Search Engine Optimization

AI Overviews and your clicks: how to measure the impact in Search Console

11 min readBy Jaskirat Singh Talwar

Google now reports AI Overviews and AI Mode in two places in Search Console. The Generative AI performance report, available to all sites since 31 August 2026, shows how often links to your pages appeared in those features, by page, country, device and date, but it shows impressions only. The ordinary Performance report still includes AI Overview and AI Mode clicks inside the "Web" search type, mixed with everything else. To measure the impact on your own site, compare the click-through rate of pages and queries that appear in AI features with those that do not, at similar positions, across the same periods, and check the dates against Google's list of data anomalies before drawing conclusions.

Key takeaways

  • The Generative AI performance report counts "how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search". It has no clicks or queries, so it tells you exposure, not outcome.
  • In the Performance report a click on a link in an AI Overview counts as a click, and all links in an AI Overview share one position. That can make average position look better while clicks fall.
  • Independent studies disagree with Google on clicks. Pew Research found users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary against 15% without one (March 2025 data). Ahrefs found AI Overviews correlate with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page (December 2025 against December 2023). Google says clicks from AI Overviews are "higher quality".
  • Google says impressions were not reported accurately from 13 May 2025 to 27 April 2026. Year-on-year click-through rate comparisons that cross that window are not reliable; clicks were not affected.

What does Search Console show about AI Overviews today?

Two reports, and they answer different questions.

The Generative AI performance report (Search). Google introduced it in June 2026 and states that "as of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide." It covers AI Overviews and AI Mode. Its dimensions are pages (the final URL linked by the AI feature, after redirects), countries, devices and dates, and it can be split into "Web: text-based" and "Web: multimodal" searches such as Google Lens. Google's help page notes that it "includes data from the Web search type in the Performance report", so the same impressions are also counted in the main report.

The Performance report (Search results). Google's page on AI features says AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic is reported there, within the "Web" search type, with no separate click breakdown. A click is a click; you cannot filter for "clicks that came from an AI Overview".

Measuring impact means joining the two.

How does Google count an AI Overview impression, click and position?

Google's help page on Performance report data sets out the rules:

Metric AI Overviews AI Mode
Click "Clicking a link to an external page in the AI Overview counts as a click" Clicking an external link counts as a click
Impression "Standard impression rules apply" Standard impression rules apply
Position The AI Overview takes one position and "all links in the AI Overview are assigned that same position" Follows the same method as a normal results page

Two consequences matter for reporting. First, if your page is one of several links in an AI Overview at the top of the page, it is recorded at that top position, even if a visitor would have to expand the overview to see it. Average position can improve while clicks drop, and a report that only watches position will call that a win. Second, when one search shows your site more than once, Google counts one impression for the property (or one per URL when you group by page) and reports the position of your topmost result, so an AI Overview link and a classic result for the same search are not two separate impressions.

What do independent studies say about clicks?

They point the same way, and Google disagrees.

  • Pew Research Center (22 July 2025) analysed the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025: 68,879 Google searches, of which 12,593 produced an AI summary. Users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary and in 15% of visits to pages without one. They clicked a link inside the summary in 1% of visits, and ended their browsing session after 26% of visits to pages with a summary against 16% without.
  • Ahrefs (4 February 2026) compared 300,000 keywords in December 2023 and December 2025 and found that the presence of an AI Overview "correlates with 58% lower average clickthrough rate" for the top-ranking page. The same method gave 34.5% in its April 2025 study. The data is desktop Search Console data, the figure depends on a modelled baseline, and Ahrefs sells SEO software; it is a correlation, not proof of cause.
  • Google says on its AI features page that clicks from AI Overviews "are higher quality (meaning, users are more likely to spend more time on the site)".

Use them to set expectations, then measure your own pages.

How do I measure the impact on my own site?

Five steps. You need Search Console, Google Analytics 4 and a spreadsheet.

