Hi everyone, this is Neo.

Straight to the point: as of August 31, 2026, Google has rolled out the generative AI performance reports in Search Console to every website worldwide. For the first time, you can open Search Console and see how often your pages show up in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the generative AI features in Discover.

This is something independent site sellers have been waiting for. Up to now, we’ve had to rely on third-party tools to estimate AI search visibility — now the official data is finally here. But before you get too excited: the report contains no click data. It tells you where your content was shown, not whether anyone actually clicked through. I’ll dig into what that means in my take at the end.

What actually happened?

Here’s the timeline:

• June 3, 2026: Google announced two things in one blog post — a “Search generative AI” control in Search Console (site owners can opt out of appearing in AI search features) and the generative AI performance reports (impression insights). It started as a small test with UK site owners. Why the UK? Because on the very same day, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a conduct requirement demanding that Google let sites opt out of AI search features without penalizing them in regular results.
• July: the control started showing up in accounts outside the UK.
• August 31, 2026: Google officially confirmed the insights are now live for all websites worldwide.

One caveat: Google’s help pages still note the rollout is ongoing, and sites without enough AI impressions may not see the report at all. That doesn’t mean you’re not being indexed — it just means the data volume isn’t there yet.

What’s in the report?

In short: impressions.

• How many times your pages were shown in AI Overviews
• How many times they were shown in AI Mode
• How many times they appeared in generative AI features in Discover (separate Discover report)

You can break the data down by page, country, and date, and the Search report adds a device dimension. There’s an export button too. Keep in mind the usual Search performance report limits (1,000 rows) apply here as well.

Two limitations you need to remember:

1. No click data. The report counts when a link to your site is shown, not when someone clicks it. Being cited by AI does not equal getting traffic — the gap can be huge.
2. Not every site will see the report. Properties with too few AI impressions won’t show one.

Should you use the opt-out control?

The “Search generative AI” control lives in Search Console under Settings, and it’s set per property.

• If you opt out, your links and content won’t appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode, or generative AI features in Discover — which also means no impressions or traffic from those features.
• It doesn’t affect your regular search rankings. Google has stated the control is not used as a ranking signal elsewhere in Search.
• It doesn’t affect AI training. To stop your content being used to train models, you need Google-Extended in your robots.txt.
• Changes take a few days to take effect (officially, content is excluded within 1-2 days after the control goes live, but the full effect can take longer).

What should you do right now?

Don’t rush to opt out. Put the data to work first. Four steps:

Step 1: Check whether you have the report. Open Search Console → Performance → look for the generative AI report (under the Web search type). If it’s not there, check again in a few days — the worldwide rollout takes time.

Step 2: Sort by page and find the pages AI surfaces most. These are your AI search storefront. Check each one:

• Is the information accurate and complete? (AI citing wrong info about you is negative PR)
• Is the structure easy to cite? (clear heading hierarchy, tables, FAQs, answers that lead with the conclusion)
• Is any data outdated? (AI loves citing old numbers with years attached)

Step 3: Look at the country breakdown. If one country’s AI impressions are unusually high, ask why — is that market heavy on AI search, or does your content happen to fit local demand? That tells you whether to localize content for AI search.

Step 4: Treat the opt-out control as an option, not a default. Right now it’s all-or-nothing (one property-wide switch covering all three features) — too coarse for smart decisions. Unless you’ve confirmed AI citations bring only worthless traffic (citations but near-zero conversions), don’t opt out. Wait until March 2027, when the CMA requires Google to offer page-level controls and click-through data, and then decide with real numbers.

Neo’s take

First, why is Google opening this up worldwide now? I see three forces at work: the CMA conduct requirement (UK regulators are serious — page-level controls and click data are due by March 2027, and this global rollout is only step one); Google’s need to show site owners that AI search has value, to curb panic opt-outs; and groundwork for the 2027 click data — get everyone used to the report first, so the metric upgrade later won’t feel as jarring.

Second, the absence of click data tells you Google is still keeping the real “traffic value” of AI search to itself. Impressions are the consolation prize: proof that your content appears in AI answers, but no indication of what those appearances are worth. My advice: treat this report as a presence dashboard, not a KPI. Real AI search KPIs still come down to clicks, conversions, and brand mentions.

Third, read this report alongside two earlier posts: the one about AI conversation queries leaking into your Search Console (how to spot AI-driven queries in the regular performance report) and the generative UI piece (as AI starts generating tools and interfaces directly, what counts as “being cited” will keep changing — and so will this report’s scope). The more official data sources Google opens up, the closer AI search gets to “semi-transparent” instead of a black box. For sites doing serious content work, that’s good news.

One last reminder: this report is semi-transparent, not fully transparent. Click data, conversion attribution, and citation rationale are still withheld. But at least from today, you no longer have to guess — open Search Console and see whether AI search actually sees you.