Original data
How to track Google AI Overviews: the free report, the trackers, and who they name.
· Measured 1 to 25 September 2026
Start with the report Google already gives you: Search Console's generative AI report shows how often your pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. What it cannot show is who the Overview named instead of you, and that is what an AI Overview tracker is for: it searches your questions on Google and records whether an Overview appeared, which brands it named and which sites it cited.
We searched our 20 buyer questions about AI visibility tools on Google four times each. An AI Overview appeared on 71 of 80 searches, and it named Semrush in 36 of them.
Key takeaways
- Google's own report is free and shows your pages' impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not show competitors.
- An Overview appeared on 89% of our searches; the rest showed none, so a tracker has to count those separately.
- Asked about these tools, the Overviews named Semrush (36), Profound (30) and Otterly.AI (20) most.
- 29 of the 32 tools we checked name AI Overviews on their own sites.
How to track Google AI Overviews, step by step
You can do all of this by hand with Search Console and a spreadsheet. A tracker does the same work for more questions and more countries; the steps are what to ask it to do.
- Check that your pages can appear at all. Google's guide says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, with no extra technical requirements. Run your key pages through the URL Inspection tool in Search Console, and make sure nothing blocks Googlebot or sets
nosnippeton them. - Open the generative AI performance report. It counts how many times links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. You can group it by page, country, date or device. There is no queries tab, so it tells you which pages were shown but not for which searches. The export button saves the chart and the table.
- Write down the questions your buyers ask. Twenty to thirty searches, in their words: the problem they have, the comparison they make, the "best tool for" search. A good start is the searches the ordinary Performance report shows for the pages the AI report lists, since Google counts AI Overviews inside the Web search type there.
- Search each one the same way every time. Same country, same kind of device, signed out of Google, same day of the week. Overviews are served per market, so search from the country your buyers are in. For each search, note the date, whether an Overview appeared, the brands it named, the sites it cited, and where your page ranked in the ordinary results below it.
- Count the searches with no Overview on their own. Google says AI Overviews show only when its systems judge them additive, and often don't appear. 9 of our 80 searches showed none. Score yourself on the searches that showed one, and keep the empty count next to that score.
- Check AI Mode as a separate surface. Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the answers and links vary. Being named in one tells you little about the other.
- Repeat weekly and read the trend. When we searched the same question again at the next run, the Overview named 53% of the same tools again. One week is a snapshot; four weeks shows a direction.
- Move to a tracker when the sheet gets too big. More questions, more countries, or Gemini and ChatGPT as well, and the manual check stops being weekly. Before you pick one, ask how it reads the Overview, from which country, what it does with searches that showed none, and whether it keeps the text and the cited sites.
What Google's free report shows, and what it misses
The Generative AI performance report in Google Search Console is the only first-party AI Overviews number there is. It shows how often links to your site were shown in Google's generative AI features, as impressions, with filters for text and multimodal searches. It is part of Search Console, which Google describes as a free service, and Google says it reached all websites on 31 August 2026.
Read it for what it is. It counts impressions of links to your pages, on the searches where Google showed one. It does not tell you which questions an Overview answered without you, which brands it named, or which other sites it cited. Those three are what the tools below exist to measure.
Which tools Google's AI Overviews names
The Overviews themselves, asked our buyer questions about AI visibility tools. 71 of the 80 searches showed an Overview; this counts the tools each one named.
| # | Tool | Answers naming it | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Semrush | 36 | 51% |
| 2 | Profound | 30 | 42% |
| 3 | Otterly.AI | 20 | 28% |
| 4 | Ahrefs | 13 | 18% |
| 4 | SE Ranking | 13 | 18% |
| 6 | Peec AI | 12 | 17% |
| 7 | Scrunch | 11 | 15% |
| 8 | AthenaHQ | 7 | 10% |
| 9 | Conductor | 5 | 7% |
| 9 | Rankscale | 5 | 7% |
| 11 | Goodie | 4 | 6% |
| 12 | Alhena | 3 | 4% |
| 12 | BrightEdge | 3 | 4% |
| 12 | Dageno | 3 | 4% |
| 15 | Evertune | 2 | 3% |
| 32 | Greater Than Servicesours | 0 | 0% |
Gemini is grounded in the same Google Search, and it agrees on the top three. The order below them differs, which is one reason to track the two separately:
| Tool | AI Overviews (71) | Gemini (80) |
|---|---|---|
| Semrush | 36 (51%) | 37 (46%) |
| Profound | 30 (42%) | 31 (39%) |
| Otterly.AI | 20 (28%) | 29 (36%) |
| Ahrefs | 13 (18%) | 21 (26%) |
| SE Ranking | 13 (18%) | 10 (13%) |
| Peec AI | 12 (17%) | 19 (24%) |
| Scrunch | 11 (15%) | 13 (16%) |
| AthenaHQ | 7 (10%) | 6 (8%) |
What makes AI Overviews harder to track
It does not always appear. 9 of our 80 searches showed no Overview. A tracker that counts those as "not named" understates you; one that drops them should say how many it dropped.
