Google and Bing both give site owners a first-party view of AI search, but the two views are built differently. They answer different questions. This piece covers what each reports and where the reports stop. The source material does not cover server log analysis, so logs appear here only as a place to check crawl access.
Google: AI features are counted inside Web search traffic
Google says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console, in the Performance report under the "Web" search type.1 Treat Search Console as the place where this traffic is counted, not as a tool built to isolate it.
Eligibility is the first thing to check. To be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.1 Google adds that there are no additional technical requirements.1 If a page is missing from AI features, start with indexing and snippet eligibility before looking anywhere else.
Expect gaps by design. Google also states that AI Overviews are only shown when its systems determine they are additive to classic Search, and that they often don't trigger.1 AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary.1 A pattern you see for one feature should not be assumed for the other.
Beyond Search Console, Google suggests tracking conversions and time spent on your site in other tools, such as Google Analytics.1 Google also says it has seen that clicks from search results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the site.1 That is Google's own observation. Check it against your engagement data before relying on it.
Crawl access is the part you can verify on your own infrastructure. Among the fundamentals Google lists is ensuring that crawling is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure.1 If you change preview controls and want to see the effect, be patient: Google notes that crawling can take anywhere from several days to several months, depending on how often its systems determine a page needs to be refreshed.1
Bing: a report built around citations
Bing's AI Performance report shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations.2 The original release covers five things:
- Total Citations: the total number of citations displayed as sources in AI-generated answers during the selected time frame.2
- Average Cited Pages: the average number of unique pages from your site displayed as sources in AI-generated answers per day over the selected range.2
- Grounding queries: the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers.2
- Page-level citation activity: citation counts for specific URLs from your site.2
- Visibility trends: a timeline of how citation activity for your site changes over time across supported AI experiences.2
Bing says it respects all content owner preferences expressed through robots.txt and other supported control mechanisms.2 Review your robots.txt rules with that in mind.
Newer Bing layers: Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare
Bing added four new capabilities to AI Performance in preview.3 They are Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare.3 Each one changes how you can read the original data.
Intents classifies grounding queries into broader categories.3 Topics groups related grounding queries into thematic clusters, so you can read visibility by subject instead of one query at a time.3 Citation Share is the percentage of citations attributed to your site out of all citations shown across all sites for the same grounding query.3 Compare lets you overlay a previous period on the current view, for example the current 30 days against the prior 30.3
A further beta feature, Topics Portfolio, groups the grounding queries where your site appears into broader thematic clusters.4 If there is sufficient data for your site, it appears as a tab next to Citations & Pages.4 Three ecosystem measures sit beside each topic:
- Topic Size: the approximate total citations across all sites for the topic over the selected period.4
- Sites Cited: the approximate number of sites appearing for queries in the topic, which indicates how crowded it is.4
- Queries: the approximate number of distinct grounding queries in the topic.4
Top Opportunity Queries lists the strongest queries across the whole portfolio where other sites appear and yours does not.4 Citation volumes there are shown as ranges rather than exact numbers.4 Bing suggests choosing a one-, two- or three-month window and starting with topics where your citations are already concentrated.4
What the reports do not show
Most of the useful detail is in the caveats. The vendors state them plainly, so build them into how you report.
Bing citation counts
- Total Citations does not indicate placement or presentation within a specific answer.2
- Average Cited Pages does not indicate ranking, authority, or the role of any page within an individual answer.2
- Page-level data reflects how often pages are cited, not page importance, ranking, or placement.2
- For grounding queries, the data shown represents a sample of overall citation activity.2
Bing Citation Share
- It does not expose competitor domains, represent traffic share, or assign quality scores to content.3
Bing's AI classification layers
- Bing says some Topics labels may still be broad during the preview phase.3
- In Topics Portfolio, topic classification is AI-generated and can occasionally be imperfect.4
- Smaller sites may see a shorter list or may not even see the feature.4
- Branded queries can appear as opportunity queries.4
- Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are approximate.4
- Bing's own guidance is to treat the numbers as directional signals for planning, not as a precise ledger.4
- AI features are counted inside the Web search type of overall search traffic, as described above.1
Keeping the two datasets apart
Do not merge the two sets of numbers. Bing's report counts citations displayed as sources in AI-generated answers.2 Google counts AI features inside overall search traffic in Search Console.1 A citation count and a click count answer different questions, so report them side by side and label each clearly.
A working routine
Start by verifying the site. Google recommends verifying in Search Console to discover and diagnose potential technical issues quickly.1 Then set a simple monthly routine:
- Record Web search totals in Search Console for the pages and queries you care about.
- Record Bing Total Citations and the top cited pages, and use Compare to set the current period against the prior one.
- Read grounding queries and opportunity queries as editorial leads, not targets.
- Confirm that robots.txt, your CDN and your hosting layer are not blocking the crawlers you want.
- Check engagement in your analytics tool rather than assuming AI-referred visits behave in a particular way.
Annotate your reports with content updates and site changes. Bing says citation patterns can shift due to changes in user behavior, evolving models, freshness signals, partner refresh cycles, and broader changes across the web itself.3 Read any single movement with that in mind.
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