Do AI Overviews show up for local searches, and did they really cut clicks?

Do AI Overviews show up for local searches?

AI Overviews do show up in local-business query sets, but the rate varies by query wording, intent, geography, and date. Google says an AI Overview appears when its systems decide it is an additive result, so it will not trigger for every query. A page also needs to be indexed and eligible for an ordinary Search snippet, and those conditions do not guarantee that Google will serve it in an AI feature. Google's AI-search guidance describes this as an eligibility and serving question, not a fixed local-search placement.

Google's documentation also separates AI Overviews from AI Mode. Its local AI Mode guidance covers tasks such as checking appointments, home-service availability, prices, inventory, and restaurant reservations. Those examples confirm that Google uses generative search for local tasks; they do not establish how often an AI Overview appears for every local query.

What do local AI Overview studies actually show?

The studies below measure different things. Some record whether an AI Overview appeared, some record whether a business was mentioned, and some examine geographic triggers. None of these rows is a measurement of website clicks.

The different percentages are not contradictory benchmarks for one market. The samples use different industries, countries, query wording, dates, and collection methods. A local business can use them to understand that AI Overviews occur in local search, but not to claim that a particular percentage of its own searches or clicks will change.

How does Google count AI Overview clicks in Search Console?

Google counts an external link selected from an AI Overview as a click in the Web report. Google now also provides a separate Generative AI performance report (Search) for AI-feature impressions, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by pages, countries, devices, and dates. The report rolled out worldwide by August 31, 2026, and excludes Search Labs experiments. Use How can a local business measure AI Overview visibility and clicks? for the canonical procedure that pairs those impressions with Web-report clicks. Bing's related Topics Portfolio beta shows a different, approximate view of citation themes and grounding queries.

Did AI Overviews really reduce clicks?

There is evidence of lower click-through rates when an AI Overview is present, but the strongest number in the supplied research is not a local-business causal estimate. Ahrefs compared 300,000 keywords, split between 150,000 with an AI Overview and 150,000 informational keywords without one. Using aggregated Google Search Console desktop data for December 2023 and December 2025, it reported a 58% lower average CTR for the top-ranking page in the AI Overview sample in December 2025.

That result is a correlation in a general informational-keyword sample. It does not show that AI Overviews caused every observed drop, and it does not say that local businesses lost 58% of their clicks. The local studies above measure appearance, mention, or geographic patterns rather than website clicks. Google also says clicks from AI-feature pages can be higher quality, but its guidance does not give a population or time window for that statement.

The defensible verdict is therefore narrower: AI Overviews can change the opportunity for a website click, and some broad query data shows lower CTR when they appear. No single percentage describes local-search click loss across businesses, queries, locations, and dates.

How can I check whether AI Overviews changed my site's clicks?

Use the canonical AI Overview measurement procedure for the date-matched check, direct appearance log, Web-report export, and non-AI comparator. This page keeps the broader evidence on appearance rates and click-loss limits; it no longer duplicates that procedure.

Does a local pack result mean the same thing as an AI Overview?

No. A local pack is a local-search result surface, while an AI Overview is a generated summary with supporting links. Google can show either, both, or neither for a query. A local-pack appearance does not prove that an AI Overview appeared, and an AI Overview mention does not prove that the business received a local-pack impression.

Keep these surfaces separate when reviewing local performance. The guide to choosing an AI-search provider explains why Search Console metrics should not be presented as direct AI citations, while Google's AI Mode rollout reporting gives context for a separate Search surface.