Gary Illyes from Google has implied that click data and query data are likely not coming to the AI performance report in Google Search Console. Gary Illyes wrote that the Search Console team is interested in bringing "data that makes sense" to the report but didn't say clicks or query data was that data that made sense or was useful.
This came up on a LinkedIn post that quoted a Googler saying that click data and query data may be coming soon. The quote was from the Google Search Central live but not attributed to a specific Googler. The quote was:
The clicks and queries data is the most requested data set by website owners and SEOs. We are also anticipating this data to be available in Google Search Console but, even we don't know by when this data will be added.
Gary Illyes from Google replied:
I don't think we've phrased it like this. The team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don't have anything to announce yet.
The truth is, this is the line Google has been giving us for years...
I mean, I am sure that click and query data are the most asked for metrics for this AI performance report but it also seems that Google does not think click or query data makes sense to provide in those reports.
If click data does not make sense, then what does? I mean, click data is in the main Search Console performance reports. Do we not want to know if searchers are clicking to our sites from within AI Overviews or AI Mode results? Are the click-through rates not important metrics for us to understand?
It is how Google charges for most of its ads in Google Ads, on a cost-per-click basis (although that is changing). It is what we call the whole PPC (pay-per-click) industry in search.
What data makes more sense than click data?
Here is a screenshot of the posts (I cropped it a bit to fit better):
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
John Mueller from Google posted a response on Bluesky that it was a weird way of reading the comment - so maybe click data is coming? I doubt it...
