Google AI Mode and AI Overviews: how they work and how to show up

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Google AI Mode is the AI search tab that answers complex questions in a conversation, with links to websites. AI Overviews, on the other hand, are the summaries at the top of regular search results. Both cite pages from Google’s index, so this guide explains how a site can show up in Google AI Mode and AI Overviews.

What is Google AI Mode?

In Google Search, AI Mode is the experience for long questions, comparisons and conversations with follow-up questions. It appears as a tab on the results page and also in the Google app. The AI generates the answer and includes links to the websites it uses as support.

The feature arrived in Brazil on September 8, 2025, when Google Brasil began rolling it out in Portuguese. At the time, it used a custom version of Gemini 2.5. According to Google, early users asked questions two to three times longer than traditional searches.

Its reach is already large. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, opened Google I/O on May 19, 2026. He said Google AI Mode had passed 1 billion monthly active users, while AI Overviews have more than 2.5 billion. Both numbers are global.

What is the difference between Google AI Mode and AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are a summary that Google places at the top of regular search results, only when it judges it useful. In contrast, AI Mode is a separate tab that users choose to open for complex questions and conversation. The two can use different models and, as a result, tend to cite different sources.

According to Google’s “AI Features and Your Website” documentation, AI Overviews often don’t show up. They only appear when they add something to classic Search. In Portuguese, Google uses “Visão geral criada por IA” for the singular and “Visões gerais criadas por IA” for the plural.

Item	AI Overviews	AI Mode
Where it appears	At the top of regular search	In its own tab and in the app
When it appears	When Google judges it useful	When the user chooses it
Type of question	Quick summary of a topic	Comparisons and complex questions
In Brazil since	August 2024	September 2025
Monthly users (worldwide)	More than 2.5 billion	More than 1 billion

AI Overviews arrived in Brazil on August 15, 2024, according to the Google Brasil blog.

Since May 2026, Google has let users ask a follow-up question from an AI Overview and continue the conversation in AI Mode.

The difference shows especially in the sources. Ahrefs compared answers from both features for the same queries, using US data from September 2025. The answers had 86% semantic similarity, but only 13.7% of the cited URLs overlapped. Ahrefs sells an AI tracking tool and used its data. In other words, a citation in one feature does not guarantee a spot in the other.

How do Google AI Mode and AI Overviews choose their sources?

Both features start from the Search index. The model can split the question into several smaller searches. Then it retrieves pages through the ranking systems and writes the answer with links to the pages that support it. That is why the answer can cite a page even if it does not rank for the original question.

Google’s guide to generative AI in Search describes two techniques. The first is RAG, or grounding: the ranking systems fetch relevant, up-to-date pages from the index.

The second is query fan-out, which Google’s official Portuguese translation calls “desdobramento de consulta”. That is, the model generates a set of concurrent, related queries to fetch more results. For example, Google’s guide uses the query “how to fix a lawn that’s full of weeds”. The fan-out queries include “best herbicides for lawns” and “how to prevent weeds in lawn”. So each fan-out query is an entry point for a citation.

In March 2026, Ahrefs found only about 38% of the pages cited in AI Overviews among the top 10 results for the same search. In July 2025, however, it was about 76%. Ahrefs changed its method between the two studies, so the comparison is approximate. According to Ahrefs, the data suggests that AI Overviews pull more sources from fan-out queries. To compare with other assistants, see how each AI engine chooses what to cite. Outside Google, the path changes: see how to show up in ChatGPT.

What does Google’s official guide say about generative AI in Search?

In July 2026, Google updated its guide, titled “Google’s Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search”. In short, Google’s position is that optimizing for AI search is still SEO. That is, there is no special technical trick: what matters is useful, original content on a page that Google can crawl and index.

Also, the SEO and AI guide shows what changes in each area of SEO, from crawling to measurement.

What Google asks for

• Non-commodity content. The guide especially asks for your own point of view and first-hand experience. And it warns: “Don’t just recycle what others on the internet have already said, or could easily be produced by a generative AI model.”
• Organization for the reader. For example, paragraphs, sections and headings that make the page easy to navigate.
• Quality images and videos. That is because AI features can show this kind of content.
• Technical basics. A crawlable, indexed page that is eligible for a snippet, a good experience on any device and less duplicate content.
• Business and product data. Merchant Center and Google Business Profile help products and local businesses appear in AI answers.

What Google says to ignore

• llms.txt and special markup. Search does not use these files, so creating one “will neither harm nor help”.
• Special schema. Generative AI does not require structured data, and there is no special schema.org markup. Still, it remains useful for rich results.
• Chunking content. There is no need to split text into small pieces. According to Google, there is no ideal page length.
• Rewriting for AI. The systems understand synonyms, so there is no need to cover every keyword variation.
• Inauthentic mentions. AI features show what people say about the brand on blogs, videos and forums. But forcing mentions helps less than it seems.

Should you create a page for each fan-out question?

Not if the goal is to manipulate search. Creating separate content for every search variation, including fan-out queries, can violate the scaled content abuse policy. According to Google’s guide, this happens when the main goal is to manipulate rankings or AI answers. Instead, the way forward is to answer the subquestions on useful pages.

Google’s spam policy defines scaled content abuse as generating many pages to manipulate rankings rather than to help users. One of the examples is using generative AI to produce pages without adding value. The guide adds that “a high quantity of pages doesn’t make a website higher quality”.

In practice, then, answer the main subquestions on the page that already covers the topic.

What is the Search generative AI control in Google Search Console?

