Google's Search Console AI Report: What Ours Shows

Updated September 4, 2026: the report has reached our U.S. accounts. Our own numbers are below; the original rundown of what Google shipped and why follows.

When this post first ran in July, the honest headline was that you probably couldn't see this report. Google had built the first native tool that separates "you showed up in an AI answer" from "you showed up in regular search" — and then gated it to UK site owners, a detail most of the coverage skipped.

That's no longer the whole story. In early September, the Generative AI features report appeared in the Search Console accounts for both properties we run — U.S. business, no UK registration in sight, no announcement from Google. So before the explainer, here's the part a headline can't give you: what this report actually shows for two real small-business sites.

What ours shows

The Cat Grooming Directory — a programmatic directory we build and run — recorded 12,200 impressions inside Google's generative AI features over the three months ending August 2026. The daily line starts at effectively zero in early June and climbs to sustained runs above 250 a day by mid-July.

Cautellus — a security platform that launched in January — recorded 7,480 over the same window, with the curve bending hardest at the end: single late-August days spiking toward 900 impressions.

Two things worth saying about those numbers, because this blog has rules about numbers. First, they're impressions, not clicks — appearances inside AI Overviews and related features, which is exactly what this report measures and nothing more. Second, neither site did anything exotic to earn them: question-shaped headings, direct answers, FAQ blocks with schema, fast pages — the same structural work this blog has been describing all year. The report didn't create the visibility. It finally put a number on it.

What Google actually shipped

On June 3, 2026, Google announced a new report in Search Console that isolates impressions from generative AI features — AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the AI-generated versions of Discover — from the regular Search Performance report you already know. Before this, if your page got pulled into an AI Overview, that impression was buried inside your overall Search totals with no way to separate it out. Now it has its own view.

The report breaks impressions down four ways: by page (which URLs got surfaced), by country, by device, and by date, with granularity down to the hour. That's useful. What it doesn't include yet is clicks, click-through rate, or the actual search queries that triggered the impression. You can see that a page showed up in an AI feature. You can't see what someone typed to get there, or whether they clicked through afterward. It's a visibility count, not a performance report in the full sense — closer to a smoke detector than a dashboard.

Google paired the report with a new toggle that lets a site owner opt specific content out of being used in AI Overviews, AI Mode, or Discover's AI features. Opting out means forfeiting whatever impressions and referral traffic those features generate, but Google says it doesn't touch your regular search ranking. It's a genuine control that didn't exist before — previously, the only way to keep content out of AI training and retrieval entirely was blocking crawlers wholesale, which also tanks your regular visibility.

Why it started UK-only, and why that wasn't Google being coy

The rollout started with a subset of website owners in the United Kingdom before any broader release. Search Engine Land's coverage of the launch tied this directly to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, which has been requiring Google to give publishers more visibility and control over how their content gets used in AI features. That's not a random beta cohort — the report and the opt-out toggle both exist, in this form, at this time, because a regulator required them for UK sites first.

The expansion since then fits Google's usual pattern: no announcement, no timeline, just a new item in the sidebar one day. Our U.S. accounts picked the report up by early September. Google still hasn't published a rollout schedule, so if yours doesn't have it yet, I wouldn't plan around a date — there isn't one.

What you can check while you wait

If the report hasn't reached your account yet, waiting isn't a strategy — here's what's available today for a read on your own AI search visibility.

Run your own AI Overview checks manually. Search the terms your customers would actually use — not your business name, the problem they're solving — and see whether an AI Overview appears and whether you're one of the sources. Do this from a logged-out browser or incognito window; personalization skews results. It's slow and unscientific compared to a dashboard, but it's free and it's available to everyone right now.

Ask the AI assistants directly. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Mode and ask the questions a prospective customer would ask — "who does [service] in [your city]," not "tell me about [your business]." Whether you're named, and whether you're cited with a link, tells you more than a vanity search for your own name ever will.

Watch your regular Search Console numbers for a shape, not a number. If impressions for a query are climbing while clicks stay flat or drop, that's often a sign an AI Overview is now absorbing the click your page used to get — even though the standard report won't tell you that directly. Two out of three Google searches now end without a click, so this pattern is common enough that it's worth watching for on its own.

Check whether your site is even eligible to be cited. Google's own guidance — published as an official guide in May 2026 — lays out the baseline: helpful, factually accurate content; clear question-and-answer structure; fast pages; and crawler access that isn't blocked. I broke down what that guide actually says, and it's less complicated than most of the coverage made it sound. None of it requires the new Search Console report to act on.

What won't help

Refreshing Search Console hoping the report appears. It's a staged rollout, not a feature flag that flips on with patience. Checking daily won't move you up the list — ours appeared months after launch, with no announcement at all.

Treating "no clicks yet" as "no value yet." The report shows impressions without clicks or queries, even now. Don't wait for a complete picture before doing anything — the pages that get cited in AI answers today are the same pages built around clear structure and direct answers, report or no report. The full case for that structure doesn't change based on which dashboard confirms it.

Assuming AI Overview presence means the same thing as ranking #1. Being cited and being clicked are different outcomes, and this report measures the first one, not the second. A business can show up constantly in AI Overviews and still see flat foot traffic if nothing about the citation drives someone to act.

FAQ

What exactly does the new Search Console AI report show?

Impressions — how often your pages appeared in AI Overviews, AI Mode, or generative Discover features — broken down by page, country, device, and date, down to hourly granularity. It does not yet include clicks, click-through rate, or the search queries that triggered the impression.

What does the report show for a real small business site?

For the two properties we run: 12,200 generative-AI impressions in three months for a niche directory, and 7,480 for a security platform launched in January — both climbing from near zero in June 2026. Impressions only; the report shows no clicks or queries.

Why don't I see it in my Search Console yet?

The rollout started with a subset of UK site owners, tied to a requirement from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, and has been expanding quietly since — our own U.S. properties received the report by early September 2026. Google has not published a schedule, so if it isn't in your sidebar yet, it arrives when it arrives.

When will this reach all U.S. Search Console accounts?

It has started reaching them — our U.S. properties had the report by early September 2026 — but Google hasn't published a timeline for full availability. Treat any specific date you see elsewhere as speculation.

Does opting out of AI Overviews hurt my regular Google ranking?

According to Google, no — the opt-out toggle removes content from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover's AI features without affecting standard search ranking. You do forfeit whatever traffic those AI features would have sent you.

How can I estimate my AI search visibility without this report?

Search your own customer-facing terms from a logged-out browser and note whether an AI Overview cites you, and ask ChatGPT or Perplexity the same questions a customer would ask. Neither is as precise as a dashboard, but both are free and available today.

Does this report include ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude data?

No. It's a Google Search Console feature, so it only covers Google's own AI features — AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover's AI-generated content. Visibility inside other AI assistants isn't measured by any Google tool.

Should I wait for this report before working on AI search visibility?

No. The structural work — clear answers, direct content, crawlable pages, accurate business information — is the same work that earns AI citations whether or not you can see the impression count yet. Our two properties earned their numbers before the report existed to display them. The report confirms what's working; it isn't what makes it work.

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Most of what gets written about a new tool like this skips the part where it doesn't apply to most readers yet — and then skips the follow-up when it finally does. I'd rather show you the actual dashboards from sites we run than quote someone else's case study. If tracking and improving where your business shows up in AI answers sounds like more plate-spinning than you have time for, Get Found on Google and AI is the path built for exactly that.