Google AI Overview Tracker | Citations, Brands & Changes

What does Google AI Overview Tracker do?

Google AI Overview Tracker checks which websites, domains and brands Google AI Overviews cite for your search queries. You give it queries like best crm for small business. For each one it returns the full AI Overview answer, every cited source, and a citation rate per domain and per brand, measured over several searches of the same query.

It works as an AI search visibility API for SEO and GEO (generative engine optimization) reporting. Add your own domain and your competitors, schedule it weekly, and each run tells you what changed since the last one.

It does not cover ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini. It reads Google Search result pages through Apify's Google SERP proxy. No browser, no account, no login.

Why use Google AI Overview Tracker?

One capture is not a measurement. Google rotates the sources of an AI Overview from one search to the next. We searched 30 commercial and informational queries three times each, in parallel, on October 18, 2026:

Run	Queries with an AI Overview	Queries where at least one cited domain was missing from a capture	Domain citations seen in only 1 or 2 captures out of 3
Run 1	26	11 (42%)	52 of 161 (32%)
Run 2, 20 minutes later	28	17 (61%)	75 of 170 (44%)

A tool that searches once and reports "cited" or "not cited" turns this rotation into fake wins and fake losses. This Actor searches each query 1, 3 or 5 times and gives every source, domain and brand a rate: 0.67 means cited in 2 captures out of 3. In compare mode, a domain counts as gained only when it goes from absent to cited in at least half the captures, and as lost in the reverse case.

The second reason is completeness. Google sends only the first part of the AI Overview in the page itself. The rest of the answer, and the sources it cites, arrive in deferred fragments at the end of the page that a browser injects later. A parser that reads the initial HTML misses them without any error. On 8 recorded pages, the initial HTML held 31 of the 42 cited sources: 11 sources (26%) were only in the deferred part. On best project management software, the initial HTML names 3 tools; the full answer names 8, including Jira, Smartsheet, Wrike and Trello, and cites forbes.com. This Actor injects the deferred fragments before reading anything.

What you get on top:

• Tracked domains: citation rate, best position in the source list, and best organic position on the same results page. You see at once when you rank second organically but the AI Overview cites someone else.
• Tracked brands: how often each brand name appears in the answer text, cited or not.
• Compare mode: domains gained, domains lost, and old and new rates of your tracked domains and brands since the previous run.
• Any country and language Google serves AI Overviews in, through the gl and hl settings.
• Scheduling, API access, webhooks and integrations (Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets) from the Apify platform.

What data can Google AI Overview Tracker extract?

One result per query:

Field	Type	Description
query	string	The search query
status	string	ai-overview, no-ai-overview or failed
aiOverviewRate	number	Share of captures that showed an AI Overview
answerText	string	Full AI Overview text, deferred part included
citedDomains	array	Each cited domain with its captures, rate and best position
sources	array	Each cited page: title, URL when Google shows it, site name, snippet, rate
trackedDomains	array	Your domains: citation rate, best source position, best organic position
trackedBrands	array	Your brands: mention rate in the answer text
changes	object	Compare mode: gained and lost domains, tracked rates before and after
organicResults	array	Optional: organic results of the first capture

How to track Google AI Overview citations

1. Open the Actor and type your search queries, one per line.
2. Set the Google country and language, for example us and en, or de and de.
3. Keep 3 captures per query, or pick 1 for a quick snapshot or 5 for the most reliable rates.
4. Add your domain and competitor domains in Domains to track, and brand names in Brands to track.
5. Switch on Compare with previous run if you plan to run it on a schedule.
6. Press Start, then download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.

How much does it cost to track AI Overviews?

You pay per query checked, plus a start fee of $0.001 per run. The price depends on the number of captures, because each capture is a real Google search:

Captures per query	Free plan	Bronze	Silver	Gold and above
1 (snapshot)	$0.008	$0.007	$0.0065	$0.006
3 (recommended)	$0.020	$0.018	$0.0165	$0.015
5 (most reliable)	$0.030	$0.027	$0.0255	$0.024

Checking 100 queries with 3 captures costs $2.00 on the Free plan and $1.50 on Gold. Platform usage is included.

