What Is Google AI Mode? How It Differs From AI Overviews

Google AI Mode is a chat-style search mode inside Google. You open it on purpose, ask a question, and get a long AI-written answer with links. Then you can keep asking follow-up questions.

AI Overviews are not something you open. They are short AI summaries that Google adds by itself to the top of a normal results page, with the usual links below.

Both run on Google’s Gemini models, and both cite web pages. The difference is who starts them, how long the answer is, and what happens to the normal results.

What is Google AI Mode?

AI Mode is Google Search turned into a conversation. Instead of a page of links, you get one written answer, with source links beside it. You can ask a follow-up and AI Mode keeps the context.

Google announced it on March 5, 2025, as a test in Search Labs, its opt-in area for new features. On May 20, 2025, Google opened AI Mode to everyone in the US with no sign-up. By June 2026, Google said AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users.

The key idea behind it is query fan-out. Google describes it as breaking a question into subtopics and running many searches at once. AI Mode then reads those results and writes one answer.

Since May 2026, Google says Gemini 3.5 Flash is the default model in AI Mode worldwide.

What are AI Overviews?

An AI Overview is a short summary at the top of a normal Google results page. Google writes it with AI and links to the pages it used. You never ask for it. It appears when Google’s systems decide it will help.

AI Overviews came first. Google rolled them out to everyone in the US on May 14, 2024. In June 2026, Google said AI Overviews had more than 2.5 billion monthly active users.

They show up on a lot of searches. On October 9, 2026, we pulled 30 mixed US desktop searches and found an AI Overview on 18 of them. That included every question search and none of the “near me” searches. We cover the details in how to track AI Overviews.

AI Mode vs AI Overviews: the main differences

The two are now linked. In May 2026 Google said you can ask a follow-up question right from an AI Overview, on desktop and mobile. That moves you into AI Mode, with your first search carried over.

How to get to AI Mode

There are four ways in.

1. Search on Google and select AI Mode. It appears below or beside the search bar.
2. Go to google.com/ai. This opens AI Mode directly.
3. Use the Google app. In May 2025, Google said AI Mode would appear in the app’s search bar.
4. Ask a follow-up from an AI Overview. Google hands you over to AI Mode.

Google also runs an “AI Mode” test inside Search Labs, where new AI Mode features show up first. Its help page says you must be 18 or older and use a personal Google Account for the Labs version.

Is AI Mode the same as Gemini?

No. AI Mode is part of Google Search. It answers by searching the web and linking to the pages it used. The Gemini app at gemini.google.com is Google’s separate assistant, for chat, writing, and other tasks. Both use Gemini models, which is why the names get mixed up.

A simple rule: if you started on google.com and see source links next to the answer, you are in AI Mode.

How AI Mode and AI Overviews pick their sources

Google says both features may use query fan-out. While the answer is being written, Google finds more pages to support it. Google says this lets it show “a wider and more diverse set of helpful links” than a classic search.

You can see the effect in AI Overviews. In our October 9, 2026 sample of 56 US desktop pages, only 24 percent of cited URLs also ranked in the organic top 10. One likely reason is that fan-out searches reach pages that never show on page one for your exact query. We did not measure AI Mode, so we can’t give a number for it.

Google says there is nothing special to do to appear in either one. A page has to be indexed and allowed to show a snippet in normal search. Google lists no special markup and no AI text file. Our guide to LLM SEO covers what does seem to help.

What AI Mode and AI Overviews mean for clicks

The best outside data so far is about AI Overviews. Pew Research Center tracked the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. When a Google page had an AI summary, people clicked a normal result on 8 percent of visits. Without a summary it was 15 percent. They clicked a link inside the summary on just 1 percent of visits.

Google sees it differently. Its guide for site owners says clicks from pages with AI Overviews are “higher quality”, meaning people tend to spend more time on the site. Google has not published click-through numbers for either feature.

For AI Mode the evidence is thinner. There are no normal blue links on the page, only source links next to the answer. That points to fewer clicks per search, but we have not seen solid public data. Treat any confident number with care.

If your clicks dropped while your rank held steady, an AI answer above you is one likely cause. Our guide to a good organic CTR shows how to spot the gap.

What it means for tracking

The two features need different tracking.

AI Overviews are easy to sample. They sit on a normal results page, so tools can fetch the page from a fixed city and device and save who was cited. Our SERP features guide shows where the overview sits among the other blocks.

AI Mode is harder. It lives on its own page, changes with each follow-up, and can draw on your Google activity if you allow it. Two people asking the same thing may get different answers.

Search Console covers both, in a limited way. Google says clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode count in the normal Performance report, under the Web search type. Since August 31, 2026, every site can also get a Generative AI performance report. It counts how often your links were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google’s help page describes impressions only, with no split between the two features.

If you want to skip AI answers as a searcher, read how to turn off AI Overviews. There is no off switch, but there are good workarounds.