Quick answer: Search Console now has a Generative AI performance report that shows how often links to your site appear in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google finished rolling it out to all websites worldwide on August 31, 2026, and on September 24, 2026 it added a “Web: multimodal” filter for image-based searches such as Google Lens. The report shows impressions only, not clicks or queries, but it is the first official Google data on whether AI search is showing your business.
For years, local business owners have asked us the same question: “Is Google’s AI mentioning us or not?” Now Google answers it with its own free data in Search Console. We run SEO for small and mid-sized businesses from our offices in Denver and London, and this is how we are using the report with our own clients.
What is the Search Console Generative AI performance report?
It is a performance report in Google Search Console that tracks how your site performs in generative AI features on Google Search. According to Google’s help documentation, it counts impressions from two places:
- AI Overviews, the AI summaries that appear at the top of many Google results pages.
- AI Mode, Google’s conversational search experience.
Google defines an impression in this report as a time when links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature. Search Labs experiments are not included. There is also a separate Generative AI report for Discover, which covers generative AI features in Google Discover rather than Search.
You can open the report at search.google.com/search-console/performance/search-analytics/ai, or find it with the other Performance reports in the left-hand menu of your property.
When did the AI report and the multimodal filter launch?
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| June 3, 2026 | Google announces the Search generative AI performance reports and new controls; testing starts in the UK |
| July 2026 | The Search generative AI control expands to accounts outside the UK |
| August 31, 2026 | Google: “As of August 31, 2026, we’ve rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide.” |
| September 24, 2026 | Google announces a “Web: multimodal” search type for image-based searches, available in the Performance report and the Generative AI report |
What data does the report show, and what does it leave out?
| Question | What the report shows |
|---|---|
| Impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode | Yes |
| Clicks from AI features | No (not included as of the global rollout) |
| The searches (queries) that triggered the AI answer | No |
| Which of your pages were shown | Yes, by canonical URL |
| Country of the searcher | Yes |
| Device (desktop, tablet, mobile) | Yes, in the Search report |
| Text vs image-based searches | Yes, through the “Web: text” and “Web: multimodal” search types |
| Search Labs experiments | No, excluded |
| ChatGPT, Perplexity or other AI tools | No, Google surfaces only |
A few other details from Google’s documentation matter when you read the numbers:
- At the property level, several results from the same site in one AI answer are counted as a single impression.
- Dates are shown in Pacific Time, and the newest data is preliminary (a dotted line on the chart) until it is finalized.
- Tables are limited to 1,000 rows, and chart totals can differ from table totals because of how the data is aggregated.
What is the new “Web: multimodal” filter?
Multimodal searches are searches that start with an image instead of typed words. Google’s September 24, 2026 announcement, as reported by ALM Corp, covers searches through Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search and the right-click image search option in Chrome. You can now split web traffic into “Web: text” and “Web: multimodal” in both the standard Performance report and the Generative AI report.
There is one catch: you will not see queries for multimodal traffic. Google explained that “as multimodal searches are largely image driven and not text driven, there are not specific text queries for this traffic.” You can still compare pages, countries and devices against your text-based traffic.
For local businesses this is more useful than it sounds. People point their phone camera at storefronts, products, menus and even damaged roofs or broken fixtures. If your product and service pages show up in multimodal results, your photos are doing real work, and this filter is the first way to see it.
How do you read the AI report as a local business?
- Open the report and set the date range to the last 3 months.
- Switch to the Pages tab. Note which pages earn AI impressions. For most local businesses these are service pages, FAQ-style blog posts and location pages.
- Compare against your main Performance report. A page with high regular impressions but almost no AI impressions is a good candidate for clearer, more specific answers.
- Filter by country. If you serve one city or one market, make sure the impressions come from where your customers are.
- Check the device split. Local searches lean heavily mobile, so a mobile page that is slow or hard to read is worth fixing first.
- Toggle “Web: multimodal”. See whether any pages appear for image-based searches, and which ones.
