AI Overview Checker

What the AI Overview checker shows

Type a search the way a buyer would, and this AI Overview checker tells you whether Google shows an AI Overview for it. When it does, you get the overview's text, every page it links as a source, and the order Google lists them in. Add your domain and the checker marks your pages in that list and looks for your brand in the overview.

AI Overviews has no API, so the check reads the Google results page for a desktop search in US English, through DataForSEO, including overviews that load after the rest of the page. A 99Visibility audit reads its Google AI Overviews column the same way.

No overview is a result, not an error

Google does not show an AI Overview on every search. It says AI Overviews "are only shown when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger" (Google Search Central).

When there is none, the checker says so, and there is nothing to be cited in. In a 99Visibility audit, a prompt with no overview is left out of the score, not counted as a miss.

AI Overviews and AI Mode are different answers

AI Mode is Google's separate, conversational answer in its own tab. Google says "AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary." A search with no overview may still get an AI Mode answer, and a page cited in one can be missing from the other. Compare the two with the Google AI Mode checker.

How to read the result

• AI Overview shown. Yes or no, for this search at the moment it ran.
• Sources cited. How many pages the overview links, each with its site and full address.
• Your domain. "Cited #2" means your first page is second in the order Google listed the overview's sources: a place in a list, not a ranking Google publishes. Subdomains count as yours.
• Brand named. Whether the overview uses the name in your domain as a whole word. It is a guess from the domain, so a brand named differently from its domain can read as not named.

The summary, the top of the overview and the first three sources are free. Your email opens the whole overview, every source and a CSV download.

What one check cannot tell you

• One search at one moment. Whether an overview appears, and what it says, can change from one search to the next. A result is a sample, not a verdict.
• One place. US English results on desktop. Other countries and languages can show a different overview, or none.
• Your ordinary ranking. The checker reads the overview, not where your page sits in the results under it.
• The searches behind it. Google says both features may use a "query fan-out" technique, "issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources." No outside tool sees them.

Why your page may not be cited

Look at access first, because it is the requirement Google writes down: "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, fulfilling the Search technical requirements. There are no additional technical requirements." Nor is markup a way in: "There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add" (Google Search Central). Three checks cover it:

1. Can Googlebot fetch the page? Among its fundamentals, Google lists "Ensuring that crawling is allowed in robots.txt, and by any CDN or hosting infrastructure." The robots.txt checker shows the line that decides Googlebot; the AI crawler checker shows which crawlers your firewall turns away.
2. Is it indexed? URL Inspection in Google Search Console answers that.
3. May Google quote it? Google names nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex as the controls that "limit the information shown from your pages in Search." Its robots meta tag specification says max-snippet "will also limit how much of the content may be used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode" (Google Search Central).

A page that passes all three is eligible, not guaranteed a place: Google says "Indexing and serving isn't guaranteed."

Track AI Overviews on every prompt, over time

A 99Visibility visibility audit checks Google AI Overviews for every prompt you track, on every plan, Free included, and keeps each overview with its sources, so one audit can be compared with the next.

• Platforms: Free audits ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. From Starter ($49/mo), audits add Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.
• Prompts and audits: Free: 5 keywords and 1 audit a month; Starter ($49/mo): 25 keywords and 15 audits a month; Growth ($99/mo): 50 keywords and 50 audits a month; Pro ($149/mo): 100 keywords and 150 audits a month.
• Re-audits run weekly or monthly from Starter, so you see a trend, not one reading.
• The access check runs with every audit: robots.txt read for 18 AI crawlers, your page requested as each crawler that fetches pages, and a scan for snippet controls.

The Free plan needs no card; paid plans start with a 7-day trial that takes one. Compare plans and pricing.