How to check if your site is cited in Google AI Overviews

To see whether Google's AI Overview cites your site, search the question your customer asks, in a private window, from the country they search from. If an AI Overview shows, open its links and look for your pages. Google also counts how often links to your site appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, in Search Console's generative AI report, but it doesn't say for which searches.

This guide covers the check by hand, what Search Console can and can't tell you, the tools that repeat the check for you, and why an AI Overview often doesn't show at all. For ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, see how to check if ChatGPT mentions your brand, and for the pages ChatGPT cites, how to see which sources ChatGPT cites.

Check by hand in Google Search

Open a private window

Use an incognito or private window, signed out of Google, so your own searches and visits don't shape the results. You want what a stranger sees, not what Google has learned about you.

Search the customer's question, not your brand

Type what someone types before they've heard of you: "how long does a dental implant take to heal", not your clinic's name. Use their words: a different wording is a different search, and can get a different answer, or none. A search in another language gets its own AI Overview, so search in theirs.

Check the location Google used

Google estimates your location from your device, your IP address, and past activity, and its help page says "you can find out how your location was estimated at the bottom of the results page." Scroll down and read it. If your customers are in another country, search from a connection there, or ask someone there to search for you. AI Overviews are offered only in the countries and languages Google lists on its help page.

Find your site in the AI Overview's links

An AI Overview shows "links to web resources that support the information." If it's cut short, expand it, then go through every link, beside the text and under it. Note two things apart: whether the text names your brand, and whether one of the links goes to your site. A link is a citation; a name without a link sends no one to you.

Write it down and search again next week

Note the date, the question, the location, whether an AI Overview showed, whether it named you, whether it linked you, and which sites it linked instead. Answers change from day to day, so one search is a sample, not a score. Search the same questions again each week, and after you publish or change a page.

When no AI Overview shows

No AI Overview is a common result, not a fault on your side. Google says "AI Overviews are only shown when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger." Before you decide there's none for your question, check these:

• The country and language. AI Overviews are available only in the countries, territories, and languages listed on Google's help page.
• The Web filter. Google's help says the Web filter "displays only text-based links without features like AI Overviews." If you're on it, go back to All.
• The wording. Search the question the way a customer asks it. Another wording is another search, with its own result.

When an AI Overview shows but never links to your site, check that Google can use your page at all:

• Indexed, with a snippet. Google says that to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet." A noindex, nosnippet, data-nosnippet, or a short max-snippet keeps a page or part of it out. Search Console's URL Inspection shows whether a page is indexed.
• Included in generative AI features. Google's AI optimization guide says "a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to be eligible for display in generative AI features on Google Search."

What Search Console shows, and what it doesn't

Search Console has two places where AI Overviews count:

• The Generative AI performance report. Google says "As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide." It counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, which Google defines as "how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search." You can group them by page, country, date, or device. If the report is missing, Google says it "usually happens when your site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features."
• The Performance report. AI Overview clicks and impressions are part of the "Web" search type, mixed in with the rest of Google Search. Google counts "Clicking a link to an external page in the AI Overview" as a click, and says "An AI Overview occupies a single position in search results, and all links in the AI Overview are assigned that same position."

So Search Console tells you whether AI Overviews and AI Mode are sending you impressions, and on which pages. It can't tell you which questions they answered with a competitor's link instead of yours. For that, you check the questions themselves, by hand or with a tool.

Tools that check AI Overview citations

Convika's free checker

The AI visibility checker asks one question on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, with no sign-up. English questions are asked from the US and Japanese ones from Japan. For each AI, it shows whether the answer named your brand and whether it linked to your site. When Google shows no AI Overview for that search, the result says "No AI Overview for this question". The full answers, and the sites they linked instead, open with a free account.

Convika's AI answer check

The paid check keeps your questions and asks the same 4 AIs when you or your AI client run it, from the dashboard's AI & search screen or from Claude Code over MCP. One check is one question answered by one AI. A search that gets no AI Overview is given back, so you pay only for the answers you get. For each question, the screen shows how many answers named you, whether they linked to your site, and the links they cited instead.

Semrush Position Tracking

Semrush tracks your keywords daily, and its help center says tracking on Google and AI Overviews is "Available with any free or paid Semrush plan". In a Position Tracking campaign, open the "Overview" tab, use the "SERP features" filter, and select "AI Overviews" to see the keywords that triggered an AI Overview with your domain as a source. When your domain is cited, "Position Tracking records this as a #1 ranking—regardless of where your page actually ranks in the regular organic results below." Organic Research shows, for any domain, how many keywords cite it in AI Overviews.

