Google AI Overviews Checker - Citations & Domain Tracker

Independent tool. Not affiliated with Google.

What does Google AI Overviews Checker do?

Google AI Overviews Checker tells you, for every keyword you give it, whether Google shows an AI Overview on the results page, which websites the AI Overview cites, and whether your own domain is one of them. Each keyword comes back as one flat row: AI Overview yes/no, the overview text, every cited source in order, your citation position, your organic rank on the same page, and the same cited / position / rank flags for up to 20 competitor domains.

Use it as an AI Overview tracker API for SEO and GEO (generative engine optimization) reporting: run the same keyword list every week and see which queries now show an AI answer, who Google quotes, and whether you are gaining or losing citations. It covers 94 countries, any search language Google offers there, and desktop or mobile results.

You pay $4 per 1,000 keywords checked. Failed keywords are free.

Why use an AI Overview citation checker?

• 🎯 Track your AI visibility: see on which keywords Google's AI answer cites your site, and at which position, next to your classic organic rank.
• 🥊 Benchmark competitors: one row tells you which of your competitors are cited and where they rank, so you can spot queries where they win the AI answer and you do not.
• 📉 Explain traffic drops: find keywords where an AI Overview now sits above your organic result.
• ✍️ Content planning: read the overview text and the sources Google trusts before you write or update a page.
• 📊 Client reports: export a CSV or Excel sheet per week and chart AI Overview coverage and citation share.
• 🤖 Automation and AI agents: call it from the API, Make, Zapier, n8n or the Apify MCP server.

How is it different from other AI Overview scrapers?

Most AI Overview scrapers return the raw overview and leave the analysis to you. This checker does the matching for you: one row per keyword holds the cited / not-cited flag for your domain, its citation position, its organic rank, and the same flags for each competitor. You do not have to join tables or parse source lists yourself.

A keyword where Google shows no AI Overview is a full, tracked result too (hasAiOverview: false, plus your organic rank and the top 10 results). Knowing that a query has no AI answer is half of what a tracker is for, so it is billed like any other checked keyword.

What data does it return?

How to check Google AI Overviews for your keywords

1. Click Try for free.
2. Paste your keywords into Keywords, one per line.
3. Optional: enter Your domain (for example heart.org) and a few Competitor domains.
4. Pick a Country, Language and Device (default: United States, English, desktop).
5. Click Start. A short list usually finishes in one to two minutes. Long lists are queued in batches and take longer.
6. Download the results as CSV, Excel, JSON or HTML, or read them through the API.

How much does it cost?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

• $0.004 per keyword checked ($4 per 1,000), with or without an AI Overview.
• $0.00005 per run start.
• Free: keywords that fail, time out or are skipped (they come back with an error field and no charge).

Duplicate keywords are removed before checking (ignoring case), so you never pay twice for the same search in one run. If you set a maximum cost per run, the Actor only checks as many keywords as that budget covers and lists the rest as not checked, free.

Free Apify plan: 5 keywords per run. Every check costs the developer a data fee, so runs on the free Apify plan check the first 5 keywords and return the rest as free rows marked as not checked. Any paid Apify plan checks every keyword. This limit is set by the Actor developer, not by Apify.

Input

{
    "keywords": ["how to lower cholesterol naturally", "what is a roth ira", "best time to visit japan"],
    "targetDomain": "heart.org",
    "competitorDomains": ["mayoclinic.org", "nerdwallet.com"],
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "device": "desktop"
}

Countries and languages accept names or codes ("US", "GB", "de"). Domains can be pasted as URLs; https://, www. and paths are stripped, and subdomains count as your site.

Output

{
    "keyword": "how to lower cholesterol naturally",
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "device": "desktop",
    "hasAiOverview": true,
    "aiOverviewText": "To lower cholesterol naturally, focus on heart-healthy dietary adjustments, regular physical activity...",
    "citationCount": 10,
    "citedDomains": ["mayoclinic.org", "coscardiology.com", "heart.org", "youtube.com", "henryford.com"],
    "citations": [
        { "position": 1, "domain": "mayoclinic.org", "url": "https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/reduce-cholesterol/art-20045935", "title": "Top 5 lifestyle changes to improve your cholesterol - Mayo Clinic", "source": "Mayo Clinic" }
    ],
    "targetDomain": "heart.org",
    "targetCited": true,
    "targetCitationPosition": 3,
    "targetCitedUrl": "https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/lifes-essential-8/how-to-control-cholesterol-fact-sheet",
    "targetOrganicRank": null,
    "targetOrganicUrl": null,
    "competitorsCited": ["mayoclinic.org"],
    "competitors": [
        { "domain": "mayoclinic.org", "cited": true, "citationPosition": 1, "organicRank": null },
        { "domain": "nerdwallet.com", "cited": false, "citationPosition": null, "organicRank": null }
    ],
    "organicResults": [{ "rank": 1, "domain": "scripps.org", "url": "https://www.scripps.org/...", "title": "How to Lower Cholesterol Without Medication" }],
    "serpFeatures": ["ai_overview", "organic", "people_also_ask", "discussions_and_forums", "related_searches"],
    "checkedAt": "2026-10-17T05:43:42.000Z",
    "error": null
}

You can download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML. The Overview table view shows one line per keyword with the AI Overview flag, your citation and rank, and the competitors cited.

Tips

• Track over time: save the run as a task and schedule it weekly; AI Overviews change often, so trends say more than a single check.
• Mobile vs desktop: Google can show a different AI Overview (or none) on mobile. Run both if mobile traffic matters to you.
• Question keywords ("how to", "what is", "best time to") trigger AI Overviews far more often than product or brand searches.
• Citation position 1 means your page is the first source Google lists for its AI answer.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client this Actor as a tool through Apify's MCP server: add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=tenfoldfleet/google-ai-overviews-checker as a remote MCP server and sign in with your Apify account. The agent fills in the input, runs the Actor and reads the results itself; you pay the same per-event price as a normal run.

FAQ

Does a keyword without an AI Overview cost anything?

Yes, $0.004 like any checked keyword. The Actor still searched Google and returns your organic rank, the top 10 results and the confirmed absence of an AI Overview, which is what you track. Failed or timed-out keywords are free.

How is the citation position counted?

Sources are numbered in the order the AI Overview presents them: first the source list Google shows next to the answer, then sources attached to each paragraph, then links inside the text. Each URL is counted once.

Can I check many keywords at once?

Yes. Keywords are queued in batches of up to 2,000 and collected as soon as Google's results are ready. Keywords that cannot be checked before the run's timeout come back as free rows, so set a longer timeout for very long lists.

Is it legal to check Google search results?

The Actor only reads publicly visible search result pages and does not log in to any account. You are responsible for how you use the data. If you have questions about your use case, consult a lawyer.

Something is missing or wrong?

Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab on Apify and it will be looked at quickly.

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