A query is charged only when at least one capture worked. Failed captures are retried for free. If some still fail, the query is charged at the level it reached: 3 asked and 2 obtained is charged as 1 capture. A query with no usable page comes back with status: failed and is not charged.

Input

See the Input tab for every option. The only required field is the list of queries, up to 1,000 per run. Country is a two-letter code (us, gb, de, fr, in), language a Google hl code (en, de, fr, pt-br).

{
    "queries": ["best crm for small business", "best project management software"],
    "countryCode": "us",
    "languageCode": "en",
    "capturesPerQuery": "3",
    "trackDomains": ["hubspot.com", "zoho.com"],
    "trackBrands": ["HubSpot", "Salesforce"],
    "compareWithPreviousRun": true,
    "historyKey": "crm-weekly"
}

Output

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel. Example, shortened:

{
    "query": "best crm for small business",
    "countryCode": "us",
    "languageCode": "en",
    "checkedAt": "2026-10-18T14:20:11Z",
    "status": "ai-overview",
    "capturesRequested": 3,
    "capturesSucceeded": 3,
    "aiOverviewCaptures": 3,
    "aiOverviewRate": 1.0,
    "answerText": "The best CRM software for a small business depends on your budget, team size, and primary goal: HubSpot CRM: Best for free all-in-one startup tools...",
    "citedDomains": [
        {"domain": "reddit.com", "captures": 3, "rate": 1.0, "bestPosition": 1, "citedInline": true},
        {"domain": "zoho.com", "captures": 2, "rate": 0.67, "bestPosition": 4, "citedInline": true},
        {"domain": "pcmag.com", "captures": 1, "rate": 0.33, "bestPosition": 2, "citedInline": true}
    ],
    "trackedDomains": [
        {"domain": "hubspot.com", "citedCaptures": 0, "citationRate": 0.0, "bestSourcePosition": null, "bestOrganicPosition": 7}
    ],
    "trackedBrands": [
        {"brand": "HubSpot", "mentionedCaptures": 3, "mentionRate": 1.0}
    ],
    "changes": {
        "previousCheckedAt": "2026-10-11T14:18:40Z",
        "gainedDomains": [],
        "lostDomains": [{"domain": "startups.co.uk", "previousRate": 0.67}],
        "trackedDomains": [{"domain": "hubspot.com", "previousRate": 0.0, "rate": 0.0}]
    }
}

The dataset has three views: Overview (one line per query), Cited domains (one line per query and domain) and Changes.

Tips

• Use 3 captures for weekly monitoring. 1 capture is fine to see whether a query shows an AI Overview at all, not to compare runs.
• Give each client or project its own History name, so compare mode keeps their histories apart.
• Match the language to the queries: a French query on us and en often gets no AI Overview at all.
• A run checks about 15 queries per minute with 3 captures. The default timeout of 2 hours covers about 1,000 queries; raise it for more.

FAQ, limits and support

Does it track ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini?

No. Only Google AI Overviews on Google Search. AI Mode (the separate chat tab) is not covered either.

Why is the URL of some sources null?

Google shows the exact page URL for most cited sources. For some, mostly YouTube videos listed twice from the same site, it only gives the site, the title and a redirect link. The domain, title and snippet are always there. In the United States, organic result links are redirect links too, so organicResults gives the domain and title with a null URL.

Why does a query show no AI Overview?

Google decides per query, country and language, and it changes over time. Navigational queries (facebook login), weather and many local queries rarely get one. aiOverviewRate tells you how often it appeared across the captures.

Is it legal?

Our Actors are ethical and do not extract any private user data, such as email addresses, gender, or location. They only extract what the user has chosen to share publicly. We therefore believe that our Actors, when used for ethical purposes by Apify users, are safe. However, you should be aware that your results could contain personal data. Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you're unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers.

Something is wrong or missing?

Open an issue in the Issues tab. Google changes its result pages often, and reports get fixed fast. To call the Actor from your own code, see the API tab.