Short answer: As of August 31, 2026, every verified Search Console property can manage Search Console generative AI control under Settings → Search generative AI (Include, Exclude, or Inherit from parent) and read generative AI impressions in the Generative AI performance report. Include is the default and keeps your links eligible for AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover generative AI. Exclude removes your content from those features (no impressions or traffic from them) without acting as a ranking signal elsewhere — and it is not the same as Google-Extended or noindex.
This is the ops and measurement playbook, not another product-news recap. Last week we covered inline-link prominence in AI Mode, Preferred Sources, and how to earn retrieval citations. Today is about the two Search Console surfaces publishers actually click: the control that decides eligibility, and the report that shows whether that decision is showing up in impressions.
What rolled out globally on August 31, 2026
Google’s blog post on new controls for website owners introduced the Search generative AI control and generative AI performance insights during a UK test earlier in 2026. The same post was updated when the rollout finished worldwide on August 31, 2026. Official Help Center pages now state the same cutoff for both the Search generative AI control and the Generative AI performance report.
Scale context from Google’s ecosystem update: AI Overviews has over 2.5 billion monthly active users, and AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users. That is why a single Include/Exclude toggle matters operationally — generative features are no longer a niche lab experiment.
Eligibility checklist before you touch the toggle
Google’s official guide to optimizing for generative AI features is explicit: meeting technical requirements does not guarantee indexing or serving, and generative AI eligibility stacks on top of classic Search eligibility. For a page to be eligible to appear in generative AI features on Google Search, it must be:
- Indexed and able to appear in Google Search with a snippet (Search technical requirements).
- Included in Search generative AI features via the Search Console control (Include, or Inherit that resolves to Include).
Our plain-language summary of that document lives here: Google’s official guide to AI search optimization (2026). Pair it with crawl policy work in robots.txt for AI crawlers — Googlebot remains mandatory for Google AI features; Google-Extended is a separate training-control lever.
Where to find Search generative AI control
In Search Console, open the property → Settings → Search generative AI. Google lists the features this control currently covers:
- AI Overviews
- AI Mode
- Generative AI features in Google Discover
Google says it expects to update that list as Search evolves. Treat the Help Center page as source of truth when the product UI and blog copy diverge.
Include vs Exclude vs Inherit
Use this table as the decision sheet for owners and agencies that manage domain plus URL-prefix properties.
| Choice | What it does | Traffic / impressions from AI features | Default? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Include my site’s links and content | Content can appear as links and help ground AI responses in covered generative AI features | Eligible to receive impressions and traffic | Yes — default for all properties |
| Exclude my site’s links and content | Content is prevented from being visible (linked or used for grounding) in covered features | None from those features | Manual opt-out |
| Inherit control from parent | Follows the closest parent property that stopped inheriting; otherwise top-level domain | Same as the resolved parent value | Default when a parent property exists |
What Exclude does — and what it does not
Per Google’s control documentation:
- Does: Stop your links and content from appearing in the listed Search generative AI features; content from other sites can still appear and may look similar; crawled content from your site is not eligible as input to generate an AI response or preview in those features.
- Does not: Act as a ranking or inclusion signal for other parts of Search; override Merchant Center or Google Ads choices; stop your content from powering Search as a whole (for example, helping systems understand language); affect AI training.
Google’s own differentiation:
- Google-Extended — limit training of the models used to generate responses in Search generative AI features.
- noindex — block content from appearing in Google Search completely.
- Search generative AI control Exclude — only the listed generative AI presentation / grounding surfaces.
Propagation: after you change the control, exclusion generally takes a few days. Google says content will be excluded within about 1–2 days after the control goes live, but caching and system propagation can leave some content visible longer.
Inheritance for domain, subdomain, and URL-prefix properties
By default, a child property inherits from its closest parent that manually stopped inheriting. If no parent manually configured the control, the child inherits the top-level domain property’s setting. Owners of a child property can override at any time; top-level domain owners see a notification when a child overrides the parent.
Practical ops tip: if your agency verifies both example.com (domain) and https://www.example.com/ (URL-prefix), document which property owns the intentional Include/Exclude decision so nobody “inherits” a surprise exclude after a re-verification.
Generative AI performance report: what to measure
Open Performance → Generative AI performance (Search). As of the global rollout, the report covers impressions for:
- AI Overviews
- AI Mode
Discover generative AI has a separate Discover-oriented generative AI performance report. Search Labs experiments are excluded while still in active development.
You can group the table by Pages, Countries, Dates (Pacific Time), or Devices (desktop / tablet / mobile), and filter Web: text-based vs Web: multimodal (Lens, Circle to Search, uploaded images, Chrome image search). An impression here means how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature.
