In short. AI Overviews and AI Mode use standard impression rules, count clicks to external pages, and report traffic in Search Console under Web.
Definition: In Google Search Console, an impression records a link being shown under the rules for its result type, and a click records a qualifying link selection. As of 17 October 2026, AI Overviews and AI Mode use standard impression rules and count clicks to external pages.
Key facts
- Google's impressions, position, and clicks documentation applies standard impression rules to AI Overviews and AI Mode, including visibility rules for scrolling or expanding elements.
- Google's AI features documentation includes traffic from both features in the Performance report's Web search type.
- Google's Performance report overview groups chart data by property and Pages table data by page, which can produce different impression totals.
When does a link receive an impression?
Google's counting documentation generally counts an impression when a link appears in the current results page, even below the visible browser area, provided seeing it requires no click to load more results.
Inside an independently scrolling or expanding element, a link typically needs to be scrolled or expanded into view. For a carousel, an item must become visible within the carousel; the carousel itself need not be visible in the browser window. Scrolling away and back during a single query or session adds no further impression.
What counts as a click or a new query?
Google's AI feature counting rules count a click when someone follows a link to an external page from AI Mode or an AI Overview. The general click rules count a return to the results and another click on the same link as a single click. A click on a different link receives its own count.
A follow-up question in AI Mode constitutes a new query. The impressions, clicks and positions in its response belong to that new query.
Position is the reported placement of a result. An AI Overview occupies a single position, shared by all its links. AI Mode uses the methodology of a Search results page, including the standard rules for carousel and image blocks.
How should the report be read?
Google's AI features documentation places these appearances in the following report and search type:
Performance report
Search type: Web
The Performance report overview defines click-through rate, or CTR, as clicks divided by impressions. Its chart combines results at property level: multiple results from the same site for a query count as a single impression. The Pages table groups data by page, so its summed impressions can differ from the chart total.
Google's counting documentation generally assigns click and impression data for a page's variations to a canonical URL, the URL Google selects to represent those variations. In some cases, data goes to the actual URL instead.
Related terms
- Search Console AI feature reporting
- Google AI Overviews
- Google AI Mode
- Can Search Console isolate AI Overviews traffic?
FAQ
Does expanding a Google search element count as a website click?
Google's general click rules generally require an action that takes the user outside Google Search. Expanding an element can expose links and register impressions under its visibility rules.
Are Search Labs experiments included?
The same counting documentation explicitly excludes data from experiments in Search Labs because those experiments remain in active development.
How can you compare individual pages?
Select the Pages dimension in the Performance report. Google's report overview identifies this as page-level aggregation, while its chart uses property-level aggregation.
Sources
- Google Search Console Help, "What are impressions, position, and clicks?", accessed 17 October 2026
- Google Search Central, "AI features and your website", accessed 17 October 2026
- Google Search Console Help, "Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup", accessed 17 October 2026
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