Google Hints Click Data Isn't Coming to Search Console AI Reports

Google's Gary Illyes has implied that click and query data will likely never arrive in the AI performance report inside Google Search Console. He said the Search Console team is interested in adding more data, but only data "that makes sense" — and he pointedly did not include clicks or queries in that category.

The exchange started on LinkedIn, where a Google Search Central live event was quoted saying that click and query data was on the way. The quote, not attributed to a specific Googler, 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 pushed back on that framing directly:

"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."

That's a confirmed Google statement — Illyes, on the record, declining to promise clicks or queries. Everything below about what the omission means is analysis, not a confirmed position.

Why the omission matters for SEOs

This is the line Google has given the industry for years. More data is always coming, in some form, at some unspecified date.

Click and query data is genuinely the most requested addition to the AI performance report. Site owners want to know whether searchers actually click through from AI Overviews and AI Mode results. Click-through rates are one of the few metrics that translate AI visibility into measurable traffic.

The odd part is the internal inconsistency. Click data already exists in the main Search Console performance reports for traditional search results. It's unclear why the same data would "make sense" in one report and not the other.

Takeaway: Google may simply believe clicks don't describe how people use AI answers.

What does Google itself charge on?

There's a deeper irony here. Google Ads still bills most advertisers on a cost-per-click basis, and the entire PPC industry is named after the click. If clicks are valuable enough to build an ad business on, it's hard to argue they don't "make sense" as a reporting metric for publishers.

For publishers and news sites, the stakes are concrete. AI Overviews can satisfy a query before a user ever reaches the site. Without click data from AI surfaces, site owners can't measure how much traffic AI answers actually cannibalize versus create.

Takeaway: the metric Google monetizes is the one it won't hand over in AI reports.

Is there still hope for click data?

John Mueller added a wrinkle. Responding on Bluesky, he called the skeptical reading of Illyes's comment "a weird way" to interpret it. That could mean click data is still on the roadmap.

But Mueller's comment is a casual social reply, not a product announcement. Illyes's statement — "we don't have anything to announce yet" — is the firmer signal. Reading the two together, the reasonable read is: nothing is coming soon, and nothing is ruled out permanently.

Takeaway: watch official Search Console changelogs, not social hints, for the real answer.

What to monitor next: any expansion of the AI performance report's metrics in Search Console's release notes, and whether Google clarifies what data it considers meaningful for AI-driven search — that definition will shape reporting for every site that depends on organic search.