It is a Google Search Console setting that decides whether AI Overviews, AI Mode and the generative AI features in Discover can show the site. It is under Settings, in the Search generative AI option. The default is to include the site, but sites that opt out stop receiving impressions and traffic from these features.

The July 2026 guide treats the control as a requirement. In addition to indexing and snippet eligibility, the site needs inclusion in Search generative AI features in Search Console. Because the default is to include, most sites don’t need to change anything. It is worth checking for clients with several properties, because a child property inherits the choice of its parent property.

According to Search Console Help, exclusion usually takes a few days. Google mentions 1 to 2 days after the control goes live, but some content may take longer. Also, Google does not use the control as a ranking signal in the rest of Search, and it does not affect AI training. To remove a page from Search entirely, you still use noindex.

The Gemini app follows a different rule: there, the Google-Extended token controls whether Gemini can use content to ground answers. Learn how Gemini uses Google Search.

Google began testing the control on June 3, 2026, with some sites in the UK. Finally, on August 31, 2026, the option reached all websites worldwide.

Does appearing in Google AI Mode and AI Overviews bring or take away clicks?

Studies from 2025 show fewer clicks when an AI summary appears. In the US, for example, searches without a summary got almost twice as many clicks on traditional results. Cited brands lose fewer clicks, but Seer warns that this may reflect brand strength rather than the citation. In 2026, however, Seer saw a partial recovery. Google also disputes studies of this kind.

In August 2025, Liz Reid wrote that third-party reports of dramatic declines often use flawed methods.

“Overall, total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year.”

Liz Reid, VP, Head of Google Search (2025)

What do the 2025 and 2026 studies show?

The Pew Research Center tracked the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. When an AI summary was on the page, a click on a traditional result happened in 8% of visits, versus 15% without a summary. Also, a click on a link inside the summary itself happened in only 1% of visits.

Seer Interactive, a search marketing agency, analyzed 3,119 informational queries from 42 clients, from June 2024 to September 2025. On queries with an AI Overview, organic CTR fell 61%. On queries without a summary, it fell 41%, a sign of causes other than AI Overviews. Brands cited in the summary had 35% higher organic CTR than those not cited. But Seer itself says it cannot prove that the citation is the cause.

In its April 2026 update, Seer changed the method and expanded the sample to 53 brands. With an AI Overview, organic CTR rose from 1.3% in December 2025 to 2.4% in February 2026. Cited brands got 120% more clicks per impression than uncited brands. Even so, they were 38% below informational searches without a summary. As in 2025, this is still correlation, not causation.

What about Brazil?

In Brazil, Conversion, an SEO agency, replicated the method of an Ahrefs study in 2025 on two web portals that are not its clients. Between March 2024 and March 2025, the drop in clicks for keywords in the first position was 31.47% on globo.com and 35.42% on UOL. However, the sample has only two informational content sites. The agency also suggests the impact may be smaller in ecommerce.

How can a site show up in Google AI Mode?

Showing up in Google AI Mode and AI Overviews follows the order of SEO. First come access and indexing, then answers to the question and its subquestions, and finally reputation off the site. The steps below combine the official guide with SEO practices and apply to both features, since both start from the Search index.

Steps to show up in Google AI Mode and AI Overviews

1. Check indexing and snippets. Review robots.txt, CDN blocks, noindex and nosnippet on the pages that matter. On sites built with JavaScript, also check what Googlebot renders with SSR and CSR.
2. Check the control in Search Console. Under Settings, confirm that the Search generative AI option includes the site, on child properties too.
3. Map the subquestions. For each important query, list the likely fan-out queries: price, comparison, use, risks and alternatives.
4. Answer at the start of each section. One H2 per question, the direct answer right below it and the detail after.
5. Bring what only the brand has. Its own data, a test, a client case or an expert’s opinion. After all, this is the non-commodity content the guide asks for.
6. Use your own images and videos when they help explain the topic.
7. Update Merchant Center and Google Business Profile if the client sells products or has a physical address. See how products get into AI Mode shopping answers. For clinics, stores and restaurants, see local recommendations in Google’s AI answers.
8. Build authentic mentions. According to Google, third-party blogs, videos and forums can appear in AI answers. However, forced mentions help less than they seem to. The guide on which third-party sources AI cites covers what you can do in forums and reviews.
9. Measure. Track impressions in the Search Console generative AI performance report and repeat the same prompts every month. In GA4, these clicks count as Organic Search, according to the guide to AI traffic in GA4.

Can anyone guarantee a spot in Google AI Mode?

No. According to the guide, no third-party tool has access to Google’s internal ranking or AI systems. So be wary of anyone who promises a guaranteed position.

What we found when we analyzed Portuguese-language guides on the topic

We ran searches on how to show up in Google AI Mode and AI Overviews and analyzed 9 Portuguese-language pages on the topic. Four explain that Google splits the question into subqueries, but none includes Google’s warning about scaled content abuse.

Also, only one page mentions the Search generative AI control in Search Console, and only one mentions the Generative AI performance report. One still recommends creating an llms.txt file, which Google says it ignores. Seven of the nine came out before the July 2026 guide, and four of them date from 2024 or 2025.

Frequently asked questions

Main sources

• Google Search Central, Google’s Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search (2026).
• Google Search Central, AI Features and Your Website (2025).
• Search Console Help, Search generative AI control (2026).
• Pew Research Center, clicks on searches with an AI summary (2025).
• Seer Interactive, impact of AI Overviews on CTR, April update (2026).
• Ahrefs, comparison between AI Mode and AI Overviews (2025).