On June 3, 2026, Google announced two new features in Search Console. The first is a dedicated set of reports showing how often your site appears in generative AI features. The second is a toggle that lets you decide whether you want to show up in those features at all. The rollout starts with a subset of UK sites; the rest of the world should get it later.

Let me say this up front to avoid confusion: this is a beta for a small audience. If you log into your Search Console right now, you most likely won’t see any of the new reports yet. For now, only a handful of UK sites are testing them.

What exactly Google announced

The announcement went out through two official channels. On the Google Search Central blog it came from Hillel Maoz (Search Ecosystem Engineering Manager) and Moshe Samet (Product Manager Lead, Search Console). On The Keyword blog it was covered by Mrinalini Loew, General Manager of Google Search Ecosystem.

In practice we’re talking about two related things: a new data view for generative AI visibility and a control that decides whether your content should feed and appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode at all.

Until now, impressions in AI features were buried inside the general performance report and there was no way to isolate them. Now they get their own view. There are two reports: one for Search results (Performance → Search results → Generative AI) and one for Discover (Discover → Generative AI). The same data still flows into the general report, so you don’t lose the overall picture of your search visibility.

What you can actually analyze in them:

  • Impressions — how often your URLs appeared in generative AI features across Search and Discover.
  • Pages — which specific URLs were shown.
  • Countries — visibility broken down by country.
  • Devices — what hardware users were on. This dimension is not available for Discover.
  • Dates — change over time, with hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly granularity.

The interface is labeled “Beta” and the data refreshes on an ongoing basis. In Google’s example screenshot the latest update is from a few hours ago. The screen is very close to the classic performance report: a chart with total impressions at the top (over 9k in 7 days in the example) and a time range switcher, with Pages, Countries, Devices, and Dates tabs below. A full description of the metrics sits in the Help Center documentation.

What’s missing from the reports

The most important thing: clicks and query-level data. Impressions only tell you the page showed up somewhere — not how many people actually clicked through to your site from that screen. For SEO, that’s the most important number, and it’s not in this report. Google clearly expected this question. When asked about click data, a Google spokesperson said more metrics will arrive over time. No timeline, no scope.

The industry isn’t holding its breath. Bing launched its equivalent report earlier and still doesn’t show clicks. Some commentators doubt it will ever change. On top of that, there’s a well-known issue: in AI Overviews all the links share a single GSC position, so you can’t tell which spot in the answer is actually working. The new report doesn’t solve that.

The visibility toggle for AI features

The second piece is a control where you decide whether your site should appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews in Discover, and whether it should help generate answers in the first place. A site that opts out loses both traffic and impressions from that segment.

Google takes the chance to reassure publishers that opting out won’t function as a ranking signal in regular results. In theory, switching off AI shouldn’t hurt your classic rankings. It’s worth understanding how this toggle differs from what was already there. Snippet settings control how you show up in classic results. Google-Extended blocks the use of your content for model training. The new option is about presence in live generative features. Three different places, three different controls.

Will anyone actually flip it off? Earlier research suggests yes. About a third of surveyed SEOs and publishers said they’d want to block their content from Google’s AI features. On the other hand, for most reach-driven sites opting out is a heavy decision. You’re walking away from impressions across a whole segment of the search engine at once.

Regulatory context and competition

The scale is significant. Google says AI Overviews has more than 2.5 billion monthly users, and AI Mode has crossed one billion. Alongside the announcement, Google also refreshed its optimization guide for generative AI, leaning on content uniqueness, solid site structure, and visual asset quality.

It’s hard to ignore where the move comes from, though. Google admits the tools are being built in dialogue with publishers and in coordination with the UK CMA — hence the UK debut. There’s also pressure from the European Union in the background, including an antitrust complaint about AI Overviews and earlier commitments to provide an opt-out option. To put it plainly, this looks more like a response to pressure than goodwill.

Against the competition, Google is playing some catch-up. Bing had its AI performance report earlier and eventually added query-to-page mappings. Bing’s report is also available globally, while Google is still testing on a narrow slice of UK sites.

How the industry took it

Most SEO reactions come down to a single sentence: AI visibility is finally becoming measurable, and even incomplete data is a big shift. It also opens a new question. How many companies will actually start optimizing content to be “found” by AI rather than just for rankings? Some commentators compare the new report to what GSC shows for Discover or Google News, and bet that the meaningful numbers here will mostly land in well-optimized sites. The rest are simply waiting, because nothing has shown up in their account yet.

What this means in practice

In practice, we’re getting the first dedicated look at how a site behaves in Google’s AI features. It’s an observational tool. It shows which pages and which countries are landing in generative answers, and how that changes over time. It’s too early to use it for tracking traffic or conversions. Impressions are a reach metric, not an effectiveness one.

My plan for now: if you have access, treat the report as visibility monitoring and a way to surface content that performs well in AI. If you don’t have access, you’re not missing much, because the feature is just getting started. What is worth doing is sending Google feedback through “Submit feedback” in Search Console and the dedicated form. With more reports promised, it’s a real chance to shape what they look like.

Availability and timeline

First a subset of sites in the UK. The rest of the world later, no date given. More metrics will come “over time.” Also without specifying what or when.

Sources

  1. Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console — Google Search Central Blog (June 3, 2026) https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports

  2. New opportunities, control and insights for website owners — The Keyword, blog.google (June 3, 2026) https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/new-controls-website-owners/

  3. Google Search Console AI performance reports and controls to block your content in AI responses — Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-ai-performance-reports-and-controls-to-block-your-content-in-ai-responses-479298

  4. Google Tests Dedicated AI Search Reports In Search Console — Search Engine Journal https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-tests-dedicated-ai-search-reports-in-search-console/577793/

  5. Generative AI performance reports — Google Help Center documentation https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139