A few days ago, I was going through Search Console for one of my client properties, an e-commerce store, and noticed something under Performance I had never seen before: “Generative AI features,” tagged Beta. I checked my other properties right after. Nothing. Just that one site. That sent me looking into what this actually is, and whether it means something specific about e-commerce, or something else entirely.
What Actually Launched
On June 3, 2026, Google introduced a new report inside Search Console called the Generative AI features report, currently in Beta. The announcement was published directly on the Google Search Central blog, authored by Hillel Maoz, Search Ecosystem Engineering Manager, and Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead for Search Console (Google Search Central, Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console). Google describes the reports as giving site owners “dedicated views of your impressions within generative AI features” on both Search and Discover.
This is not a new source of data. The impressions were already folded into the regular Performance report. What is new is a separate, filtered view built specifically to isolate AI-driven visibility from standard blue-link results, so you no longer have to guess which part of your traffic came from where.
What the Report Actually Shows
According to Google’s own Search Console Help documentation (Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report), the report breaks down into these views:
- Impressions: how often URLs from your site appeared inside generative AI features on Search and Discover
- Pages: which specific URLs are showing up inside AI features, and how often
- Countries: where in the world your AI visibility is coming from
- Devices: desktop, mobile, or tablet, available for the Search surface
- Dates: performance over time, viewable hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly
The report covers two separate surfaces. Inside Search, that means Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Inside Discover, it means Google’s generative AI features that surface within the Discover feed.
What It Does Not Show Yet
Here is the honest limitation worth knowing before drawing conclusions from this data. The report currently shows impressions only. There are no clicks, no click-through rate, and no query-level data yet. You can see that your pages are appearing inside AI Overviews, but not yet exactly what someone typed to get there, or whether they clicked through afterward.
This matters because impressions alone can be misleading if read the wrong way. A page appearing frequently inside an AI Overview is a real visibility signal, but it does not by itself tell you whether that visibility is translating into visits or business. Google has said additional metrics may be added over time, but as of this report’s launch, impressions are the whole picture.
Why You Might Not See It Yet
If you have checked your own Search Console account and do not see a Generative AI section under Performance, a few things could explain that. The rollout began with a limited beta, initially concentrated on a subset of UK-based properties following a requirement from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, and has been expanding gradually since June. According to Google’s documentation, a property may also not qualify yet if it has not received enough impressions in generative AI features to generate meaningful data, or if the site has been excluded from generative AI features altogether through specific opt-out settings.
Is This Only for E-commerce Sites?
This was my first question once I noticed the pattern on my own properties, since the only site showing this report for me was an online store. After checking Google’s own documentation, the answer is no, this is not restricted to e-commerce. Eligibility comes down to three things, and none of them mention industry or website type: the site needs to already be technically eligible to appear in Search with a snippet, it needs to have received enough impressions specifically within generative AI features, and it cannot be opted out of those features through robots or meta settings.
What is more likely happening is a volume effect. Product and shopping-related questions are one of the categories where AI Overviews and AI Mode currently appear most often, so an e-commerce site tends to rack up generative AI impressions faster than a site in a category where these AI features show up less frequently. A blog, a local service site, or a portfolio site can absolutely get this report too, once it crosses whatever impression threshold Google is using, which it has not published publicly.
How to Find It in Your Own Account
If you would rather watch this instead of reading it, here is the full walkthrough, including a live look at the report and the answer to whether this is e-commerce only.
- Open Search Console and go to the Performance section in the left sidebar
- Look for a “Generative AI” entry nested under Performance, or a callout box on the main Performance report inviting you to “Get more details on your site’s performance in generative AI features on Google Search”
- Click through to open the dedicated report, which loads with Total Impressions as the headline metric
- Use the Pages, Countries, Devices, and Dates tabs to break the data down further
The Numbers I Am Actually Seeing
On that same e-commerce property, over a recent three-month window, the Generative AI features report recorded over 44,000 impressions specifically inside generative AI features, tracked separately from the roughly 46,000 clicks and 876,000 impressions the same site shows in its standard Performance report. Seeing both numbers side by side, rather than blended together, makes it much easier to explain to a client exactly how much of their visibility is now coming from AI-driven search surfaces versus traditional results.
Why This Matters for Bangladeshi Businesses
Most business owners in Bangladesh have had no way to know whether their pages ever show up inside an AI Overview, only a general sense that AI search exists and might be affecting their traffic. This report does not solve that completely, since it stops short of clicks, but it removes the guesswork around visibility itself. If your Pages tab in this report stays empty month after month, that is a clear, factual sign your content is not currently being pulled into Google’s AI features, worth investigating alongside the kind of structured, direct-answer content that these features tend to favor.
What to Do With This Data
Check the report once it appears in your account, and look at which pages show up most often in the Pages tab. Those pages are already doing something right in terms of structure and clarity, worth studying and replicating on other pages. If impressions are concentrated on only one or two pages, that is a signal the rest of the site has room to be written and structured more clearly for these features, not necessarily a signal that something is broken.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the same as the platform properties feature Google launched in July?
No, these are two separate features. The Generative AI features report, covered here, launched June 3, 2026 and shows AI Overview and AI Mode impressions for an existing website property. Platform properties, launched July 7, 2026, is a different feature that lets you connect Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube accounts directly, without a website.
Does more impressions in this report mean better rankings?
Not directly. This report measures visibility specifically within generative AI features, which is a different surface from traditional rankings. A page can perform well here without necessarily ranking first in standard results, and vice versa.
Why does my Search Console account not show this report yet?
The rollout has been gradual since the June 2026 launch. A property may not yet qualify if it has too few generative AI impressions to report, or if it is excluded from generative AI features through specific settings. Waiting and checking again periodically is the only current option.
Can I see which exact search query led to an AI Overview impression?
Not yet. The report currently provides impressions broken down by page, country, device, and date, but not by search query. Google has indicated more detail may be added in future updates.
Does this report replace the normal Performance report?
No. The Generative AI features report sits alongside the standard Performance report as a filtered, dedicated view. The same impression data still appears in your overall Performance numbers as well.
The Bottom Line
This report finally answers a question the SEO industry has wanted resolved for over a year: are your pages actually appearing inside AI Overviews and AI Mode, and how often. It is not the complete picture yet, since clicks and queries are still missing, but it replaces guesswork with an actual number. That alone makes it worth checking the moment it appears in your account.