- Record the numbers monthly. Because there is no click data, trends over time tell you more than any single number.
How do you get more AI Overviews visibility?
Google’s own guidance is direct: its generative AI features are “rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems.” Google says there is no special markup to add, structured data “isn’t required for generative AI search”, and you do not need AI text files or other machine-readable files to appear. To be eligible, a page “must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.”
In other words, AI visibility is earned with the same work as good SEO. Google asks for “non-commodity content that’s helpful, reliable, and people-first” with a unique point of view. For a local business, that means content only you can write: your real prices or price ranges, your process, the neighborhoods you serve, the questions customers ask you on the phone, and photos of your actual work. We cover this in more depth in our guide to getting your business cited by AI search.
Avoid shortcuts. Publishing many thin pages to chase AI answers is exactly what Google’s spam policies target, and our breakdown of the September 2026 spam update explains why that matters right now.
Should you block your site from AI Overviews?
Search Console also has a Search generative AI control, found under Settings. It lets you exclude your site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover. Google says the control “isn’t used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search”, so opting out should not hurt your regular rankings. Changes generally take a few days, with most content removed within 1-2 days.
This control is separate from Google-Extended, which governs whether your content is used to train Google’s AI models.
For most local service businesses, we do not recommend opting out. AI answers increasingly sit above the regular results and the map pack, and being cited there is a chance to be seen by someone ready to call.
What this means for local businesses
Three things change with this report. First, you can stop guessing. If your plumbing, dental or law firm pages are cited in AI Overviews, you will see it; if they are not, you will see that too. Second, you can measure the effect of content changes on AI visibility, not just on blue-link rankings. Third, the multimodal filter shows whether your photos and product pages help you in camera-based search, which matters for retail, restaurants and home services.
The limits matter just as much. With no clicks or queries, this report cannot tell you how many leads came from AI search. Pair it with call tracking, form tracking and your local SEO results in Google Business Profile to see the full picture. And remember it only covers Google. If you also want visibility in ChatGPT and other assistants, that is part of a broader AI search optimization plan.
Your Search Console AI report checklist
- Confirm you have a verified Search Console property for your main domain (a Domain property is best).
- Open the Generative AI performance report and note your 3-month impression total.
- List your top 10 pages by AI impressions and your top 10 by regular impressions, and compare them.
- Check Settings to confirm the Search generative AI control is set the way you want.
- Review the “Web: multimodal” data and make sure key service pages have original, well-labeled photos.
- Rewrite one high-impression, low-AI page with clear, specific answers to real customer questions.
- Make sure that page is indexed and shows a normal snippet in Google results.
- Log your AI impressions monthly next to calls and form leads.
Not sure where you stand? Run our free SEO checker for a quick health check, or book a Denver SEO audit and we will review your Search Console data, including the new AI report, and show you what to fix first. If you are budgeting for the work, our guide to how much SEO costs lays out typical pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find the AI report in Search Console?
Open your property in Search Console and go to the Performance reports, or use search.google.com/search-console/performance/search-analytics/ai. It is called the Generative AI performance report.
Does the Search Console AI report show clicks?
No. As of the global rollout on August 31, 2026, the report shows impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode but not clicks or the queries that triggered them.
What does “Web: multimodal” mean in Search Console?
It is a search type for image-based searches, such as Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads and Chrome’s right-click image search. Google added it on September 24, 2026 and does not show queries for this traffic.
Will opting out of AI Overviews hurt my rankings?
Google says the Search generative AI control is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search. It removes your content from AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover.
Do I need schema or an llms.txt file to appear in AI Overviews?
No. Google says structured data is not required for generative AI search and that Search does not use AI text files. Pages need to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.
Sources
- Google Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search)
- Google Search Console Help: Search generative AI control
- Google Search Central: Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search
- Search Engine Journal: Google Search Console AI reports rolled out worldwide
- ALM Corp: Search Console adds multimodal filter for image-based search
Written by the SEO District team in Denver and London. Last reviewed October 6, 2026.
