Google began with a small group of UK site owners in June 2026, then widened access on 31 August, according to its own help page. There’s a sister report for Discover, too. Indian properties have had the Search version for two months.
One thing hasn’t changed. AI Overview and AI Mode activity still counts inside the regular Search Console Performance report. The new report isolates it. It doesn’t move it.
Where do you find the generative AI report in Search Console?
Open Search Console, pick your property and look under Performance in the left sidebar for the generative AI report for Search. Google’s help page also links straight to it at search.google.com/search-console/performance/search-analytics/ai. If the page is empty, your site hasn’t earned enough AI impressions yet, or someone has excluded it.
Here’s our walkthrough, built from Google’s help documentation as of 2 November 2026.
- Pick the right property. A Domain property gives you every subdomain at once. A URL-prefix property only shows that slice.
- Set the Search type filter. At the top, choose “Web: text-based” for typed searches. “Web: multimodal” covers Google Lens, Circle to Search, uploaded images and Chrome image search.
- Filter to India. Open the Countries tab and click India. The country is where the search started, not where your server sits.
- Open the Pages tab. Sort by impressions. Pages are grouped by final URL after redirects and credited to the canonical.
- Export. The export button downloads chart and table data. Cells shown as ~ or – become zeros in the file.
Watch the clock: all dates are in Pacific Time. Since US clocks went back on 1 November 2026, India runs 13.5 hours ahead, so a “Monday” in the report covers 1:30 pm Monday to 1:30 pm Tuesday IST. Keep that in mind when you read a festive sale spike.
How do you see which pages lose clicks to AI Overviews?
You can’t see it in one screen, because the generative AI report has no click data. Export its Pages tab, export the same pages and dates from the standard Performance report, then join them in a sheet. Pages with high AI impressions and falling clicks are your watch list.
We call this the Cited-but-Starved list. It takes 15 minutes, and it’s the most useful thing this report can do for an Indian brand today.
- Match the windows. Use the last 28 days in both reports, Web search type, country India.
- Pull two numbers per page. AI impressions from the new report, and total impressions plus clicks from the Performance report.
- Work out AI exposure. Divide AI impressions by total impressions. Above 30%, AI answers shape most of that page’s visibility.
- Compare clicks with the previous 28 days. High AI exposure plus falling clicks earns the page a spot on the list.
- Annotate it. Add a Search Console custom annotation on the date you change that page, so next month’s comparison is honest.
What is an AI citation worth in rupees?
Google doesn’t say, so here is our maths with sample numbers. They’re illustrative, not from a real account. Swap in your own.
Take a Jaipur home decor D2C brand. Its jute rug buying guide had 1,20,000 Web impressions in 28 days, and 48,000 of those came from AI features. That’s 40% AI exposure. Clicks fell from 3,000 to 1,900 versus the previous 28 days.
| Input | Sample value |
|---|---|
| Clicks lost in 28 days | 1,100 |
| Site conversion rate | 1.5% |
| Average order value | ₹2,400 |
| Orders lost (1,100 × 1.5%) | 16.5 |
| Revenue at risk per month | ₹39,600 |
Do this for your top 20 pages and you have a number a founder will listen to. It’s correlation, not proof. A seasonal dip or a core update can move clicks too, so check the 2026 update log before you blame AI Overviews.
An impression you can’t click through is reach, not revenue. Measure it like reach.
Is Google’s report better than Bing’s AI Performance report?
No. Bing Webmaster Tools has offered an AI Performance report since February 2026, and it shows grounding queries, query intent and citation share, which Google’s report doesn’t. Neither shows clicks. If you want to know which questions trigger your citations, Bing currently tells you more.
| Feature | Google Search Console | Bing Webmaster Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Metric | Impressions | Citations, cited pages |
| Queries shown | No | Yes, grounding queries with intent and topic |
| Share of voice | No | Citation share per grounding query |
| Clicks | No | No |
| Surfaces | AI Overviews, AI Mode | Copilot, Bing AI summaries, some partners |
Ann Smarty, writing in Practical Ecommerce in June 2026, walked through Bing’s upgraded version with intent labels and sortable citation share. Will Scott of Search Influence pulled 91 days of Copilot data for his agency’s site and found one page took 69% of nearly 20,000 citations. That concentration is worth checking on your own site in both tools. Our guide to Microsoft Clarity AI Visibility adds the missing piece: which AI assistants actually send visitors.
