Short answer: Google Search Console's generative AI report shows how often your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, but not how many clicks those appearances produced. AI clicks are counted in the regular Performance report under the Web search type, mixed with all other web clicks, so you can't calculate an AI click-through rate. A UK regulatory deadline of December 3, 2026 could change this, but Google says it has nothing to announce yet.
That leaves site owners with half of a useful metric. You can see that AI features showed your page, but not whether anyone came to your site as a result. Here's what the report covers, what the UK rules require, and how to get a reasonable read on AI traffic in the meantime.
Key takeaways
- The report is impressions only. Google's documentation lists impressions broken down by page, country, device and date. There are no clicks, CTR, position or queries.
- AI clicks aren't missing, they're pooled. Google counts a click on an AI Overview or AI Mode link as a click, then reports it in the overall Web search type with no way to isolate it.
- Google Analytics won't separate them either. Google says its AI Assistant channel "excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode," which fall under Organic Search instead.
- The UK has set a date. The CMA says Google has until December 3, 2026 to comply with a requirement that includes impressions, clicks and CTR for search AI features.
- Even that won't give you everything. The CMA kept the metrics aggregated across features, so don't expect a separate AI Overviews and AI Mode split from this rule.
What does the Search Console AI report show?
Google launched the report on June 3, 2026 and says it reached all websites worldwide as of August 31. It covers AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search, with a separate view for generative AI features in Discover. If you can't see it, Google says your site usually hasn't received enough impressions in these features, or you've excluded it from them.
| Data | In the AI report? | Where it is instead |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | Yes | Also included in the overall Performance report |
| Pages, countries, dates | Yes | Also in the Performance report |
| Devices | Yes, for Search results | Also in the Performance report |
| Clicks | No | Performance report, Web search type, pooled with other clicks |
| Click-through rate | No | Can't be calculated for AI features |
| Queries | No | Performance report, not separated for AI features |
| Average position | No | Performance report, not separated for AI features |
| AI Overviews vs. AI Mode | No split documented | Not available |
Sources: Google Search Central and Search Console Help.
Some counting rules matter when you read the numbers. Two links from one site in the same AI feature count as a single impression in the chart total, but table rows grouped by page are counted per page. An AI Overview also takes up one position, and all its links share that position. Dates use Pacific Time, tables stop at 1,000 rows, and the newest data can be preliminary.
Where do AI clicks go?
They go into your normal Performance report. Google's documentation says sites appearing in AI features "are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console" and "reported on in the Performance report, within the 'Web' search type." Its click definition is also clear: "Clicking a link to an external page in the AI Overview counts as a click," and the same applies to AI Mode.
So the clicks are in your data, but they're mixed with clicks from blue links and other web results. The AI report has no click column, and the regular report doesn't have an AI filter. The two reports also can't be joined at query level, because the AI report doesn't show queries.
This has a practical consequence that's easy to miss: AI impressions are part of your Web impressions too. If AI features show your page more often and clicks stay flat, your overall CTR can fall even though you didn't lose any traffic. A falling CTR on its own doesn't tell you which of those happened.
Can Google Analytics fill the gap?
Not for Google's AI features. You may see advice that the GA4 AI Assistant channel captures this traffic, but Google's own documentation says otherwise:
"AI Assistant is the channel by which users arrive at your site from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok. It excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode."
The same page says Organic Search includes "non-ad links in organic-search results, including Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode." GA4 therefore helps you track standalone assistants, but AI Overview and AI Mode visits stay inside Organic Search.
GA4 is still useful for judging what those organic visits do once they arrive. Google claims that clicks from pages with AI Overviews are "higher quality," meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the site. It doesn't publish data to support that, so test it on your own conversion and engagement numbers.
Is Google going to add click data?
Google hasn't committed to it. When it launched the report, Google said it was working with site owners on useful data, "such as adding additional metrics over time."
The latest public comment came on November 2, 2026. According to a report by UK news publication Resultsense, a member of Google's search team replied on LinkedIn to a post attributing a remark about clicks and queries to Google staff: "I don't think we've phrased it like this. The team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don't have anything to announce yet."
That's a statement of interest, not a promise. It doesn't rule clicks in or out, and it doesn't address UK compliance.
What does the UK deadline require?
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) imposed a publisher conduct requirement on Google on June 3, 2026. The CMA's summary says Google "has until 3 December 2026 to comply," with three more months for a page-level control. The CMA's decision document adds details most summaries leave out.
| Question | What the CMA documents say |
|---|---|
| Which metrics? | Impressions, clicks and click-through rate for search AI features |
| Separated from regular search? | Yes. The proposal specified data "disaggregated from Google Search as a whole," and the CMA says it didn't change the level of information expected |
| Split by AI Overviews and AI Mode? | No. The summary says metrics are "aggregated across features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode" |
| Click quality? | Google must provide referral information showing whether a referral came from a search generative AI feature or other parts of general search |
| Who benefits? | "All publishers," to the extent their content appears in AI outputs "shown to UK end users" |
| Beyond the UK? | Not required. The CMA notes Google "may choose to comply on a broader basis" |
The referral requirement could turn out to be the most useful item for site owners. If referrals are labeled by source, you could measure AI-driven visits in your own analytics, including conversions, rather than relying on a Google metric. The CMA chose this route partly because it believes publishers will trust their own quality measures more than Google's.
The per-feature limit was contested. Publishers and trade groups asked for separate data, arguing AI Overviews and AI Mode behave differently. Google argued they are "increasingly operating as a unified experience." The result favors Google's position, at least for now.
