Google Has No AI Click Data to Announce as UK Deadline Looms

Google's Gary Illyes says the company has "nothing to announce yet" about AI click and query data in Search Console — less than five weeks before a UK regulator's Dec. 3 deadline requiring exactly that reporting.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) lists clicks and click-through rate among the AI search metrics Google must provide to publishers. Its rules require "clear and detailed metrics on user engagement" — impressions, clicks and CTR, aggregated across features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode — delivered via "a commonly accessible platform, such as Google Search Console."

That gap between regulatory expectation and current tooling defines the story.

What did Illyes actually say?

The exchange began on LinkedIn. SEO professional Rajeev Lekhwar attributed a quote to unnamed Google staff, tagging Illyes and John Mueller without identifying the speaker. The quote read:

"The clicks and queries data is the most requested data set by website owners and SEOs. We are also anticipating this data to be available in Google Search Console but, even we don't know by when this data will be added."

Illyes replied in the comments early Monday:

"I don't think we've phrased it like this. The team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don't have anything to announce yet."

Lekhwar's post carried the hashtags #searchcentrallive2026 and #sclblr2026, pointing to Google's Search Central Live event in Bengaluru on Oct. 30. That event ran in person only, with no live stream or recording, according to Google's announcement.

John Mueller added context in a separate Bluesky thread. He wrote that there's "lots of helpful data which isn't currently in Search Console" and that what counts as helpful data changes over time.

This is confirmed Google statement, not tool-signal speculation. Both Googlers spoke on the record.

What does Search Console report today?

The Generative AI Performance Report, rolled out globally to all sites on Aug. 31, counts impressions for AI Mode and AI Overviews collectively. Per its help page, it breaks those impressions down by page, country, device and date.

What it does not list:

• Clicks
• CTR
• Queries
• Any separation between AI Mode and AI Overviews

AI clicks land in the standard Performance report, mixed into total web results. Google's help page on click counting states that clicking a link within an AI Overview or AI Mode counts as one click, and asking another question in AI Mode counts as a new query. The standard Performance report lists Search Appearance Types — and none of them covers AI Overviews or AI Mode.

The practical consequence: publishers can measure how often AI features show their pages, but cannot isolate AI-driven click-throughs using any dimension Google currently defines.

What does the CMA require by December?

The CMA's interpretive notes go beyond aggregate figures. The metrics must include:

• A breakdown of all data by each individual publisher
• The ability to distinguish whether content appeared in an AI feature versus an organic search result
• Coverage of AI features shown to UK users

Google can meet the rules through an alternative route if it demonstrates to the CMA that it complies.

Why this matters for publishers and SEOs

For news publishers and content sites dependent on attribution modeling, the current setup forces a choice: build AI search reporting around impressions alone, or accept blended click totals that hide AI feature performance. Illyes offered no estimated timeframe for when click and query data might arrive.

The contrast is stark: a regulator mandates clicks and CTR by Dec. 3, while the platform's own reporting team confirms it has nothing to announce.

What happens next?

The CMA timeline extends beyond December. Page-level controls for AI search features are due three months after the Dec. 3 compliance date. Google's first compliance report to the CMA covers June 3 through Dec. 3 and is due Jan. 3, 2027. The CMA also expects to issue a separate notice requiring Google to publish a summary or non-confidential version of each report.

Monitor the Dec. 3 compliance date and any Search Console feature announcements preceding it — the gap between regulatory obligation and current tooling must close on one side or the other.