Google AI Overviews

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some Google Search results. Google's help page describes them as "an AI-generated snapshot with key information and links to dig deeper," shown when Google's systems determine that generative AI can be especially helpful. Google began rolling them out to everyone in the US in 2024, using a Gemini model customized for Search, and said in 2026 that AI Overviews has over 2.5 billion monthly active users.

Why they matter

An AI Overview answers the query above the organic results. In a Pew Research Center study of 900 US adults' browsing in 2025, 18% of Google searches produced an AI summary. People who saw one clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits, against 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary in 1% of visits. The brands the summary names, and how it describes them, deserve the attention you give your rankings.

How pages appear in them

Google says there are no additional requirements for AI Overviews: to be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet. Snippet controls such as nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet limit what can be shown. Google-Extended does not affect inclusion in Google Search, where AI Overviews appear.

How to measure them

Search Console counts a click on a link in an AI Overview as a click, and gives every link inside the overview the same position: the position of the overview itself. Its Generative AI performance report shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country, device and date. Neither report shows which brands a summary names, so log that with prompt tracking. Track AI Overviews apart from Google AI Mode, since Google says the two may use different models and show different links.