AI Mode data has arrived in Google Search Console as of around June 13th onwards.
I went ahead and created an experiment that involved hundreds of SEOs searching for the same query in AI Mode to be confident that it is tracking as expected.
Within this article, you will learn about important dates as they relate to the AI Mode rollout for users in the US, Google’s explanation of how the data is recorded, along with details of the experiment I’ve conducted with key takeaways.
The introduction of AI Mode represents a major expansion of how users interact with Google Search, with the ‘All’ search results (that include all tabs) remaining the default, and there being a high likelihood that Google will migrate successful features from AI Mode within AI Overviews over time.
Rollout Timeline
The rollout timeline for AI Mode is quite important when assessing the impact. There are several key dates related to this rollout, with the most important date for tracking purposes being June 13th 2025.
March 7th 2025: AI Mode tab starts showing in labs and I was able to test it
May 20th 2025: official announcement that AI Mode will be coming to the US outside of labs
June 13th 2025: first sightings of AI Mode outside of labs in the US
June 16th 2025: official documentation is updated to reflect tracking changes
While AI Mode started showing within labs as far back as March, it was only confirmed to be rolling out to users more broadly outside of the closed beta on May 20th, with the rollout only effectively starting to show signs of being visible several weeks later on June 13th.
The June 17th date is the day that Google updated its documentation to make it clear that AI Mode is being tracked within Google Search Console, along with how tracking works.
How Tracking Works
Google has now updated two key pieces of documentation. The first being the ‘AI features’ documentation, which previously stated that AI Mode reporting was not yet live in Search Console, which has since been removed.
The other important change relates to the core documentation for impressions, position, and clicks in Search Console. There is now a separate section with a description for AI Mode as an expansive surface of AI Overviews, allowing the user to go deeper with their query.
When comparing AI Mode to a traditional search results page, the average position recording on desktop takes a sharp-left compared to a traditional SERP which is in a zig-zag formation.
It is important to note that AI Mode data (that is outside of labs) is grouped with ‘Web’ data within the performance report in Search Console. Clicks and impressions are measured the same as other features (when they are expanded when hidden for impressions to be recorded).
The ‘Position’ metric is likely the one that would be less conventional from a tracking standpoint. According to Google’s explanation, the AI Mode ‘position’ recording is similar to that of standard search results, but I imagine it will be a bit more complicated with how links can sometimes be represented.
Based on the insights from my experiment, the standard unit of links that displays on the top right is considered position 1, with all visible links taking on the same position. When it comes to embedded links below this position (which can sometimes happen), they would likely take on the 10-blue-links equivalent in sequential order of position.
For units such as the map pack or product grids that appear within AI Mode, I would expect that they would then come after if they are positioned as lower, with the example above showing the unit in position 3. The data would only start to be recorded for URLs within this unit if a user were to click on it.
The Experiment
When AI Overviews first launched in Search Console, I ran an experiment to show how the data was being represented. I’ve also done similar experiments in the past for Twitter carousels.
This time, the focus was on providing a link directly to an AI Mode search query through my posts on both Twitter and LinkedIn that generated over 20K impressions across both.
The time has come. Google's AI Mode is now showing outside of labs for the first time.
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) June 13, 2025
This means that not only is it showing more broadly for users, the data will now start to appear in Google Search Console (in the performance report).
Click this link: https://t.co/JqWG05cjG3… pic.twitter.com/6H01LuMvi3
There were, however, some major limitations for this test that resulted in far less data appearing in Search Console. A big part of this is that most of the total clicks (which were in the hundreds) will have been from either accounts that are outside of the US or are using an account that opted in to labs.
The other aspect is that it seems like Search Console excluded a lot of incognito data for users who were able to trigger AI Mode but had a VPN on. The end result was 3 clicks with 64 impressions and an average position of 1.1, which is extremely low but still confirms that the test proved that AI Mode is being tracked and the countries where AI Mode access is likely being enabled outside of labs.
Here's the final data from my AI Mode in GSC test. It's somewhat surprising how low clicks were, when the directions were to click the result – maybe tracking is still being configured. Can also see the countries where AI Mode is likely showing the most. https://t.co/EhNMB47xe9 pic.twitter.com/7lP6ukZOzH
— SERP Alert ⚡️ (@SERPalerts) June 18, 2025
It is also worth noting that the data that first spiked on June 14th, based on my Search Console performance report, did not show any data until the documentation change occurred on June 16th, with the data then being backlogged into the report from this date.
General Thoughts
Based on my experiment, I do believe that AI Mode data is now showing in Search Console. The earliest data where AI Mode data will be appearing is from around June 13th.
Google will continue to test new features within AI Mode that will become more visible over time, with the biggest challenge for SEOs being the ability to filter this data effectively within your reports.
AI Overviews have proven to deliver high impressions for sites with low clicks, with the rollout of AI Mode likely contributing to the overall industry data challenges.
The expectation is that the challenges will continue, but there is certainly still incredible opportunity out there when it comes to SEO more generally within certain sectors, especially for eCommerce.
