Can Google Search Console tell me my AI Overview click loss directly?

No, not on its own. The main Search performance report gives clicks, impressions, and CTR by query and page, but it does not flag which impressions had an AI Overview above them. The separate Generative AI performance report shows which of your pages appeared in AI features, but it is impressions-only, with no clicks or CTR. So estimating click loss means combining the two reports with an outside signal for which queries trigger an AI Overview, then interpreting the trend, rather than reading a single number.

What is a reasonable benchmark for AI Overview click loss?

For position-one informational queries, Ahrefs measured an isolated click-through-rate drop of about 34.5% using March 2025 data, widening to up to 58% in its 2026 update using December 2025 data. Use that roughly one-third-to-one-half range as a sanity check on your own estimate, not as your answer. Your real figure depends on how many of your queries are informational (where AI Overviews concentrate) and whether you are cited inside the overview, which recovers some clicks.

Should I try to remove my pages from AI Overviews to protect clicks?

Generally no. You cannot reliably opt a page out of AI Overviews without also harming its normal search visibility, and disappearing from the answer usually costs more than the clicks it saves. The better move is to compete to be the source cited inside the overview, since Seer Interactive found cited pages earned about 35% more organic clicks than uncited ones on the same AI-Overview results page. Optimise to be named, not to hide.

How to estimate what AI Overviews cost you in clicks

The public AI Overview click-loss figures, an isolated drop of roughly 34.5% to 58% for the top result, are network-wide averages, and your site can sit far from them. Estimating your own number takes three inputs you can mostly assemble for free: your click and CTR trend from Google Search Console, a signal for which of your queries trigger an AI Overview, and the public benchmark to sanity-check the result. Below is an honest method, in five steps, that names what it can and cannot prove.

Step 1: Segment your informational queries in Search Console

Start where the click loss concentrates. Ahrefs found about 99.2% of AI-Overview keywords are informational, so open the Search Console Search performance report and isolate your informational, question-style queries (how, what, why, best way to, and topic-explainer terms) from your branded and transactional ones. Export clicks, impressions, and average CTR for that informational segment over at least the last 12 months. This segment is where an AI Overview is most likely to sit above you and skim the click.

Step 2: Identify which of those queries trigger an AI Overview

Search Console will not tell you this directly, so bring an outside signal. Three practical options, roughly in order of rigour:

Method	How it works	Limitation
Rank tracker with an AI-Overview flag	Many trackers mark which tracked keywords show an AI Overview	Costs money; covers only tracked terms
Generative AI performance report	Confirms which of your pages appear in AI features	Impressions-only; no query, no CTR
Manual SERP checks	Spot-check your top informational queries by hand	Slow; a point-in-time snapshot

Combine what you have: a tracker flag tells you an AI Overview appears, and the Generative AI performance report confirms whether your page is being surfaced in AI features at all. Neither gives clicks, which is why Step 3 leans on your own CTR trend.

Step 3: Compare CTR where AI Overviews appear against where they do not

With the queries split, compare average CTR at a similar position for two groups: informational queries that trigger an AI Overview versus informational queries that do not. This mirrors the method Ahrefs used, holding intent and position roughly constant so the AI Overview is the main difference. If you lack a clean AI-Overview flag, use time instead: track CTR-at-position for your informational segment across the period AI Overviews expanded on your terms, and watch for a sustained decline that is not explained by a ranking change.

Search Console cannot hand you an AI Overview click-loss number, because its AI report has no clicks and its click report has no AI-Overview flag. The estimate lives in the gap between them, so label it an estimate and show your working.

Step 4: Apply the public benchmark as a sanity check

Convert the CTR difference into a rough click-loss estimate, then check it against the public range. If your position-one informational CTR is materially lower where AI Overviews appear, an isolated drop in the region of one-third to one-half is consistent with Ahrefs' 34.5%–58% findings. A far larger apparent drop usually means something else moved too (a ranking slip, a seasonal dip, a redesign), so investigate before attributing it all to AI Overviews. An estimate that lands inside the benchmark band is the credible, defensible case.

Step 5: Reframe the goal from clicks kept to citations earned

Finish by turning the estimate into a plan, because you cannot switch AI Overviews off. Seer Interactive found organic CTR was about 0.70% when a brand was cited inside the AI Overview versus 0.52% when it was not, so the winnable gap is being named as the source, not avoiding the overview. Use your estimate to prioritise the informational pages losing the most clicks, then work to be cited rather than merely shown on exactly those queries. The click you can still earn increasingly comes from being inside the answer.

Estimating the loss once is a useful audit; watching your click loss, your AI-Overview citations, and your recovered zero-click visibility move together across engines is the ongoing job that Buffy Intel is built for. Questions: [email protected].