The AI Performance Report in Search Console
The AI performance report in Search Console shows how many times links to your site appeared in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, split by page, country, device, and date. It counts impressions only, with no clicks, queries, or positions. So it tells you where AI shows your store, not what that earns.
Below is what it counts, what it leaves out, and how I read it for a store.
Key Points
| Data | In the AI report? | Where it lives instead |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | Yes | Also counted in the main Performance report |
| Pages, countries, devices, dates | Yes | Tabs inside the AI report |
| Clicks | No | Main Performance report, mixed in with regular clicks |
| Queries | No | Not available from Google |
| Position | No | Folded into average position in the main report |
What Does the AI Performance Report Show?
The AI performance report shows impressions, which Google defines as how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search. Google announced the report on June 3, 2026, and finished rolling it out to websites worldwide on August 31, 2026.
Inside it, you get four tabs: Pages, Countries, Devices, and Dates. There is also a Search type filter that splits text searches from multimodal ones, meaning searches that start from an image through Google Lens or Circle to Search.
Just know the chart and the table count differently. Google’s help page for the report says two results from the same site in one AI answer count as a single impression in the chart total, while the Pages table credits each page. So the page rows can add up to more than the number on top.
If the report is missing from your property, that same help page says it usually means your site hasn’t received enough impressions in AI features yet. For a Shopify store that does have it, the Pages tab is the one that pays. It names the products, collections, and posts Google’s AI pulls from, which pairs with what I cover on Google AI Mode for Shopify stores.
The Report Leaves Out Clicks, Queries, and Position
The AI performance report leaves out clicks, queries, and position, which is everything that connects visibility to revenue. The clicks still get counted somewhere: Google’s performance report documentation says “Clicking a link to an external page in AI Mode counts as a click,” and those land in the main report.
The problem is that they land there unlabeled. A click from AI Mode sits in the same row as a click from a regular blue link, so a page could earn half its traffic from AI Mode and you would never see it.
Position works the same way. An AI Overview takes a single position in the results and every link inside it gets that position, so your AI placements are folded into average position without a tag.
GA4 will not fill the gap either. Google’s Analytics release notes describe the AI Assistant channel as covering chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, and clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode still arrive as Google organic. I walk through that setup in tracking AI traffic in GA4.
Bing is ahead on this one. Its AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, in public preview since February 2026, shows a sample of the grounding queries behind your citations. Google gives you nothing at the query level.
So treat this report as a visibility gauge, not a revenue gauge. Tying it to revenue takes a second data source and some patience, and that reporting is part of the work inside my AI search services.
How Do You Read the Report for a Store?
You read the AI performance report for a store by comparing AI impressions against clicks for the same pages over the same dates. Google says the AI data is included in the overall performance report, so the two line up page for page.
My monthly pass takes about fifteen minutes:
- Open the report and set the date range to the last 28 days.
- Go to the Pages tab and sort by impressions.
- Add a page filter for /products/, then /collections/, then /blogs/, and write down the total for each.
- Switch the Search type filter to multimodal to see which pages show up for image searches.
- Open the main Performance report, filter to the same pages and dates, and note the clicks.
- Export the table if your catalog is anywhere near the 1,000-row limit.
Once both numbers sit side by side, two patterns matter. A page with rising AI impressions and steady clicks gained shelf space. A page with rising AI impressions and falling clicks is being answered on Google’s side, and it needs a reason to click that a summary can’t hold, like price, sizing, or stock.
I run this in the same sitting as finding quick wins in GSC, since both start from a list of pages. Most SEOs will tell you Google is going to add queries to this report soon. Maybe, but I would not plan a reporting routine around a feature that does not exist yet.
Check the Data Anomalies Page Before You React
Checking Google’s data anomalies page before you react keeps you from chasing a drop in the AI performance report that never happened. Google logged an error that cut impressions in this report from August 13 to 17, 2026, then restored the missing data on August 21.
Read this report monthly, not daily, and look for a logged anomaly before you change a single page.
Should You Use the Search Generative AI Control?
No, a store should not use the Search generative AI control to opt out of AI features. Google’s help page for the control says an excluded site “won’t receive any traffic or impressions from these features,” while content from other sites keeps showing up there.
You’ll find the control under Settings, then Search generative AI, with include as the default and exclude as the other choice. It works per property too, so a child property such as a /blog/ URL-prefix property can follow its parent or take its own setting.
To Google’s credit, the switch is clean. Google says it is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal for the rest of Search, and a change generally takes a few days. It also leaves AI training alone, which is still Google-Extended’s job, and it does not override Merchant Center or Google Ads.
Still, the report exists so you can grow AI impressions, not switch them off. Your competitor’s product fills any answer you vacate. If your impressions are low, the fix is earning your way in, and I walk through that in how to rank in AI Overviews.
Want a Clear Read on Your Store’s AI Visibility?
The AI performance report finally shows where Google’s AI features surface your store, page by page, but it stops at impressions. The useful work is pairing it with clicks and revenue, spotting which pages AI trusts, and pushing more pages into that group.
If you want help with that, book a call. I’ll open your Search Console with you and show you which pages earn AI impressions, which ones are losing clicks to answers, and the three fixes I’d make first. If it turns into a bigger project, my AI search services start with that same read.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Introducing Search generative AI performance reports
- Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search)
- Search Console Help: What are impressions, position, and clicks?
- Search Console Help: Search generative AI control
- Search Console Help: Data anomalies in Search Console
- Analytics Help: What’s new in Google Analytics
- Bing Webmaster Blog: Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools
