What is Google AI Mode?

AI Mode is a chat-style search experience inside Google Search. Instead of a list of links, it gives an AI-written answer to a longer or more complex question, with links to sources, and lets you ask follow-up questions. Google rolled it out widely in the US after Google I/O in May 2025.

How is AI Mode different from AI Overviews?

AI Overviews sit on top of a normal results page for some queries. AI Mode is its own tab and is fully conversational. Google says both may use query fan-out, issuing many related searches across subtopics and combining the results, so AI Mode can show a wider and different set of links than the classic results for the same question.

How do sites appear in AI Mode?

The same way as in AI Overviews: the page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. There is no separate AI Mode markup or submission. Giving the clearest answer to the sub-questions people ask about your topic matters more than ranking for one head term.

Can I measure AI Mode traffic?

Google counts AI Mode clicks and impressions in the Search Console Performance report, under the “Web” search type, together with other results. You cannot filter AI Mode on its own there.

Example

Ask AI Mode to plan a three-day trip to Lisbon with kids on a budget, and it may look up family attractions, cheaper neighborhoods, transit passes and kid-friendly restaurants at once, then link a different site for each part of the plan.

Related: AEO, zero-click search, getting recommended by ChatGPT.