What Are the Search Console Generative AI Performance Reports in 2026?
They are Search Console reports, announced on 3 June 2026, that show how often your pages appear inside Google's generative AI features. There are two: one for Search, covering AI Overviews and AI Mode, and one for Discover, covering generative AI features in Discover. Google initially rolled them out to a subset of websites and states that as of 31 August 2026 they are available to all websites worldwide.
For anyone investing in AI search visibility, this is the first first-party measurement Google has offered. Before June 2026, the only way to estimate whether your content was appearing in AI Overviews was third-party tooling that sampled queries from outside. Now Google reports impressions for your own property directly, by page, country, device and date.
| Attribute | What Google published in 2026 | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | 3 June 2026, initially to a subset of websites | Early adopters saw it first. |
| Full rollout | "As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide." | Indian properties should have it now. |
| Search report covers | AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google expects to update this list over time. |
| Discover report covers | Generative AI features in Google Discover | A separate report with different counting rules. |
| Main metric | Impressions | How often links to your site were shown in AI features. |
| Dimensions | Pages, Countries, Dates; Devices for the Search report | Which pages, where, when, on what device. |
| Time granularity | Hourly, daily, weekly and monthly, per the announcement | Fine enough to see the effect of a content change. |
| Search Labs | Search Console doesn't include data from experiments in Search Labs | Experimental features are not counted. |
Why Do These Reports Matter for GEO and AEO in 2026?
Because they answer the question every buyer of AI visibility work eventually asks: how would we even know it worked? Until 2026 that question had no first-party answer. An agency could show screenshots or third-party estimates, but could not show the client's own Google data. The generative AI performance reports change that, which makes AI visibility a measurable discipline rather than a promise.
They also make AI visibility comparable to everything else in Search Console. Google states that AI feature data is still included in the overall Performance report, and that the new reports give a separate view dedicated to generative AI visibility. So you can now see what share of your total exposure comes from AI features, which pages earn it, and whether that share moves after you change content.
- For buyers: ask any GEO or AEO provider to report from this data, not from screenshots.
- For content teams: find which pages already appear in AI features and study what they have in common.
- For leadership: track AI feature impressions as a line next to classic search impressions.
- For international teams: the Countries dimension shows where your AI visibility actually comes from.
How Do You Read the Search Generative AI Report in 2026?
The default view shows impressions for your site in the supported AI features, with a chart above a table. Google defines impressions here as how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search. You change the table grouping with the tabs above it, and filter by search type at the top of the report.
| Dimension | How Google defines it |
|---|---|
| Pages | The final URL linked by a generative AI feature after any redirects. Most data is assigned to the page's canonical URL, not a duplicate. |
| Countries | The country where the search originated. |
| Dates | Days, weeks or months by selected granularity. All dates are in Pacific Time (PT). |
| Devices | Desktop, tablet or mobile. |
The search type filter has two web options: "Web: text-based" for searches typed into the standard Google search bar, and "Web: multimodal" for searches made with images, including Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, uploaded images and Chrome image search. Our multimodal reporting guide covers that filter in detail.
Three reading rules that prevent bad conclusions
- Chart totals are aggregated by property. Google says that if two results from the same site appeared in one generative AI feature, they count as a single impression in the chart total. Add a URL filter and the chart aggregates by URL instead.
- Table totals can differ from chart totals. Data grouped by page is aggregated by page; grouped by country, device or date it is aggregated by property. Google says discrepancies are usually due to this difference.
- The newest data can be preliminary. It is shown as a dotted line and may change over the next few hours.
How Is the Discover Generative AI Report Different in 2026?
It counts differently, and treating the two reports as the same will produce wrong comparisons. In the Discover report, an impression requires the link to be scrolled into view, and only one impression is counted per result per session, so scrolling past a card and back does not add a second impression. All Discover AI data is aggregated by page, so two AI results from the same property in the same Discover list are counted separately.
- Pages means the source, not the landing page. Google defines it as the page that served as the source of the information shown, using the canonical URL, not the page where the user lands after a click.
- Countries means where the content was viewed. Not where a search originated, because Discover has no search.
- Daily chart values may be omitted below a threshold, but Google says they are still included in the totals, which are accurate and not truncated.
- There is no Devices dimension described for the Discover report.
What Do the Generative AI Reports Not Tell You in 2026?
They report impressions, and that limit shapes everything a team should claim from them. The June announcement lists impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates, and says Google is working with site owners on additional metrics over time. Nothing in the announcement or the help documentation describes AI-specific clicks, the text of the AI answer, the query that triggered it, or your position within the AI feature.
