Google rolled out Search Console's AI performance report to every site

Google added a note to its June blog post on new website owner controls on 31 August 2026, saying "we've rolled out these features to all websites worldwide." That closes a rollout that began as a UK pilot on 3 June and expanded in stages over three months. Two things are now available on every Search Console property that has enough data: the generative AI performance report, and a new opt-out toggle called AI Controls.

What the report shows, and what it does not

The report tracks impressions from three surfaces: AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features inside Discover. Impressions can be broken down by page, country, and date, and Search results include a device split as well. Granularity runs from hourly through to monthly.

The report does not include clicks or queries. Google's blog post does not explain the omission, and it is the single largest limit on how a site owner can act on the report today. A rise in AI impressions with no click number attached tells you the model is quoting your page more often. It does not tell you whether anyone read the citation and visited the site.

The general manager of the Google Search ecosystem, Mrinalini Loew, also reports adoption figures for the two surfaces: "AI Overviews now has over 2.5 billion monthly active users, while AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users." Those are Google's own numbers.

The AI Controls toggle

The second change is a new setting in Search Console that lets an owner opt a site out of appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Overviews inside Discover. Google says on the same post that "sites that opt out will not receive traffic or impressions from our generative AI features." The toggle is one control, applied to the whole site, and it covers both the citation and the grounding use.

That trade-off is worth reading carefully. Opting out removes the site from a surface that already reaches two and a half billion monthly users on Overviews alone. In exchange, the content stops being read by AI features for either display or grounding. The toggle is site-wide, and it applies to display and grounding together.

The report is enough on its own to change how a team frames AI search reporting internally. Until now, tracking AI Overviews impressions meant scraping or paying a third-party tool that estimated coverage from ranking snapshots. From today the first-party number is in the same product that already carries Search Console impressions and clicks. Add it to whatever weekly ranking or traffic review the team already runs, and separate the AI surfaces from classical Search so a rise in one does not hide a fall in the other.

The AI Controls toggle is a policy decision for whoever owns the site's search strategy, so put it in front of them before someone switches it on without a plan. The right answer for a site that ranks well in classical Search may differ from the right answer for a site whose content is being reworded into AI Overviews with no visit coming back.

Source

• New controls and insights for website owners, Google, updated 31 August 2026.
• Google Search Console AI Reports Rolled Out Worldwide, Search Engine Journal, 31 August 2026.
• Global: Google Search Console AI Performance Report and AI Control, Search Engine Roundtable, 1 September 2026.