Several details remain open. We haven't seen how Google plans to deliver the data, whether it will appear in Search Console, or whether it will reach sites outside the UK. Don't plan around a global rollout until Google announces one. The CMA says compliance reports are due every six months for the first year.
How can you estimate AI traffic today?
You can't measure it exactly, but you can compare groups of pages. This method gives you a directional read using data you already have.
- Export both reports for the same dates. Pull pages from the AI report and pages from the Web search type in the Performance report. Remember that values shown as
~or-become zeros in exports. - Join them by URL. Google assigns AI report data to the page's canonical URL, so check that your URLs match, especially if you use redirects or parameters.
- Split your pages into groups. Compare pages with meaningful AI impressions against similar pages with few or none. Similar means the same content type and comparable search demand.
- Compare the change, not the level. Look at each group's clicks before and after a set date. If pages with heavy AI exposure fall much further than the comparison group, AI features become a more plausible explanation.
- Add outcomes. Use GA4 or your CRM to see how sessions, leads and sales changed on each group's pages, using Organic Search as the channel.
Use this table to interpret what you find:
| Pattern on a page group | Likely reading | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| AI impressions up, clicks steady | Visibility is growing without a visible traffic cost | Watch overall CTR, but don't treat its fall as lost traffic |
| AI impressions up, clicks down more than comparison pages | AI answers may be absorbing the click | Check conversions, and add reasons to visit that a summary can't replace |
| AI impressions flat, clicks down | Probably not an AI effect alone | Look at rankings, seasonality and competitors |
| AI impressions up, conversions up | Those visits may be well qualified | Find out what these pages have in common |
These are hypotheses, not proof. The AI report doesn't identify queries, so a page's AI impressions and clicks may come from different searches. Rankings, seasonality and site changes can all produce similar patterns. Use the comparison to decide where to look, not to report a precise AI traffic number.
What should you do before December 3?
A little preparation now will make any new data much easier to interpret.
- Save a baseline. Export both reports now and keep the files, so you have a clear before-and-after if new metrics appear.
- Check your referral data. Make sure your analytics reliably captures landing pages, conversions and Organic Search traffic. Any new referral labels will only be useful if the rest of your tracking works.
- Watch for changes in Search Console and analytics. The CMA's date is a compliance deadline, not a promised product launch, so the data may arrive in a different place or form than you expect.
- Use Bing's data too. Bing's AI Performance report, in public preview since February 2026, shows total citations, cited pages and a sample of grounding queries for Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. Google's report has no query data, so this can hint at the topics AI systems associate with your pages. The announcement doesn't list clicks, so it doesn't solve the click problem.
- Keep AI visibility in its own KPI. Our guide to AI visibility as four metrics explains why one blended score hides too much, and AI search KPIs sets out what to track.
The honest counterweight
Missing click data is a real limitation, but it's not proof of hidden traffic losses. Google said in August 2025 that organic click volume was "relatively stable year-over-year," and that traffic was shifting between sites. Independent research, including Pew's 2025 study and the first randomized test of AI Mode, found fewer clicks. Those findings aren't the same as a measurement of your site. Some sites lose traffic, as Reddit's latest results show, while others may gain it.
The impressions report is also more useful than its critics allow. It shows which pages Google is using in AI features and how that changes by country and over time, which site owners couldn't see in Search Console before. It just can't tell you what that exposure is worth.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Search Console show clicks from AI Overviews?
Not separately. Google counts clicks on AI Overview and AI Mode links and includes them in the Performance report's Web search type, but pools them with other web clicks. The generative AI report itself shows impressions only.
Can I calculate click-through rate for AI Overviews?
Not from Search Console. The AI report has no clicks, and the regular report has no AI filter. Dividing Web clicks by AI impressions gives a meaningless figure because those clicks include all other web results.
Does GA4's AI Assistant channel include AI Overviews and AI Mode?
No. Google's documentation says the AI Assistant channel covers sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and Grok, and excludes AI Overviews and AI Mode. Clicks from those Google features are included in the Organic Search channel.
Is Google adding click data to the AI report?
Google hasn't confirmed it. It said at launch that it might add metrics over time, and a member of its search team reportedly said on November 2, 2026 that there was nothing to announce yet. The UK's CMA requires click metrics by December 3, 2026, but delivery details aren't public.
Will the UK click data be available to sites outside the UK?
Possibly, but it isn't guaranteed. The CMA's requirement covers publishers' content in AI outputs shown to UK users, wherever the publisher is based. The CMA notes that Google may choose to comply more broadly, but Google hasn't announced global click reporting.
Why doesn't my site show the generative AI report?
Google says this usually happens when a site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features on Google Search. It can also happen if you've excluded your site from those features.
Start with what you can control
You can't make Google report AI clicks, but you can make sure AI systems can reach your pages. Run the free AI crawler checker, review your titles and descriptions with the meta tags checker, and see how we track AI visibility on the features page. For more on what Google isn't showing, read how Google is shrinking AI Overview citations.
Sources: Google Search Central: Generative AI performance reports · Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report · Search Console Help: Impressions, position and clicks · Google Search Central: AI features and your website · Google Analytics Help: Default channel group · CMA: Publisher conduct requirement · CMA: Final decision (PDF) · CMA: Requirement summary (PDF) · CMA press release · Resultsense: Google on AI click data · Bing: AI Performance in Webmaster Tools · Google: AI in Search and click volume · Pew Research Center: AI summaries and clicks