- Impressions, not influence. You learn that a link to your page was shown, not how prominently or how it was described.
- No answer text. The report does not show what the AI feature said.
- No conversions. As with all Search Console data, nothing after the click.
- Standard limits apply. Google notes the usual performance report limitations, including the 1,000-row limit, also apply.
- Search Labs experiments are excluded. Experimental AI features are not counted.
- Missing values export as zeros. Values shown as "~" or "-" become zeros in downloaded data, so blank is not the same as measured zero.
The honest way to report this data in 2026 is "pages from our site were shown in AI features this many times, rising or falling", alongside the content changes made in the same period. Claims about answer share, citation prominence or AI-driven revenue need other evidence.
Why Might the Report Be Missing or Empty in 2026?
Google's help centre gives three reasons. Not all properties may have access yet as the rollout progresses, although Google says all websites worldwide were covered as of 31 August 2026. Your site may not have received enough impressions in generative AI features. Or your site may be excluded from Search generative AI features through the Search generative AI control.
The control that decides whether you appear at all
The Search generative AI control, rolled out to all websites worldwide as of 31 August 2026, lives under Settings, then Search generative AI, in Search Console. It applies to AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Google Discover, with three options.
| Option | What Google says it does |
|---|---|
| Include | Your content can appear in Search generative AI features, as links and to help ground AI responses. The default for all properties. |
| Exclude | Your content is prevented from appearing in these features or grounding their responses. You receive no traffic or impressions from them. |
| Inherit from parent | The property follows its parent property's setting. The default when a parent property exists. |
Google adds important boundaries. The control is not a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search. It does not affect AI training; Google points to Google-Extended for that. Exclusions generally take a few days, with content excluded within one to two days after the control goes live, though caching can take longer. If a client's AI report is empty, check this setting, including any parent property it inherits from, before anything else.
How Should Teams Use These Reports Month to Month in 2026?
Use them as a scoreboard for specific content changes rather than as a vanity number. The useful questions are which pages earn AI impressions, which pages should earn them and do not, and whether a change to a page moved its AI exposure. Hourly and daily granularity makes that testable.
- Baseline: export 28 days of AI impressions by page and by country.
- Gap list: compare against your priority pages in the main Performance report. High classic impressions with no AI impressions is the gap.
- Change: improve a small batch of pages with direct answers, clear structure and factual specifics, following our AI Overviews guide.
- Annotate: mark the change date in Search Console.
- Compare: after a few weeks, compare the changed batch against an unchanged control batch.
- Report honestly: impressions moved, these pages, this period, alongside what changed.
How Do the 2026 Reports Fit Together?
Search Console now gives a business four first-party views of its discovery. The classic Performance report for search results. The generative AI reports for AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features. The multimodal search type for image-started searches. And platform properties for Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube content in Google. Together that is the most complete visibility picture Google has ever offered site owners, and all of it is free.
What Are the Common Mistakes in 2026?
- Treating impressions as clicks or citations. The report measures shown links, nothing more.
- Comparing Search and Discover AI numbers directly. They count and aggregate differently.
- Adding table rows to match the chart. Property versus page aggregation explains the gap.
- Forgetting Pacific Time. Daily data is in PT, which matters for Indian teams reading daily spikes.
- Missing an inherited exclusion. A parent property's control setting can silently exclude a child.
- Reading blanks as zeros. "~" and "-" values become zeros on export.
- Accepting AI visibility claims without this data. In 2026 there is no reason to.
Key Takeaways for 2026
AI search visibility is now measurable in first-party data, which raises the bar for anyone selling or buying it.
- Two reports: Search (AI Overviews and AI Mode) and Discover (generative AI features in Discover).
- Announced 3 June 2026 and rolled out to all websites worldwide as of 31 August 2026.
- Impressions by page, country, date, and device for Search, with hourly to monthly granularity.
- No AI answer text, triggering query, position or conversions are reported.
- The Search generative AI control under Settings decides whether you can appear at all.
- Search and Discover AI reports count impressions differently; compare like with like.
- Use the reports to test specific content changes against a control group.
Distk builds AI and search visibility reporting for growth teams in India and internationally from these first-party reports, and runs the content tests that move them. If you want proof rather than promises from AI visibility work, this data is where we start.
Sources
- Google Search Central Blog, Search Generative AI performance reports announcement, 3 June 2026, with the 31 August 2026 rollout note.
- Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report (Search).
- Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report (Discover).
- Search Console Help, Search generative AI control.