There is no API for it. Google publishes none for AI Overviews, so a tool has to read Google's results page to see one. Ask any vendor how it does that, and from which country, because Overviews are served per market. The figures here were read as a searcher in the United States.
It moves, like every engine. Searched again at the next run, the Overview named 53% of the same tools again. A weekly count shows direction; one screenshot shows a moment.
AI Mode is a separate surface. It sits in the same Search Console report, and of the 29 tools naming AI Overviews, 22 list AI Mode too. How to track it is next.
How to track Google AI Mode
Google says AI Mode is most helpful for questions that need more exploring, reasoning or comparison, and that AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the answers and links they show vary. Track it on its own rather than reading it off your Overviews.
- Start with the same free report. Search Console's generative AI performance report counts impressions of links to your site in AI Overviews and AI Mode, in one report. You can group it by page, country, date or device.
- Ask your buyer questions in AI Mode. Use the list from your Overviews check, the same country and the same day each week. AI Mode suits the longer comparison questions, so add a few of those. Note the brands it named and the sites it linked.
- Keep the two in separate columns. A brand named in the Overview and missing from AI Mode, or the other way round, is the difference Google describes, and a combined score would hide it.
Of the 29 tools whose sites name AI Overviews, these 22 name AI Mode as well, by their own sites on 25 September 2026: Semrush, Otterly.AI, Profound, Peec AI, Ahrefs, Scrunch, AthenaHQ, SE Ranking, Rankscale, Surfer, GrackerAI, Goodie, LLMrefs, LLM Pulse, Ranketta, Evertune, Wellows, Cognizo, Dageno, Rankability, Omnia and RankPrompt. We do not track AI Mode; the Google figures on this page are AI Overviews only.
AI Overview tracking tools, by their own sites
By their own sites, checked on 25 September 2026. Each links to the page that says so; which plan includes it is on the vendor's site.
- Semrush · named 36 times by the Overviews
- Otterly.AI · named 20 times by the Overviews
- Profound · named 30 times by the Overviews
- Peec AI · named 12 times by the Overviews
- Ahrefs · named 13 times by the Overviews
- Scrunch · named 11 times by the Overviews
- AthenaHQ · named 7 times by the Overviews
- SE Ranking · named 13 times by the Overviews
- Rankscale · named 5 times by the Overviews
- Writesonic · named once by the Overviews
- Surfer · named once by the Overviews
- GrackerAI · named once by the Overviews
- Goodie · named 4 times by the Overviews
- LLMrefs · not named by the Overviews
- BrightEdge · named 3 times by the Overviews
- Ayzeo · named once by the Overviews
- LLM Pulse · named 2 times by the Overviews
- Ranketta · named 2 times by the Overviews
- Trakkr · named once by the Overviews
- Alhena · named 3 times by the Overviews
- Evertune · named 2 times by the Overviews
- Wellows · named 2 times by the Overviews
- Cognizo · named once by the Overviews
- Siftly · not named by the Overviews
- Dageno · named 3 times by the Overviews
- Rankability · not named by the Overviews
- Omnia · named once by the Overviews
- KIME · not named by the Overviews
- RankPrompt · named once by the Overviews
One check before blaming any tracker for a missing Overview: make sure a Google-Extended warning has not led someone to block Googlebot. The Gemini post explains the difference.
Google sources, read on 1 November 2026: Generative AI performance report, AI features and your website and About Search Console.
How we measured this
These are buyer questions we track for our own product, Greater Than Services, in our own workspace. Each run puts every question to five engines, asking as a buyer in the United States. It ran four times, on 1, 2, 10 and 25 September 2026. 20 questions drew 391 answers.