Should you exclude your site from Google’s generative AI features?
For almost every Indian business, no. The Search generative AI control under Settings removes your links and content from AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover’s AI features. Google says you’ll then get no traffic or impressions from them. It isn’t a ranking signal elsewhere, but you simply vanish from the answers.
Check it anyway. Go to Settings > Search generative AI. You’ll see three options: include (the default), exclude, or inherit from a parent property. A child property inherits from its closest parent with a manual setting, so one stray click on a Domain property can switch off every subdomain.
Don’t confuse the two switches: this control doesn’t stop AI training. That’s Google-Extended in robots.txt, which we covered in this morning’s piece on the AI training opt-out. Exclusion takes a few days to apply, mostly within one to two days of going live.
Where this report falls short
The critics have a point. Lily Ray, VP of SEO and AI Search at Amsive, put it in one line on X: “Reporting on impressions and not clicks says a whole lot here.” Without queries, you also can’t tell whether a citation came from a Hinglish product search or an English how-to question.
The usual Search Console limits apply, including the 1,000-row cap on tables. A big site with thousands of guides will only see its top pages in the interface. And there’s a risk teams start reporting AI impressions as a win while clicks quietly slide. That’s why we’d never put this number on a client dashboard without the clicks beside it.
PingTalks verdict
Open the generative AI report this week, but treat it as a map, not a scoreboard. Its real value is the Cited-but-Starved list: pages Google quotes heavily while sending fewer visitors. Fix those first with stronger reasons to click, such as calculators, price tables and comparison tools an AI summary can’t replace. Skip celebrating raw AI impressions, and don’t touch the exclude switch unless you’re a publisher with a licensing strategy.
If you’re still rebuilding pages for AI answers, our AI search optimization guide covers what gets content cited in the first place.
What to do now
- Open the generative AI report, filter Countries to India and export the Pages tab.
- Join it with the Performance report and build your Cited-but-Starved list for the top 20 pages.
- Put a rupee value on lost clicks using your conversion rate and order value.
- Confirm Settings > Search generative AI says Include on every property.
- Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools to see the queries Google hides.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Search Console generative AI report available in India?
Yes. Google says it rolled the generative AI performance report out to all websites worldwide on 31 August 2026. If your report is empty, your site may not have enough AI impressions yet, or it has been excluded from Search generative AI features.
Does the generative AI report show clicks from AI Overviews?
No. The report shows only impressions. Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are still counted inside the standard Performance report, but they are not separated out, so you must compare the two reports yourself.
Why are the dates in the generative AI report different from IST?
Search Console reports all dates in Pacific Time. In November, India is 13.5 hours ahead of Pacific Time, so each reported day spans afternoon to afternoon in IST.
Will excluding my site from Search generative AI features hurt my rankings?
Google says the Search generative AI control is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search. You will, however, get no traffic or impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode or Discover AI features.
Can I export the generative AI report data?
Yes. The report has an export button for chart and table data. Values shown as ~ or – are exported as zeros, and the usual 1,000-row table limit applies.
Does the report include Google Lens searches?
Yes, if you choose Web: multimodal in the Search type filter. That option covers Google Lens, Circle to Search, uploaded images and Chrome image search.
Sources
- Generative AI performance report (Search), Search Console Help
- Search generative AI control, Search Console Help
- What are impressions, position, and clicks? Search Console Help
- Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, Google Search Central Blog
- Search Console Generative AI Report: What It Shows, Quattr
- Google Search Console AI Performance Reports: What They Track, CrawlRaven
- Bing’s Improved AI Performance Section, Practical Ecommerce
- Inside Bing’s New AI Performance Report: What 20,000 Copilot Citations Taught Us, Search Influence
Kousik BhattacharyaEditor, PingTalks
Digital Evangelist and Entrepreneur at Clickseek Digital. A results-oriented marketing leader with an 18+ year track record driving transformative growth for diverse global businesses. Expert in performance marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and market expansion within B2B SaaS, Consumer-Tech, Fintech, Travel/Hospitality, and CRM/ITES Solutions sectors. IIM alumnus with a strong analytical background and a string of accolades, including "Top 50 Most Influential E-Commerce Professional of India" and "Top 100 Digital Marketer of India."
