Google launched a dedicated generative AI performance report inside Search Console on 3 June 2026, giving site owners their first direct visibility into how content is being surfaced inside AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the AI-powered features now appearing in Discover. It rolled out first to a subset of UK-based sites specifically, rather than everyone at once - which means if you're a UK small business, you may well already have access even though the wider rollout isn't complete.
What the Report Actually Shows
- Impressions - how many times a link to your content was shown inside an AI Overview, AI Mode response, or an AI-powered Discover feature.
- Broken down by page, country, device, and date, the same dimensions you'd expect from the standard Performance report, just scoped to generative AI surfaces instead of classic blue-link results.
- Data starting from 18 May 2026 - there's no historical backfill, so you can't see how your AI-surface impressions looked before the report existed.
The Big Limitation: No Clicks Yet
The current version shows impressions only - no clicks, no click-through rate, and no query-level data. You can see that your content was surfaced inside an AI feature, and roughly where and on what device, but not what someone actually did afterwards, or which specific search led to it. Google has said this is expected to expand over time, and the eventual plan is reportedly to fold generative AI data into the main Performance report as a "Search appearance" filter (the same mechanism already used for rich results like FAQs and recipes), once clicks and queries are added. Until then, treat the current report as a visibility signal, not a performance one - it tells you that you're being seen, not what that visibility is worth.
The New Opt-Out: Blocking Content From AI Features
Alongside the report, Google introduced a toggle letting site owners exclude their content from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI-powered Discover entirely, effective from 17 June 2026. The stated tradeoff is clean: opting out forfeits any AI-surface impressions and traffic, but Google has confirmed the toggle itself carries no penalty in classic organic rankings - it's a visibility choice, not a ranking one.
Whether to use it depends entirely on what your content is for. A business that depends on people reading the full page (to see pricing, book something, or understand nuance the AI summary would flatten) might reasonably prefer not to have a version of their answer given away for free inside a summary box. A business built on being found and cited - which is most of AuditCrow's audience - almost certainly wants to stay opted in and treat the impressions as a new discovery channel worth understanding, not blocking.
Where to Look
Both features are still in staged rollout, so the exact place they appear in your account's navigation may shift as Google expands access. If you don't see a generative AI report or an opt-out control yet, that's the rollout, not a setup mistake on your end - check back periodically, and in the meantime the existing Performance report's "Search appearance" filter can already show you whether AI Overviews are triggering for specific queries, even without the new dedicated report.
Why This Matters for Small Business Sites
Until now, AI-surface visibility was invisible by definition - you had no way to know whether Google's AI features were quietly showing your content to people who never clicked through, or ignoring you entirely. Even in its current impressions-only form, this report closes that gap. If a page is racking up AI Overview impressions with nothing to show for it (because there's no click data yet to confirm one way or the other), that's still more information than existed before 3 June, and worth watching as click data gets added.
The Fast Way to Check the Rest
This report tells you what's already happening on Google's AI surfaces. For a broader read on whether your site is set up to be found and cited by AI systems in the first place - ChatGPT and Perplexity included, not just Google's own features - our AI visibility check reviews the technical and content signals that determine AI inclusion, and AuditCrow's free scan covers the rest of the fundamentals underneath it.