Google now shows site owners how often their pages appear inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not show how often anyone clicked. That one gap decides how useful the new Search Console report is, and whether the switch next to it, which lets you opt out of those features, is worth touching.
What the report shows
Google announced the Search generative AI performance reports on 3 June 2026, first to a test group in the UK. By 31 August 2026 they and the opt-out control had reached all websites worldwide. The reports cover generative AI features in Search, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, and in Discover.
According to Google's help page for the report, it breaks impressions down by four things: page, country, date and device. Dates can be viewed by day, week or month. The details worth knowing:
Pages are grouped by the final URL a generative AI feature linked to, after redirects.
If two results from your site appear in the same AI response, they count as one impression.
Only the Web search type is included, and Search Labs experiments are not.
The usual limits apply, including 1,000 rows in an export, and the newest data can still change in the next few hours.
What it leaves out
The same help page says the report has no click data and no query data. Search Engine Roundtable's report from 3 June notes that when Google was asked about missing clicks, a spokesperson said: "We're continuing to work with website owners to understand what insights will be most helpful to inform their strategies, and we'll introduce additional metrics over time."
So what is an impression here? It tells you a link to your site was shown inside an AI answer. It does not tell you the person saw your link, read it or came to your page. Treat it as a visibility signal, not a traffic number.
A simple way to use it: pick your ten most important pages and note their AI impressions each week for a month. Put them beside the normal Performance report's clicks for the same pages. If AI impressions rise while clicks fall, you have a pattern worth discussing. If both move together, the AI features may simply be one more place you appear. One month of data will not prove cause and effect, so do not overreact to a single week.
What the opt-out control does
Google's own post, "New opportunities, control and insights for website owners", describes a toggle in Search Console. It lets owners decide whether their site appears in and helps ground responses in generative AI Search features. Sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode or AI Overviews in Discover.
What it does not do matters just as much. Google says the control "will not be used as a ranking signal for search results outside of these generative AI Search features." Google's post adds that it does not affect existing tools like snippet controls or the Google-Extended crawler setting, which governs a different question.
Should a small publisher opt out?
Here is the opinionated part: for most small blogs and newsletters, opting out looks like a bad trade right now, with one exception.
The case against: nothing in Google's documents I read says that opting out sends clicks back to your site. It only removes you from those features. If you are a new or small publisher, being shown in front of a lot of readers is a scarce thing, and switching it off buys you nothing measurable.
The exception: if your business depends on readers reaching your site, and your content is something you sell, such as paid research or a course, you may care more about control than reach. Then the toggle is a real option, though a cost-benefit judgement only you can make.
Before deciding, ask four questions:
Where do my best readers come from, and has that changed since AI features appeared?
Do my pages give away the whole answer, or only the start of it?
Do I have another way to reach people, such as a newsletter list I own?
Would I notice if I was removed from AI answers? If the honest answer is no, the toggle is not urgent.
That last point is the real lesson of owned audiences. A report like this is useful, but a subscriber list does not depend on how Google counts impressions.
A simple monthly routine
On the first of each month, open the Generative AI performance report and export the pages table.
Mark your ten most important pages and record each one's AI impressions.
Open the regular Performance report for the same dates and note the clicks for the same pages.
Write one sentence in a shared note on what changed. After three months you have a trend rather than an anecdote.
Keep the 1,000-row limit in mind if you run a large site, and remember that the newest days are preliminary. Compare complete months, not partial ones.
One more Google update to read
If you use AI tools while drafting, Google also updated its guidance on generative AI content on 1 October 2026. It says: "It is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing." It also warns that using AI tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate Google's spam policy on scaled content abuse.
The takeaway: use the AI report as one signal among several, check it monthly rather than daily, and keep your opt-out decision tied to what you want your site to do, not to a worry about a number Google has not yet finished defining.