What is Google's AI Overviews?

If you search Google for a question with some nuance and, before the first result, a written-out text appears with a row of links beside it, that is AI Overviews. It is not AI Mode, which is a separate tab with its own conversation, nor an ad, nor a classic featured snippet. It matters to a store for a reason that is easy to see: the shopper's question can be answered above your first organic result, and the links in that summary are a new place where your page can show up or not.

How it works

AI Overviews started as an experiment. In May 2023 Google opened SGE (Search Generative Experience) in Search Labs, which showed an AI-generated snapshot of key information for complex questions, with links to dig deeper, at first only in the United States and in English.⁠^{[1]Google, The Keyword (Elizabeth Reid, May 10, 2023). How Google is improving Search with Generative AI} On May 14, 2024 Google began rolling out AI Overviews to everyone in the United States, said people had already used it billions of times in Search Labs, and expected to reach more than a billion people by the end of that year. It credited a Gemini model customized for Search.⁠^{[2]Google, The Keyword (Elizabeth Reid, May 14, 2024). Google I/O 2024: New generative AI experiences in Search}

It reached Europe on March 26, 2025, starting with Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, with English among the languages, for signed-in people over 18.⁠^{[3]Google, Google Spain blog (March 26, 2025). La Vista creada con IA en la Búsqueda llega a Europa} In May 2025 Google said that in markets like the United States and India, AI Overviews had grown Google usage by more than 10% for the types of queries that show it.⁠^{[4]Google, The Keyword (Elizabeth Reid, May 20, 2025). AI Mode in Google Search: Updates from Google I/O 2025}

Under the hood, the summary comes from Google's index. The technique Google describes is retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which it also calls grounding: its usual ranking systems pull relevant, up-to-date pages from the index, the system reviews the specific information on those pages and writes the answer, showing links to the ones that back it up.⁠^{[5]Google Search Central. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search} It can also use query fan-out, running several related searches on subtopics, which is why it shows a broader and more varied set of links than a classic search.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website}

What surprises people most the first time they measure it is that it is not always there. Google says AI Overviews appears only when its systems think it adds something to the classic search, and that it often does not trigger.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website} The same question, phrased two ways, may bring it up or not.

What a page needs to appear

Google does not ask for anything special. There are no additional requirements or particular optimizations for appearing in AI Overviews: the page has to meet Search's technical requirements, be indexed and be eligible to show with a snippet.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website} Its guide to optimizing for generative AI features adds one condition: the site has to be included in the generative AI features in Search, set up from Search Console.⁠^{[5]Google Search Central. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search}

To limit what AI Overviews takes from your pages, you use the same controls as for any snippet: nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet or noindex.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website} If you sell products, the route Google points to is Google Merchant Center: its feeds help make your products visible in AI answers and in the rest of Search.⁠^{[5]Google Search Central. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search} And you do not need to write a page for every way of asking: Google warns that creating separate content for each variant of a search, especially to manipulate its AI answers, violates its policy against scaled content abuse.⁠^{[5]Google Search Central. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search}

On clicks, Google makes two claims: in 2024 it said links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing,⁠^{[2]Google, The Keyword (Elizabeth Reid, May 14, 2024). Google I/O 2024: New generative AI experiences in Search} and its current documentation says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, because people spend more time on the site.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website} Those are Google's statements about its searches as a whole, not a forecast for your store.

In a store

A fictional example. Someone searches google.com for "stainless steel vs cast iron skillet for induction." The results page can bring three things stacked on top of each other, and it helps to note them separately:

A skillet product page can show up in the third row and not in the second, or the other way around. For a question like this, what tends to be cited is the page that explains the difference with data (the material, the thickness of the base, induction compatibility), and that data has to be in the text of the page.

How to check

1. Search google.com for the question your customer would ask, without your brand, with a signed-in account. Note whether the AI Overview appears, which links it carries and in what order, with date and time.⁠^{[3]Google, Google Spain blog (March 26, 2025). La Vista creada con IA en la Búsqueda llega a Europa}
2. Inspect in Search Console a page that should appear: confirm it is indexed and that nothing stops it from showing a snippet.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website}
3. Check that the site is included in the generative AI features of Search, in the Search Console settings.⁠^{[5]Google Search Central. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search}
4. Open the generative AI performance report. It counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date. It has been available to all sites since August 31, 2026, only appears if your site adds up enough impressions, and does not include Search Labs experiments.⁠^{[7]Search Console Help. Generative AI performance report (Search)}
5. Look at the code of your templates for nosnippet, data-nosnippet or a very low max-snippet: they cut down what AI Overviews can use.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website}

Related concept: Google AI Mode

Both are Google's, come from the same index and can use query fan-out, but they are not the same thing. AI Overviews is a summary inside the normal results page, which appears only when Google thinks it adds something.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website} AI Mode is a separate experience you choose to enter, with follow-up questions. Google warns that they may use different models and techniques, so the answers and the links they show vary.⁠^{[6]Google Search Central. AI features and your website} Search Console counts both in the same report,⁠^{[7]Search Console Help. Generative AI performance report (Search)} which is why you have to check them separately.

For the general framework, see the entry on AI search, and for the rest of the vocabulary, the AI search reading path.