How to check whether AI tools cite your website

The short version

• Google: Search Console’s Generative AI performance report counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
• Microsoft: Bing Webmaster Tools’ AI Performance report counts citations in Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries.
• Everyone else: a monthly spot check with the same questions, logged in a simple sheet.
• Look for trends over months, not one day’s answer.
• None of these numbers is a lead. Pair them with your GA4 AI visits.

How do I check Google’s AI features?

Use Search Console’s Generative AI performance report. Google’s help page says that “as of August 31, 2026,” it has rolled out to all websites worldwide. It counts impressions: “how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search.” Its Pages tab is the useful one, because it shows which of your pages Google’s AI uses most.

Our Search Console guide on how Search Console shows AI Overviews and AI Mode walks through opening and reading the report. Two points matter for this job:

• It doesn’t show clicks. Google’s AI features page says AI feature traffic is included in the regular Performance report under the “Web” search type, mixed with everything else.
• An empty report has two usual causes, according to Google: too few impressions so far, or a site excluded with the Search generative AI control.

Write down the top cited pages each month. Those are the pages to protect when you redesign, and the model for new ones.

How do I check Microsoft Copilot?

In Bing Webmaster Tools, open AI Performance. Bing’s announcement lists total citations, average cited pages, a sample of grounding queries, page-level citations and trends. Our guide on why Bing Webmaster Tools matters covers setup.

How do I check ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude?

As of October 31, 2026, we haven’t found an owner report for these like Google’s and Bing’s. That can change, so check each tool’s help pages. Until then, you test by hand. Keep it consistent so the results mean something.

1. Write five to ten questions a customer would really ask, with your town: “Who installs heat pumps near Somerset, PA?” Include one that names your business directly.
2. Ask each tool the same questions once a month. Use a private or signed-out session where you can, so your own history doesn’t color the answer.
3. Log the results in a sheet: date, tool, the model or mode shown (for example, with search on or off), your location setting, the exact question, whether you were named, what it said about you, and which sources it linked. Without those details, next month’s check isn’t comparable.
4. Check the facts it gives about you: hours, phone, services, area.
5. Look at the cited sources. If a competitor’s page is cited, read it. What does it say that yours doesn’t?

Treat what you see as a sample, not a ranking. Answers change with wording, location and time, and Google warns in its Gemini help that Gemini “can hallucinate and present inaccurate information as factual.” That’s true of every assistant.

Why bother checking?

Because you can’t improve what you never look at. The Google and Bing reports show which pages are already doing the work, so you know which ones to protect and extend. The spot check catches wrong facts before customers act on them, and shows you which sources the tools trust in your area.

What are the common mistakes?

• Testing once and panicking. One answer on one day tells you little.
• Asking only about your own name. Customers ask “who does X near me,” not “tell me about Smith Plumbing.”
• Counting impressions as customers. An impression means a link was shown, not clicked.
• Ignoring the sources. The links an assistant cites are the most useful part of the answer.
• Paying for a tool that promises “AI rank tracking” before you’ve done a free spot check. Some are useful, but none can see inside every assistant.

What if I never appear?

Work through the basics in order: crawler access (AI crawler rules), indexing in Google and Bing, consistent facts (helping AI tell you apart), and pages that answer real questions (which questions deserve a page). If an assistant gets a fact wrong, see correcting AI answers.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

All of this is free. The reports take minutes to read. A monthly spot check across four tools takes about half an hour once your questions are written.

How does E-3 handle this?

For clients on our SEO and AI search service, we can read the Google and Bing AI reports and run a set of customer questions through the main assistants, then report what changed.

Related questions

• How do I see visits from ChatGPT and AI tools in GA4?
• Why Bing Webmaster Tools matters for AI answers
• How do I control Google’s AI features for my site?
• Try our free AI visibility check
• Back to the complete AI visibility guide

Sources

1. Generative AI performance report (Search Console Help)
2. Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (Google Search Central Blog, June 2026)
3. AI features and your website (Google Search Central)
4. Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (Bing Webmaster Blog, February 10, 2026)
5. Learn about responses from Gemini Apps (Gemini Apps Help)