Google AI Overview API: Citations, Sources and Panel

AI Overviews in the API

Retrieve a site presence in Google AI-generated answers. Three placements are extracted from every AI Overview.

Citations

The brand is mentioned in the AI-generated text.

Citation sources

The link is cited below the text, as the source of a citation.

Source panel

The site appears in the side panel of sources.

Including the ones that show up after load. Especially those.

The brand inside the generated text

Citations

The API picks up every brand Google highlights in the body of the AI-generated answer. A citation can appear without any link to the site: it is returned in a block of its own, separate from the sources, and the full text stays available to search for other names.

The link below the generated text

Citation sources

Google attaches sources to the citations it produces. The API returns their URL and their position among the others, for every keyword and every call.

The site in the side panel

Source panel

The source panel lists the sites used to build the answer. The API returns the full list and the rank of each domain, competitors included.

A real browser, that waits

Captured at the right moment

An AI Overview may already sit in the SERP at load time, or only arrive later, asynchronously. A scraper that reads the initial HTML catches the first case and misses the second. We render every SERP in a real browser, and we wait.

A real response, exactly as the API returns it

Response from our Google AI Overviews API for “meilleure banque en ligne” (best online bank) on google.fr, desktop, collected on 9 October 2026. This AI Overview loaded asynchronously: a scraper that only reads the initial HTML would have missed it.

GET /v1/serp

{
  "keyword": "meilleure banque en ligne",
  "device": "desktop",
  "location": "fr",
  "serp_info": {
    "ai_overview": {
      "type": "async",
      "text": "La BoursoBank (anciennement Boursorama Banque) est la meilleure banque en ligne générale en France, réputée comme la moins chère depuis 18 ans. …",
      "complete": true
    }
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "ai_overview_citation",
      "items": [
        {"rank_type": 1, "rank_serp": 5, "pixel": 258, "domain": "www.boursobank.com", "url": "https://www.boursobank.com/", "brand": "BoursoBank", "visible": true},
        {"rank_type": 2, "rank_serp": 7, "pixel": 370, "domain": null, "url": "", "brand": "BoursoBank", "visible": true},
        {"rank_type": 3, "rank_serp": 12, "pixel": 670, "domain": "www.revolut.com", "url": "https://www.revolut.com/fr-FR/", "brand": "Revolut", "visible": false}
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "ai_overview_citation_source",
      "items": [
        {"rank_type": 1, "rank_serp": 8, "pixel": 370, "domain": "finance-heros.fr", "url": "https://finance-heros.fr/meilleure-banque-ligne/", "brand": "Finance Héros", "visible": false},
        {"rank_type": 2, "rank_serp": 9, "pixel": 370, "domain": "www.moneyvox.fr", "url": "https://www.moneyvox.fr/banque-en-ligne/", "brand": "MoneyVox", "visible": false},
        {"rank_type": 3, "rank_serp": 10, "pixel": 470, "domain": "banque.meilleurtaux.com", "url": "https://banque.meilleurtaux.com/banque-en-ligne/index.html", "brand": "Meilleurtaux Banques", "visible": false}
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "ai_overview_panel",
      "items": [
        {"rank_type": 1, "rank_serp": 1, "pixel": 228, "domain": "banque.meilleurtaux.com", "url": "https://banque.meilleurtaux.com/banque-en-ligne/index.html", "brand": "Meilleurtaux Banques", "visible": true},
        {"rank_type": 2, "rank_serp": 2, "pixel": 238, "domain": "finance-heros.fr", "url": "https://finance-heros.fr/meilleure-banque-ligne/", "brand": "Finance Héros", "visible": true},
        {"rank_type": 3, "rank_serp": 3, "pixel": 248, "domain": "www.moneyvox.fr", "url": "https://www.moneyvox.fr/banque-en-ligne/", "brand": "MoneyVox", "visible": true},
        {"rank_type": 4, "rank_serp": 4, "pixel": 258, "domain": "www.comparabanques.fr", "url": "https://www.comparabanques.fr/comparatif-banque/en-ligne", "brand": "Comparabanques", "visible": false},
        {"rank_type": 5, "rank_serp": 6, "pixel": 268, "domain": "www.boursobank.com", "url": "https://www.boursobank.com/", "brand": "BoursoBank", "visible": false}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Excerpt of the response: text shortened, page, title and description fields removed. The other SERP blocks follow in the same JSON.

