AI performance report
AI visibility / AI citations report / Generative AI performance report / generative engine optimization reporting / how do we rank in AI
An AI performance report shows how often AI search features show or cite your site. Google's version counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Bing's counts citations and states its numbers do not indicate ranking, authority or placement. Neither publishes a position inside an AI answer.
The two engines count different things, and knowing which you are looking at decides what the number can mean.
Google now breaks out impressions. Its Generative AI performance report in Search Console, rolled out to all websites worldwide as of August 31, 2026, shows organic impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode. It groups them by page, country, device and date. An impression there means a link to your site was shown in one of those features.
Clicks are a separate matter. Google's AI features documentation still says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console. The new report's help page describes impressions only, so a click from an AI answer is still counted inside the ordinary Performance report, alongside every other search click.
Bing built the dashboard instead. AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools shows total citations, the average number of unique pages from your site cited per day, the grounding queries the AI used when retrieving your content, citation counts for individual URLs, and a timeline of all of it.
Then Bing spends the rest of the page saying what the numbers are not. Total citations highlight how often content is referenced without indicating placement or presentation within a specific answer. Average cited pages does not indicate ranking, authority, or the role of any page within an individual answer. Page-level activity reflects how often pages are cited, not page importance, ranking, or placement. The grounding query data is described as a sample. Bing calls the release an early step toward generative engine optimization tooling, which is a fair description of how early this is.
Put the two together and the same conclusion falls out of both. Neither engine publishes a rank for AI answers. Google counts how often a link to you was shown, and Bing counts how often a page was cited and says the count carries no position.
In practice
When a report arrives with an AI visibility score on it, the first question is which platform produced the underlying number. Google's report counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Bing's counts citations, and its documentation says three separate times that the figure is not a ranking. A score built on top of either is somebody's construction, and it is worth knowing whose.
Not the same as
- Average position
- That describes placement among ordinary results. Neither platform reports a position inside an AI answer.
- Impressions
- A Bing citation means your page was listed as a source. A Google impression means a link to your site was shown. Neither means a person clicked.
Why it matters to you
Being cited by an AI answer is now part of being found, and the reporting for it is behind the sales pitch. The platforms have published what they can and cannot measure, and it is less than the market is currently selling. Knowing the limits lets you ask for the raw figure rather than the score built on it.
What to ask or check
- 01Which platform produced this number, and what does that platform's own documentation call it?
- 02If the figure is from Google, is it impressions from the Generative AI performance report, and where did any click figure come from?
- 03Is a citation count being presented as a ranking?
What people get wrong
That somebody can report your AI ranking. Google's Generative AI performance report counts impressions, and Bing states that its citation figures do not indicate ranking, authority or placement.
Red flags
- An AI visibility score with no named source metric underneath it.
- A Google AI click figure presented as coming from the Generative AI performance report, whose help page describes impressions.
- A citation count described as a position or a rank.
Who owns it
The platforms define these figures and both are new. Google finished rolling its report out to all websites on August 31, 2026, and Bing describes its own release as a public preview and an early step, which is worth quoting back at anyone presenting the numbers as settled.
Where you will see it
In Search Console under the Generative AI performance report, in Bing Webmaster Tools under AI Performance, and in whatever your agency puts on the AI slide of a monthly report.