- ChatGPT: OpenAI's GPT-4o with web search, through the API
- Claude: Claude Haiku 4.5 with web search, through the API
- Gemini: Gemini 2.5 Flash grounded in Google Search, through the API
- Perplexity: Sonar, which always searches the web
- Google AI Overviews: read from Google's own results page
Named means the tool appears in the answer's own words. The engines write their sources into the text as links, and a link to a vendor's blog is a source, not a recommendation, so links are removed before names are matched. Own site read means the tool's website was among the sources the engine cited for that answer. A tool named in the question itself is not counted for that question, because every answer repeats it.
Across all 20 questions, Google showed an AI Overview for 71 of the 80 searches, so the other 9 are not counted as answers. Answers move from week to week: asked the same question on the same engine at the next run, the engines named 54% of the same tools again.
The full method, the questions we left out, and the data as a CSV are on the main ranking.
Where Greater Than Services fits
Our own product, so read this as the vendor's description, not part of the measurement above.
Greater Than Services is a workspace per brand that puts your buyer questions to five AI engines every week, records which answers named you and what they cited instead, shows your Google rank beside each answer, and drafts the fixes. In the count above it was named in none of the 71 Overviews.
- If you need Google AI Overviews tracked, it reads each Overview off Google's live results page for your country, on every plan, Starter included.
- If you need searches with no Overview handled fairly, a search that shows none is left out of your score instead of counted against you, and the run records that it was empty.
- If you need what the Overview said and cited, it keeps the full text of each Overview and the sites it cited.
- If you need your ranking beside it, your Google rank for the same search sits next to each Overview.
- If you need Gemini as well, Growth and Agency add Claude, Perplexity and Gemini to ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
Plans start at $49 a month, billed yearly, for one brand on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews; Growth and Agency cover all five engines. The three-day trial is on one brand and needs a card.
Questions people ask
What does an AI Overview tracker do?
It searches Google for the questions you choose, as a searcher in your country, and records whether an AI Overview appeared, which brands it named and which sites it cited, every time it checks. Search Console counts impressions of your own pages in AI Overviews; a tracker shows who was named when you were not, and how that changes week to week.
Can I see AI Overviews in Google Search Console?
Yes. Search Console's generative AI performance report shows how often links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, as impressions. Google says it reached all websites on 31 August 2026; if you cannot see it, Google says the usual reason is too few impressions in those features. It covers your own pages; it does not show which other sites or brands an Overview named, or which searches it appeared on.
How do I track Google AI Overviews for free?
Use two free things together. Search Console's generative AI report shows which of your pages were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. A spreadsheet covers the rest: search the same 20 to 30 buyer questions every week from your buyers' country, and record whether an Overview appeared, the brands it named, the sites it cited and where you ranked.
Which tools track Google AI Overviews?
Of the 32 tools we checked, 29 name Google AI Overviews on their own site among what they track. When we asked Google's AI Overviews itself, it named Semrush, Profound and Otterly.AI most.
Which tools track both Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
Of the 29 tools whose sites name AI Overviews, 22 name AI Mode as well, by their own sites when we checked on 25 September 2026: Semrush, Otterly.AI, Profound, Peec AI, Ahrefs, Scrunch, AthenaHQ, SE Ranking, Rankscale, Surfer, GrackerAI, Goodie, LLMrefs, LLM Pulse, Ranketta, Evertune, Wellows, Cognizo, Dageno, Rankability, Omnia and RankPrompt. Google's free Search Console report counts your own pages in both, together.
Does blocking Google-Extended remove my site from AI Overviews?
No. Google-Extended governs whether your content can be used for Gemini and Vertex AI. AI Overviews are built from the Search index, which Googlebot crawls, so blocking Googlebot would remove you from Google Search, not fix anything.
How often should I check AI Overviews?
Weekly is enough to see a trend, and once is not. When the same question was searched again at the next run, the Overview named 53% of the same tools again.
Is Greater Than Services on this list?
Yes, in the table with every other tool: it was named in none of the 71 Overviews we counted. It is our own product. It reads Google AI Overviews off the live results page for your country on every plan, keeps each Overview's text and the sites it cited, and shows your Google rank for the same search.