Chart aggregation is by property (two results from your site in one feature still count as one impression on the chart total). Page-dimension tables aggregate by page. Chart vs table totals can diverge for that reason — same troubleshooting mindset as classic Search performance reports. Newest points can be preliminary (dotted line). Export is available; ~ and – become zeros in downloads.
If the report is empty, Google’s usual explanation is not enough generative AI impressions — which can also happen if you Excluded the site. Confirm Include before you panic about “zero AI visibility.”
Ops playbook: decide Include vs Exclude with data
Most publishers who want traffic should leave Include on and improve content quality, structure, and retrieval match. Use Exclude only when leadership consciously accepts zero generative AI traffic from Google’s listed features.
1. Confirm Include on the property that owns the decision
Settings → Search generative AI → Include (or Inherit resolving to Include). Log the property URL and who changed it.
2. Baseline the Generative AI performance report
Export 28 days of Pages + Countries + Devices. Note top URLs by generative AI impressions — these are your citation candidates, not necessarily your classic top organic pages.
3. Align those URLs with retrieval and fan-out work
Refresh titles and openings so they answer the questions that drive AI Mode / Overviews. Deep dives: get cited in AI search retrieval and the cluster map in the only GEO guide you’ll ever need.
4. Connect Search Console impressions to GA4 sessions
Impressions in GSC generative AI are not the same as clicks or engaged sessions. Wire referral logging with track AI referral traffic in GA4 (2026) so you can tell whether Prefer / Include is paying in visits.
5. Re-check Preferred Sources and link surfaces separately
Preferred Sources enrollment and UI prominence (inline links, carousels) are product surfaces on top of eligibility. See Preferred Sources walkthrough and inline links publisher checklist.
6. Only then consider Exclude for edge cases
Examples where Exclude may be intentional: legal / compliance teams that forbid generative summarization of specific properties; staging or soft-launch properties verified in GSC; experimental microsites where you do not want AI grounding. Document the business reason — Exclude is blunt.
Worked example: a WordPress docs property
You run docs.example.com as a verified URL-prefix under domain example.com. Marketing wants AI Mode citations; legal wants the marketing blog included but is nervous about unfinished API docs leaking into Overviews.
Better pattern than a blanket Exclude on the domain: keep Include on the domain and marketing properties; if needed, set Exclude only on the unfinished docs child property while docs stabilize, then flip that child back to Include or Inherit. Measure generative AI impressions on the marketing URLs weekly. That preserves eligibility where you want traffic without treating Exclude as a ranking “hack.”
Myths to skip
- “Exclude will boost classic blue-link rankings.” Google says the control is not a ranking signal outside generative AI features.
- “Exclude = Google-Extended.” Different levers: presentation/grounding vs model training.
- “Empty Generative AI report means Google hates my site.” Often means low generative impressions or an accidental Exclude / Inherit-to-Exclude.
- “llms.txt or special schema is required for Include.” Google’s AI optimization guide still says those are not required for Google Search generative features.
30-day measurement plan
- Week 1: Screenshot Settings → Search generative AI for every verified property. Resolve accidental Excludes. Export a Generative AI performance baseline.
- Week 2: Take the top 10 generative AI impression URLs and refresh answer-first intros + entities. Confirm Googlebot is allowed.
- Week 3: Compare GSC generative AI impressions with GA4 AI/Search referral sessions. Fix tracking gaps first.
- Week 4: Re-export the report. Keep Include unless you have a written compliance reason to Exclude. Pitch one mid-size vertical site with a related evergreen (not a farm).
FAQ: Search Console generative AI control (2026)
Where is Search Console generative AI control?
Open your property in Search Console, go to Settings, then Search generative AI. Choose Include, Exclude, or Inherit from parent. The control applies to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Google Discover (list may expand).
Does Exclude hurt my regular Google rankings?
Google states that this control is not used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search. Exclude removes you from the listed generative AI features only; use noindex if you need to leave Search entirely.
How is Exclude different from Google-Extended?
Exclude stops your content from appearing in and grounding Search generative AI features. Google-Extended is the lever Google documents for limiting training of the models used to generate those responses. They solve different problems.
Why is my Generative AI performance report empty?
Usually your site has not received enough impressions in AI Overviews / AI Mode, or you Excluded the property. Confirm Include, wait for enough traffic, and remember Search Labs experiments are not included.
Do I need special markup to stay Included?
No. Stay indexed and snippet-eligible, keep the Search generative AI control on Include, and follow foundational SEO — unique non-commodity content, clear structure, crawlability. Google’s official AI optimization guide rejects mandatory llms.txt and “AI-only” chunking hacks.
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