Google AI Overview Tracker API - AI Search Visibility Monitor

Track whether Google shows an AI Overview for your target searches, which external source links appear on the rendered SERP, and whether your brand or competitors appear in the generated answer.

This actor is intentionally narrow. It supports Google AI Overview only. It does not claim ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Grok, or Meta AI coverage.

Fast first run

Start with one prompt. Each prompt opens a rendered Google SERP, so small runs are faster and more reliable.

{
  "prompts": ["best CRM software for small business"],
  "brandName": "HubSpot",
  "domain": "hubspot.com",
  "competitors": ["Zoho", "Pipedrive", "Salesforce"],
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "maxPrompts": 1,
  "timeoutSeconds": 30,
  "maxConcurrency": 1
}

What it returns

For each prompt, the actor returns one dataset item with:

• aiOverviewAvailable - whether Google displayed an AI Overview
• answerText - extracted AI Overview text when available
• sourceLinks and sourceDomains - external URLs found on the rendered SERP
• targetBrandMentioned - whether your brand appears in the AI Overview text
• targetDomainCited - whether your domain appears in source links
• competitorMentions - which competitor names appeared
• engineStatus - ok_aio, ok_no_aio, blocked, timeout, or error

If Google does not show an AI Overview for a prompt, the run still succeeds and returns aiOverviewAvailable=false.

Larger input example

{
  "prompts": [
    "best CRM software for small business",
    "best email marketing platform for ecommerce",
    "best SEO tools for startups"
  ],
  "brandName": "HubSpot",
  "domain": "hubspot.com",
  "competitors": ["Zoho", "Pipedrive", "Salesforce"],
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "maxPrompts": 3,
  "timeoutSeconds": 30,
  "maxConcurrency": 1
}

For first-run testing, keep maxPrompts at 1. Increase only after the sample output looks useful.

Output example

{
  "prompt": "best CRM software for small business",
  "engine": "google_ai_overview",
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "aiOverviewAvailable": true,
  "answerText": "AI Overview ...",
  "sourceDomains": ["hubspot.com", "pcmag.com", "reddit.com"],
  "targetBrand": "HubSpot",
  "targetDomain": "hubspot.com",
  "targetBrandMentioned": true,
  "targetDomainCited": true,
  "competitorMentions": ["Zoho", "Pipedrive"],
  "engineStatus": "ok_aio",
  "runtimeSeconds": 3.2
}

Output field reference

Each dataset item is one prompt check. The schema is intentionally flat enough for CSV, Google Sheets, webhooks, and BI dashboards, while still keeping source links and competitors as arrays for automation.

Field	Type	Description
prompt	string	The search prompt/query that was checked.
engine	string	Always google_ai_overview for this actor.
queryUrl	string	Rendered Google Search URL with country/language parameters.
answerUrl	string	Final browser URL after redirects or consent flows.
country	string	Google country code used for the check, for example US.
language	string	Google interface language, for example en.
aiOverviewAvailable	boolean	Whether an AI Overview block was detected.
answerText	string	Extracted AI Overview text when present; empty when no AIO was shown.
sourceLinks	array	External links found on the rendered SERP after Google/link wrappers are filtered.
sourceDomains	array	Deduplicated domains from sourceLinks.
targetBrand	string	Brand name supplied in input.
targetDomain	string	Normalized target domain supplied in input.
targetBrandMentioned	boolean	Whether the brand name appears in the extracted AI Overview text.
targetDomainCited	boolean	Whether the target domain appears among extracted source domains.
competitorMentions	array	Competitor names found in the AI Overview text or fallback SERP text window.
engineStatus	string	ok_aio, ok_no_aio, blocked, timeout, or error.
error	string	Short error message when rendering or parsing fails.
blockMarkers	array	Detected block/CAPTCHA phrases when Google blocks the session.
checkedAt	string	UTC timestamp for the check.
runtimeSeconds	number	Runtime for that prompt attempt.

Use cases

• GEO / AEO monitoring for target prompts
• AI Overview source tracking
• Brand visibility checks
• Competitor visibility checks
• SEO source-gap research
• Weekly prompt monitoring for marketing teams

Who should use it

This actor is useful when the question is not "what rank do I have in classic organic search?" but "does Google's AI answer show up, which brands are mentioned, and which external domains appear around that AI answer?"

