Google Search Console adds AI performance reports and blocking controls

Google is rolling out generative AI performance reports in Search Console and also testing a toggle that lets sites block their content from appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Both features are starting with a subset of website owners in the U.K., with a global rollout to follow.

The AI performance reports give site owners their first dedicated look at how pages perform inside Google’s generative AI features directly within Search Console. The blocking control provides an affirmative answer to a question publishers have asked since these features launched: “Can I opt out without hurting my regular search rankings?”

What’s in the new AI performance report

The new generative AI performance reports show how many impressions your pages get in Google’s AI features, broken down by page, country, device, and date.

There’s one report for Search results that shows impressions inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. And a separate companion report for AI features in Google Discover. Note that these are dedicated views, not separate datasets from the main performance reports.

The SEO community was quick to discuss the performance reports on X, including Aleyda Solís, International SEO Consultant and Speaker:

Here’s what each dimension tells you:

• Impressions: How often your URLs showed up in AI features across Search and Discover
• Pages: Which specific URLs appeared
• Countries: Which countries your visibility is coming from
• Devices: Breakdown across desktop, tablet, and mobile (available only for Search)
• Dates: Performance over time, down to hourly

One thing the reports don’t include is click data. Google’s help documentation lists impressions, pages, countries, devices, and dates — but no click metric. And Google said they plan to introduce additional metrics over time.

The new control to block content from AI features

Using the Search Console toggle that lets you keep your content out of Google’s generative AI features won’t affect your normal search rankings.

Google explicitly said sites that opt out won’t receive traffic or impressions from AI features. But it also won’t push them down in the standard blue links.

This toggle builds on earlier tools like snippet controls and the Google-Extended crawler, which already let sites limit how their content gets used. The rollout also follows Google’s engagement with U.K. regulators over how publisher content is used in AI, which explains why the U.K. is first.

Whether to use the toggle is a strategic question. AI Overviews now reach over 2.5 billion monthly active users, and AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly active users. So, opting out means giving up exposure at scale.

How to track your full AI visibility picture

Google’s new AI performance reports show your impressions inside Google’s AI features, but your audience is also using ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI search engines.

Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit tracks mentions, cited pages, and share of voice across platforms in one dashboard. 

The Visibility Overview report shows which of your pages get cited and across which platforms, and “Prompt Tracking” shows the specific prompts driving that visibility, which is closer to intent than Google’s impression counts.

Enterprise teams tracking multiple brands or markets can use Semrush Enterprise AIO instead. It includes multi-market tracking, competitive benchmarking, and connects AI visibility to actual conversions in GA4 or Adobe Analytics.

What to do now

Here are three things worth doing now, while the rollout is ongoing:

1. Look for the report in Search Console. Open the “Performance” section and check for a “Generative AI” view. If you don’t see it, you’ll have to wait. Either way, get familiar now with the impressions-related data.
2. Decide your AI stance before the toggle reaches you. Weigh the control of opting out against the potential exposure. For most brands looking to grow visibility, leaving the toggle off makes sense, but the choice is now yours to make deliberately.
3. Audit your crawler access today. Use Site Audit to confirm that AI crawlers can reach your site, so you don’t lose AI visibility by accident while everyone else debates whether to opt out on purpose.

The main takeaway is that AI search reporting is becoming standard. Bing got there first, and Google is following. But both only report on their own surfaces, so neither gives you the full picture of your AI visibility.