  1. Export the Generative AI report by page for the last three full months. This is your list of AI-exposed pages, with impressions per page.
  2. Export the Performance report by page and by query for the same months (Search type: Web). Add a column that marks each page as AI-exposed or not, using the list from step 1.
  3. Group queries with a regular expression. In the Performance report, add a query filter, choose Custom (regex), and build two groups: questions and informational wording (for example ^(how|what|why|when|which|can|does|is)\b) and your brand name. Google's regex filters use RE2 syntax and are case-insensitive by default. Informational queries are where AI Overviews appear most; branded queries are your control group.
  4. Compare click-through rate at similar positions. For AI-exposed and non-exposed pages, compare clicks, impressions and click-through rate for pages averaging positions 1 to 3, then 4 to 10. If exposed pages at the same position have a clearly lower click-through rate and the gap widens over time, that is the AI Overview effect you can see on your own site. Note Google's caveat that anonymised queries are dropped whenever a filter is applied, so filtered totals will not add up to the chart total.
  5. Check what the remaining clicks do. In GA4, look at Organic Search landing pages for the exposed pages: engaged sessions and key events per session. If clicks fall but key events hold, fewer people are arriving but more of them are ready to act, which matches Google's "higher quality" claim. If both fall, the pages are losing value, not just volume.

Our Search Console guide covers the Performance report itself, and measuring AI search traffic covers the other half of the picture: referrals and citations from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini.

How do I tell AI Overviews from other causes of a click drop?

Check four things before blaming AI:

  • Data anomalies. Google keeps a public list. For 2026 it records that "a logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions" from 13 May 2025 until 27 April 2026, affecting impressions, click-through rate and position but not clicks, and a separate logging error that reduced impressions on the Generative AI report for 13 to 17 August 2026, since restored. Comparisons that cross those dates need care; compare clicks, not click-through rate, across them.
  • Ranking changes. If position fell, the drop is a ranking problem first.
  • Seasonality and demand. Compare the same months of the previous year, and check impressions for branded queries as a demand signal.
  • Other result features. Ads, local packs, videos and shopping units also take clicks. Look at the results page for your top queries in a clean browser from your buyers' location.

If clicks fell on AI-exposed informational pages at a steady position while branded and non-exposed pages held, AI Overviews are the likely cause.

Should we opt out of AI Overviews?

Usually not, but it is now a real choice. Alongside the report, Google added a Search Console control that lets a site choose whether it appears in, and helps ground, generative AI features. Google's announcement (3 June 2026, updated 31 August 2026) is explicit about the trade: "Sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from our generative AI features", and the control "will not be used as a ranking signal for search results outside of these generative AI Search features". Finer page-level controls (nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet) limit what Google can show from a page.

Opting out makes sense only if your measurement shows AI Overviews take clicks you would otherwise get and give nothing back, and if the content is the product (publishers, paid research). For a service business, a mention in an overview can still lead to a branded search or an enquiry later; measure those before removing it.

What should we change once we have the numbers?

Shift effort towards pages where the click is needed: pricing and scoping pages, comparisons, tools, case material and anything that requires a conversation. Keep informational pages, since AI features cite them, but make each one name your business, link to the next step and offer something an overview cannot hold. Our guide to SEO content that ranks and gets cited covers the writing side.

FAQ

Does Search Console show clicks from AI Overviews separately?

No. As of October 2026 the Generative AI performance report shows impressions only, by page, country, device and date. Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in the Performance report under the "Web" search type together with all other clicks, so impact has to be estimated by comparing pages and queries that appear in AI features with those that do not.

Why did our average position improve while clicks fell?

Possibly because of AI Overviews. Google assigns every link in an AI Overview the same position as the overview itself, which is often at the top of the page. A page cited in the overview is recorded at that high position even when few searchers expand the overview or click, so average position rises while click-through rate falls.

How much traffic do AI Overviews take?

It depends on the query and the site. Pew Research found clicks on traditional results in 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary against 15% without, using March 2025 data from 900 US adults. Ahrefs found a 58% lower click-through rate for the top result on keywords with an AI Overview, comparing December 2025 with December 2023. Measure your own pages rather than applying either figure.

Can I compare this year's click-through rate with last year's?

Be careful. Google says a logging error prevented accurate impression reporting from 13 May 2025 to 27 April 2026; clicks were not affected, but impressions, click-through rate and average position for that period are not comparable with later data. Compare clicks across that window, and click-through rate only within periods outside it.

Will opting out of AI features protect our rankings?

Opting out removes your site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI features in Discover, and Google says the setting is not used as a ranking signal for ordinary results. It does not raise your rankings either. You lose the impressions and any clicks or brand exposure those features gave you, so decide from your own numbers.

Impinge Solutions sets up AI search measurement, from the Search Console comparison to the monthly citation panel, as part of its AI search visibility service. Contact us to talk through your numbers.

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