Gary Illyes of Google said Monday that the Search Console team has nothing to announce on bringing clicks and queries into the the AI reports that cover Google’s two generative surfaces. His comment landed one month before a UK regulatory deadline that names clicks as a required metric. That timing makes the silence more notable than the statement itself.
Illyes was responding on LinkedIn to a post by SEO professional Rajeev Lekhwar, according to Search Engine Journal. The post attributed a quote to unnamed Google staff, saying clicks and queries are the most requested data set and that Google anticipates adding them to Search Console, though “even we don’t know by when.” Lekhwar tagged a handful of Google employees, among them Illyes and John Mueller, but never named the speaker. His hashtags trace the remark to the Bengaluru stop of Search Central Live on Oct. 30, an event Google described as in person only, with no stream or recording.
Illyes wrote that he did not think Google had phrased it that way. He added: “The team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don’t have anything to announce yet.” That is a denial of the wording and a refusal to give a date. It is not a statement that click data will never arrive.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz read the same reply more pessimistically. He wrote that Illyes seems to signal those metrics are unlikely to reach the AI report, noting that Illyes never called clicks the data that “makes sense.” Schwartz also pointed out that Mueller answered on Bluesky, calling that an odd reading of the comment. Schwartz said he doubts clicks are on the way. Both readings rest on inference, because Illyes named no metric.
Here is what the tooling does today. The Generative AI Performance report in Search Console tallies impressions for the two surfaces as one figure, with breakdowns across pages, countries, devices, and dates. It does not list clicks, click-through rate, or queries. Google made the report available to every site worldwide on Aug. 31.
Clicks from those features still exist, but they sit inside the standard Performance report with all other web results. Per Google’s help documentation, a click on a link in either feature counts as one click, and a follow-up question in AI Mode counts as a new query. The Search Appearance types in that report include nothing for AI Overviews or AI Mode, so no dimension separates these clicks from classic blue-link traffic.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the pressure point. Its publisher rules require Google to give publishers “clear and detailed metrics on user engagement,” and the CMA summary names impressions, clicks, and CTR, combined across the AI features. Per the regulator, Google has until Dec. 3 to comply. Its interpretive notes say the data should be broken down per publisher, should separate AI feature appearances from organic results, and should arrive through “a commonly accessible platform, such as Google Search Console.” Google may satisfy the requirement by other means, provided it demonstrates compliance to the CMA. UK users are the scope.
Two further dates follow. Controls that let publishers manage AI features page by page are scheduled for three months after Dec. 3. Google’s initial compliance filing with the CMA spans June 3 to Dec. 3, with a Jan. 3, 2027 due date.
The gap between “nothing to announce” and a fixed regulatory date is the real story for search teams. A UK-only data release is possible, though neither Google nor the CMA has said how Google would deliver it.
Until clicks and queries appear, treat AI visibility reporting as an impressions exercise. Teams should log AI impressions by page now to build a baseline, and avoid attributing any movement in blended click totals to AI features.
Search Engine Journal, Matt G. Southern, November 2, 2026, with additional reporting from Search Engine Roundtable.