Field	What it holds
`ai_overview_citation`	A brand Google highlights in the generated text. domain is null when it is cited without a link, like the second BoursoBank mention.
`ai_overview_citation_source`	The link attached to a citation: the page Google relies on for that passage.
`ai_overview_panel`	The sources of the block, in the order Google shows them, competitors included.
`brand`	The name Google displays: a brand, a site name, sometimes a YouTube channel name or a domain.
`visible`	true if the item shows without a click. Google collapses part of the AI Overview and of the panel; citation sources only appear on click and are always false.
`pixel`	Distance from the top of the page, in pixels, as for organic results.
`serp_info.ai_overview`	type (sync, async or none), text, the generated text in plain form, and complete, which tells whether the full text was captured.

All fields in the documentation

One SERP in two has an AI Overview, and half of them load late

What we measured on one million French keywords, desktop and mobile, in September 2026.

50.87%

of desktop SERPs show an AI Overview, 50.73% on mobile, across our corpus of French keywords.

48%

of these AI Overviews load asynchronously. That rises to nearly two in three below 500 monthly searches.

12.4%

of keywords behave differently on desktop and mobile: an AI Overview on one device, not on the other.

Synchronous: the AI Overview is in the page as soon as it loads. Asynchronous: Google generates it on the fly and inserts it after the page is displayed. Method, volume bands and sample limits in our study of one million French keywords.

What the data lets you measure

Every item is structured to be counted across thousands of keywords, not just read.

Your brand's visibility

Across your keyword list: is your brand cited in the text, with or without a link, is your site in the panel, and how far down the page? Tracked over time, that is your presence in AI Overviews.

Which competitors get cited

Panel and citation source domains, counted over a whole batch of keywords, show who Google relies on to answer. The MCP server runs that calculation directly with its ai_overview_sources tool.

See the MCP server

Desktop vs mobile

One keyword in eight behaves differently on the two devices. Run the same list with device desktop, then mobile, and compare the citations you get.

AI Overviews included, at no extra cost

Our AI Overview scraping API returns the AI Overview with the SERP that contains it, at the SERP price. No option to switch on, and no surcharge for waiting on asynchronous AI Overviews. They come in the Google Search API response, alongside every other SERP block.

€0.30 per 1,000 keywords, page 1

+€0.20 per extra page, for 1,000 keywords

€2.10 per 1,000 keywords over 10 pages

1 to 10% off depending on the amount you top up. Your balance never expires.

See detailed pricing

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a parameter to get AI Overviews?

No. Every Google Search request returns the AI Overview whenever Google shows one. Otherwise serp_info.ai_overview.type is none and text is null.

Does the API pick up every brand named in the text?

It picks up the ones Google highlights as citations. A brand can be named in the text without being highlighted: the full text is provided in serp_info.ai_overview.text, so you can search it for the names you care about.

Are citations always brands?

Most of the time. When Google structures its answer into sections, a heading (“Optique”, “Dentaire”) can come up as a citation. To keep only citations tied to a site, filter on domain.

How long does an asynchronous AI Overview take?

It is awaited during the same collection, with no extra call: expect a median of about twenty seconds of collection for a one-page SERP, about fifty for 10 pages. Median collection time measured on 12 million SERPs (5.3 million one-page and 260,000 ten-page) from September 12 to October 10, 2026; add the wait in your account's queue, which depends on the volume you send. For large volumes, send up to 1,000 keywords per call and fetch the results later, or receive them on your callback URL.

Can I collect AI Overviews on mobile and in other countries?

Yes, on desktop or mobile, and on every Google version the API supports. Google does not show AI Overviews everywhere: when a SERP has none, the API says so with the type none.

Guides

Google AI Overview API

Citations

Citation sources

Source panel

Captured at the right moment

A real response, exactly as the API returns it

One SERP in two has an AI Overview, and half of them load late

50.87%

48%

12.4%

What the data lets you measure

Your brand's visibility

Which competitors get cited

Desktop vs mobile

AI Overviews included, at no extra cost

Frequently asked questions

Go further

AI Overviews in France: one SERP in two, and one in two arrives late

How to scrape Google in 2026

Pixel position: why ranking #1 is no longer enough

Ready to pull AI Overviews?