Typical users:

• SEO teams tracking AI Overview exposure for commercial prompts
• content teams checking whether their domain appears near answer-style SERPs
• agencies monitoring client and competitor visibility across prompt lists
• SaaS teams watching category prompts such as "best CRM for small business"
• affiliate teams checking which publisher domains are surfaced for buyer-intent queries
• internal growth teams building weekly AEO/GEO dashboards

Suggested monitoring workflow

1. Start with 5-20 high-intent prompts from Search Console, paid-search terms, sales calls, or competitor pages.
2. Run the actor with maxConcurrency=1 and timeoutSeconds=30.
3. Export the dataset to Google Sheets, BigQuery, or a webhook.
4. Track these weekly fields: aiOverviewAvailable, targetBrandMentioned, targetDomainCited, sourceDomains, and competitorMentions.
5. Split prompts into buckets:
   • AIO exists and your brand/domain appears: maintain and monitor.
   • AIO exists but competitors appear: improve topical coverage and citation-worthy pages.
   • AIO exists but only publishers/tools appear: identify source-gap opportunities.
   • No AIO: monitor less often or test related prompt variants.

Prompt list examples

For SaaS:

{
  "prompts": [
    "best CRM software for startups",
    "best email marketing software for ecommerce",
    "best customer support software for SaaS"
  ],
  "brandName": "HubSpot",
  "domain": "hubspot.com",
  "competitors": ["Salesforce", "Zoho", "Pipedrive"],
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "maxPrompts": 3,
  "timeoutSeconds": 30,
  "maxConcurrency": 1
}

For local services:

{
  "prompts": [
    "best emergency plumber in Austin",
    "best HVAC repair company in Austin",
    "how much does water heater repair cost in Austin"
  ],
  "brandName": "Example Plumbing",
  "domain": "exampleplumbing.com",
  "competitors": ["Roto-Rooter", "Mr. Rooter"],
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "maxPrompts": 3
}

For affiliate/content sites:

{
  "prompts": [
    "best standing desk for home office",
    "best ergonomic chair for back pain",
    "best monitor light bar"
  ],
  "brandName": "Example Reviews",
  "domain": "examplereviews.com",
  "competitors": ["Wirecutter", "Tom's Guide", "PCMag"],
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

Comparison with classic SERP rank tracking

Need	Classic rank tracker	Google AI Overview Tracker
Track organic position	Yes	No
Detect whether AI Overview appears	No	Yes
Extract answer text	No	Yes, when AIO is present
Track brand mention in AI answer	No	Yes
Track domains surfaced near AI answer	Limited	Yes
Monitor competitor mentions in generated answer	No	Yes
Best cadence	Daily/weekly rankings	Weekly prompt visibility checks

Use both when you need a complete search view: rank tracker for organic positions, this actor for AI Overview visibility.

API usage

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("tugelbay/google-ai-overview-tracker").call(run_input={
    "prompts": ["best CRM software for small business"],
    "brandName": "HubSpot",
    "domain": "hubspot.com",
    "competitors": ["Zoho", "Pipedrive", "Salesforce"],
    "country": "US",
    "language": "en",
    "maxPrompts": 1,
    "timeoutSeconds": 30,
    "maxConcurrency": 1,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["prompt"], item["aiOverviewAvailable"], item["sourceDomains"])

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" });

const run = await client.actor("tugelbay/google-ai-overview-tracker").call({
  prompts: ["best CRM software for small business"],
  brandName: "HubSpot",
  domain: "hubspot.com",
  competitors: ["Zoho", "Pipedrive", "Salesforce"],
  country: "US",
  language: "en",
  maxPrompts: 1,
  timeoutSeconds: 30,
  maxConcurrency: 1,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0]);

Webhook / scheduled monitoring

Create an Apify Task with your prompt list, then schedule it weekly. Use a webhook on run success to send the dataset to:

• Google Sheets
• BigQuery
• Slack
• Make/Zapier
• your internal dashboard

Validation

Validation snapshot from 2026-04-25. This actor was built only after a 20-prompt stability probe:

• 20/20 clean headless Google SERP checks
• 19/20 prompts showed an AI Overview
• 1/20 prompts cleanly returned no AI Overview
• Median local probe runtime: 3.0 seconds. Apify runtime varies with proxy/session state.

Related validation file:

docs/research/google-ai-overview-tracker-validation-results.md

Limitations

• Google decides whether AI Overview appears. Some queries, countries, or sessions may return no AI Overview.
• Google SERP layouts change. The actor returns engineStatus and error fields so monitoring jobs can detect layout or block changes.
• Browser rendering is required; this is not a raw HTTP-only scraper.
• Keep concurrency low. The default is 1, maximum is 3.
• The default input checks one prompt to keep the Try-for-Free run short. Larger prompt lists cost more and can be more affected by Google blocking.

Pricing

Pay per event:

• prompt-check - one event per prompt checked

Base price: $0.01 / prompt-check.