Ahrefs Site Explorer

Ahrefs' guide to tracking AI Overviews uses two reports. In Site Explorer, the "AI citations" module lists "every AI Overview keyword you've claimed so far". In the Organic Keywords report, a "SERP features > Current > Include target in > AI Overview" filter shows your AI Overview keywords and citations in one view. Both need a paid Ahrefs plan, from Lite at $129 a month.

Daily AI visibility trackers

Otterly.AI, Peec AI, and others ask AI Overviews your prompts every day, alongside ChatGPT and the rest. AI visibility tools compared sets out their prices and AIs.

When your page isn't in the AI Overview

The steps in what to do when ChatGPT doesn't name you apply to Google too: let the crawler read your page, answer the exact question in the first lines, and get onto the sites the answer linked instead. Two points are Google's own:

1. Check that the page is indexed. A page that isn't in Google's index can't be a supporting link. Use URL Inspection, and request indexing after you publish or change it.
2. Wait for the recrawl before you check again. Google says crawling "can take anywhere from several days to several months, depending on how often our systems determine a page needs to be refreshed."

For a software product, how to get your SaaS recommended by ChatGPT and Perplexity has the steps for ChatGPT and Perplexity too.

If there's no page that answers the question, make one. On Convika, Make a page that answers this on the AI & search screen makes the page for that question, and Convika hosts it on your own domain.

Which way to check fits you

• Search Console for every site, free: whether AI Overviews and AI Mode show your links at all, and on which pages.
• By hand for a few questions, once a week.
• Convika's free checker to see one question on AI Overviews and 3 other AIs at once, with no sign-up.
• Semrush or Ahrefs if you already pay for one and track keywords there.
• Convika MAX to check many questions and publish a page that answers each one the AIs don't name you for, with questions that ask the same thing sharing one page: 3,500 checks a month for $49. Pro includes 100 checks for $12 a month, and packs add checks on any plan, from 100 for $3.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my website is cited in Google AI Overviews?

Search your customer's question on Google in a private window, signed out, and open the AI Overview's links. If one of them goes to your site, you're cited for that search. For your whole site, Search Console's generative AI report counts how often links to your pages showed in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Does Google Search Console show AI Overview data?

Yes. The Generative AI performance report, rolled out to all websites on August 31, 2026, counts impressions of your links in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country, date, and device. AI Overview clicks are counted in the regular Performance report, within the Web search type, mixed in with the rest of Search.

Can I see which searches show my site in AI Overviews?

Not in Search Console: the generative AI report groups impressions by page, country, date, and device, not by search. Check your questions by hand or with a checker, or use Semrush Position Tracking's "AI Overviews" filter or Ahrefs' "AI citations" module for the keywords they track.

Why don't I see an AI Overview for my search?

Google shows one only when it decides it adds to the regular results, and says AI Overviews "often don't trigger." They're also offered only in some countries and languages, and the Web filter hides them. Try the question as a customer would phrase it, from their country.

Is a citation in an AI Overview the same as ranking first?

In Search Console, all links in an AI Overview share one position, the AI Overview's. Semrush Position Tracking records a citation as a #1 ranking, whatever your organic position below it. Either way, your page can be cited while it ranks far lower in the regular results.

How do I check AI Overviews for another country?

Search from a connection in that country and read the location line at the bottom of the results, where Google shows how it estimated your location. Convika's free checker asks English questions from the US and Japanese questions from Japan.

Is there a free AI Overview checker?

Yes. Convika's AI visibility checker asks one question on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, with no sign-up, and shows whether each answer named and linked your site. Semrush says its tracking on Google and AI Overviews is available on any free or paid plan.

How do I get my site cited in AI Overviews?

Make sure the page is indexed and can show a snippet, then answer the question plainly in its first lines. Google says a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet" and that there are "no additional technical requirements." Check again after Google has recrawled it.

Sources

Each page was read on November 8, 2026, Japan time:

• Google Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (10:51) and How performance data is counted (10:57)
• Google Search Central: AI features and your website (10:51) and AI optimization guide (10:56)
• Google Search Help: AI Overviews (10:51) and How Google determines your location (10:57)
• Semrush: SERP Features: AI Overview (10:56) and AI visibility features (10:56)
• Ahrefs: How to track AI Overviews, dated January 26, 2026 (10:56), and Pricing, in US dollars (10:51)