Search Console Generative AI report bug

Google has confirmed a logging error in the Generative AI report in Search Console. It lowered the impressions reported for November 9, 10 and 11, 2026. If you see a sudden hole in that report for those days, Google points to the reporting, not to your visibility.

What Google confirmed

Google added the issue to its “Data anomalies in Search Console” page, where it lists known problems with report data. The entry reads: “A logging error caused a decrease in impressions on the Generative AI performance report in Search for data from November 9 - November 11, 2026. This issue affects data logging only.”

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable spotted the entry. He also noted that the report itself now shows an annotation, and I checked that in Search Console for uper.pl.

The Generative AI report in Search Console for uper.pl, last 28 days: a marker on the chart at November 9 opens a note titled "Google Search Update" that says an event in Google Search might affect the site's data

The marker sits under the chart at November 9. The note it opens doesn’t mention a logging error. It is titled “Google Search Update” and says: “An event has occurred in Google Search that might affect your site’s data.” Only the “See here for more details” link leads to the anomalies page with the entry quoted above.

The notice is short. Google gives neither the size of the drop nor its cause, and it doesn’t say whether the data will be filled in later. It’s also unclear whether every site was hit to the same degree, so in the rest of this post I stick to what Google actually wrote.

A quick refresher on the Generative AI report

Google announced the Generative AI performance report on June 3, 2026 and opened it to sites in stages. According to the Google Search Central blog, every site worldwide has had it since August 31, 2026. The report shows how often URLs from your site appeared in generative AI features in Search, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. You can break the data down by:

impressions: how many times your URLs appeared in AI features,
pages: which URLs appeared,
countries and devices (devices for Search results),
dates: hourly, daily, weekly or monthly.

According to Search Engine Roundtable, the report has no click or query data. I covered it in more detail in my post on AI Search reports in Search Console. That matters for a bug like this one: impressions are the only visibility metric in the report, so when they are undercounted, the whole report is off.

Not the first bug in this report

Google’s anomalies page already lists earlier errors in the generative reports. For Generative AI in Search there is an entry about lower impressions from August 13-17, 2026. For Discover, entries cover June 24 and August 13, 2026: the error lowered clicks and impressions in the Discover report and, for sites with access to the Generative AI in Discover report, impressions there too. Every one of these entries uses the same wording: a logging error that affects data logging only.

The August case has an important follow-up. On August 21, Google updated the entry to say the missing data for August 13-17 had been restored and the report now shows complete metrics. So last time, the gap turned out to be temporary.

The report is young, and within three months Google has twice described undercounted impressions in it. That’s why I read it as a trend indicator rather than an exact count. I treat single days with caution, and whenever I see an odd spike or dip, I check the anomalies page first.

Why it’s easy to confuse the bug with the core update

According to Search Engine Roundtable, Google’s November 2026 core update started on November 10, right in the middle of the bug window. The report shows fewer impressions in AI features while rankings are reshuffling, so the conclusion “the update cut my AI visibility” comes naturally.

The annotation makes the mix-up easier. A note titled “Google Search Update”, dated a day before the core update, reads like a note about the update unless you click through.

Google, however, describes a logging error. If the drop in your Generative AI report is already visible on November 9, a day before the update started, it’s hard to blame the update for it. That’s a strong hint you are looking at a reporting artifact. The update may still have moved your rankings, but you have to check that in other data. I described how I do it in my post on Google ranking volatility.

What the bug looks like on a small site

On uper.pl the bug is impossible to pick out by eye. The report shows 15 impressions for November 9 and 14 for November 10. Across the 28 days in the report, daily values ranged from 5 to 33, and the two days just before the window had 14 and 10. When I checked on November 13, the report ended at November 10, so the third affected day wasn’t there yet.

With a dozen or so impressions a day, undercounting disappears in the normal noise. I’d expect the hole to be easier to see on sites that collect hundreds or thousands of AI impressions daily. On a small site the annotation is the only sign that anything happened, so check the marker under the chart as well as the line.

What to do with your Search Console data

Check the annotation in the report and the anomalies page. If the drop fits exactly into the November 9-11 window, you are most likely looking at this bug. Keep in mind that the report lags: on November 13 mine ended at November 10, so the last affected day may show up later.
Compare with other reports. The regular Search performance report in Search Console (clicks, impressions, positions) and your analytics will show whether traffic actually changed. Google says impressions from AI features are also counted in the overall performance report, but the bug entry names only the Generative AI report.
Mark these days in your reporting. If you build monthly reports or dashboards from exports, add an annotation so nobody spends time next quarter hunting for the cause of a drop that never happened.
Don’t change anything because of these three days. Rewriting content or shifting strategy based on undercounted data costs the most and fixes nothing.
Give clients or your boss the number together with the context. One sentence with a link to Google’s anomalies page is enough.

What is still unknown

Google gave the time window and the general nature of the error, but not its size. For the November entry, Google hasn’t promised a fix, although it did restore the data in August. Until the entry changes, I would treat these three days as undercounted. Check the anomalies page again in a week or two and compare the chart with what you noted now.

Summary

The drop in Generative AI report impressions for November 9-11, 2026 is a data logging error confirmed by Google. It is not evidence that you lost visibility in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Because the core update also started on November 10, it’s easy to misread, so base your conclusions on several data sources at once. If you use the new AI report in Search Console, check the anomalies page regularly: the November entry is already the second one about this report in three months.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the drop in the Generative AI report for November 9-11 mean I lost visibility in AI Overviews?

The report alone does not show that. Google described the drop as a logging error that lowered impressions and affects data logging only. Check the Search performance report and your analytics.

Does the bug also affect the regular Search performance report?

Google's notice names only the Generative AI performance report in Search. It does not mention the regular performance report.

Will Google fix the data for these three days?

Google has not announced it for November. After a similar bug on August 13-17, 2026, the missing data was restored a few days later, so check the anomalies page again. Until then, treat these days as undercounted.

Where can I check known data issues in Search Console?

On the "Data anomalies in Search Console" help page. Google lists known issues from the last 3-16 months there, and the report itself may also show an annotation.