Cost examples

Run size	Input	Prompt-check events	Approx. prompt cost
First test	1 prompt	1	~$0.01
Small category monitor	10 prompts	10	~$0.10
Weekly SaaS prompt set	50 prompts	50	~$0.50
Four weekly 50-prompt checks	200 prompts/month	200	~$2.00/month

Actual platform cost also depends on Apify compute/runtime and your account plan. Keep prompt batches small until you know how often AIO appears for your niche.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Likely cause	What to do
aiOverviewAvailable=false	Google did not show an AI Overview for that query/session/country	This is a valid result. Try related prompts or another country/language.
engineStatus=blocked	Google showed CAPTCHA, unusual-traffic, or block text	Keep maxConcurrency=1, use residential proxy, retry later, or reduce batch size.
engineStatus=timeout	SERP or AIO did not finish rendering within timeout	Increase timeoutSeconds to 45-60 for harder prompts.
Empty answerText with source links	Classic SERP links were available but no AIO text was detected	Treat as no-AIO or inspect the rendered SERP manually.
Competitor not detected	Name spelling differs from input	Add short brand variants to competitors, for example Salesforce and Salesforce CRM.
Target domain not cited	Domain does not appear in extracted external source links	Use sourceDomains to identify which domains are currently surfaced.

FAQ

Does this track ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Grok, or Meta AI?

No. This actor intentionally supports Google AI Overview only. Other engines require separate validation because login, browser mode, rendering behavior, and source extraction differ.

Is sourceLinks exactly the same as AI Overview citations?

No. The actor returns external source links found on the rendered SERP after Google wrapper links are cleaned and Google-owned domains are filtered. This is useful for source-domain monitoring, but it should not be treated as a guaranteed one-to-one list of AIO citation cards.

Why does the same prompt sometimes return different results?

Google personalizes and experiments with SERP layouts. Country, language, time, browser session, proxy, and Google's own AIO rollout can change whether an AI Overview appears.

Should I run this daily?

For most teams, weekly is enough. AI Overview visibility can move, but daily checks may add noise and cost before you have a stable prompt set.

Can I use this for client reporting?

Yes, if you explain the metric correctly: it tracks AI Overview availability, answer text, brand/domain visibility, and extracted external source domains for specific prompts at a specific time.

What is a good first prompt set?

Start with 10-20 prompts that already matter to the business: high-impression Search Console queries, paid search terms, "best X" category searches, sales objections, and competitor-comparison prompts.

Data quality notes

• No-AIO is a valid output, not a failed run.
• engineStatus should be monitored; filter out blocked, timeout, and error before calculating visibility rates.
• Use exact brand names and common short variants in competitors.
• Keep prompt wording stable over time if you want trend charts.
• Store raw datasets for repeatable historical reporting.

Reporting template

For a weekly report, group the dataset by prompt and track these columns:

Metric	How to calculate
AIO coverage	Count rows where aiOverviewAvailable=true divided by total valid rows.
Brand visibility	Count rows where targetBrandMentioned=true divided by rows with AIO.
Domain visibility	Count rows where targetDomainCited=true divided by rows with source domains.
Competitor pressure	Count prompts where competitorMentions is not empty.
Source diversity	Count unique sourceDomains across the prompt set.
Block/error rate	Count blocked, timeout, and error statuses divided by total rows.

Keep the report honest by separating visibility changes from collection quality. A week with many blocked or timeout rows should be marked as a data-quality issue, not as a real visibility drop.

Good prompt hygiene

• Use searcher language, not internal product jargon.
• Avoid changing prompt wording every week if you need trend lines.
• Include buying-intent prompts, comparison prompts, and problem-aware prompts.
• Keep country/language stable for each tracked prompt set.
• Do not mix unrelated markets in one dashboard; separate SaaS, local, ecommerce, and affiliate prompts.
• Add competitor aliases when brand names have common abbreviations.
• Review no-AIO prompts monthly and replace prompts that never trigger useful AI Overview data.

Operational guardrails

Large prompt lists are supported, but small batches are easier to debug. A practical operating pattern is:

1. validate 1 prompt;
2. run 10 prompts;
3. inspect engineStatus distribution;
4. expand to 25-50 prompts;
5. schedule weekly;
6. alert only on valid rows, not on blocked/error rows.

If you need hundreds of prompts, split them into multiple Tasks by category, country, or client. That keeps datasets easier to inspect and reduces the chance that one transient block affects the whole report.

Changelog

• 0.1.10 (2026-04-26) - expanded README, clarified source-link semantics, and kept one-prompt first-run path.
• 0.1 (2026-04-26) - initial Google AI Overview-only MVP.