What Did Google Announce, and Is It Fully Rolled Out?
Google's Search Central Blog post of Thursday, September 24, 2026, “Announcing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console,” adds multimodal reporting to the Search results Performance report and to the Generative AI features report. It is credited to Harsh Kharbanda, Product Manager Lead, Google Lens, and Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead, Search Console. The post says the integration “is rolling out globally starting today” and that “You will start seeing these metrics in your Performance report if your site is receiving traffic from these queries” (Google Search Central Blog).
That second sentence matters. An empty multimodal view can mean the site gets no image-started traffic, not that the feature is missing. The Generative AI report help page carries a separate note that those insights reached all websites worldwide on August 31, 2026; that note concerns the report, not the multimodal filter (Search Console Help). If you have not yet verified a property, see how to verify your site in Google Search Console.
What Does the Multimodal Filter Count?
The filter sits in the search type control. Google's help page says Web: multimodal “Includes search traffic when users search using images (such as with a smartphone camera). This includes searches originating from Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, uploaded images, and Chrome image search” (Search Console Help).
| Search type | What Google's help page says it includes |
|---|---|
| Web: text-based | Search traffic from text queries entered in the standard Google search bar |
| Web: multimodal | Search traffic when users search using images: Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, uploaded images, Chrome image search |
| Image | Search traffic from results shown in the Google Images tab |
| Video | Search traffic from results shown in the Google Videos tab |
| News | Search traffic from the Google News tab and the news search results view |
Two points follow. First, multimodal is a slice of Web, not of Image. A founder headshot found through the Google Images tab belongs to the Image type; the same headshot used to start a Lens search belongs to Web: multimodal. Reading one filter alone will undercount image-led discovery. Second, the blog post names Chrome's right-click “Search this image” feature while the help pages say “Chrome image search”. We read them as the same feature; neither page names any other image-input route, so we would not assume others are counted.
Why Are There No Queries in the Multimodal View?
Because the search usually has no words. Google's dimensions help page says: “Because multimodal searches mostly use images rather than text, specific text query data isn’t available for this traffic. As a result, the queries dimension isn’t available when this search type is selected” (Search Console Help).
No dimension in either report identifies the image that was searched either. The Performance report lists Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance and Dates (Search Console Help); the Generative AI report lists Pages, Countries, Dates and Devices (Search Console Help).
dimensions available (count of those Google lists)
Source: Google, Search Console Help, "Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup," "Performance report (Search results): Dimensions and data groupings" and "Generative AI performance report (Search)." Read October 12, 2026.
Counts are ours, from Google's lists. Performance report dimensions: Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance, Dates; Google says the queries dimension is not available when the multimodal type is selected. Generative AI report dimensions: Pages, Countries, Dates, Devices, with no query dimension for either type. The chart shows how many cuts are documented, not how much data exists.
Aggregation also differs by view. Google says data grouped by Queries, Countries, Devices or Dates “is aggregated by property,” while data grouped by Pages or Search appearance “is aggregated by page” (Search Console Help), so page-level totals and property-level totals will not always match. The Generative AI page adds that the usual “1,000 row limitation” and time-period limits of the Search performance report also apply (Search Console Help).
How Do You Find and Export the Data?
The post says to “use the new multimodal search type filter in the performance reports” and to click “Export” to download the data (Google Search Central Blog). Both help pages warn that “Values shown as either ~ or - in the report (not available/not a number) will be zeros in the downloaded data.” A zero in a spreadsheet can therefore mean “not available”, not “none”.
The post does not mention the Search Analytics API. The API reference we read on October 12, 2026 lists discover, googleNews, news, image, video and web as type values, with web described as the combined (“All”) tab, and no multimodal value (Search Console API). Until that changes, the multimodal view appears to be available through the interface and its export only. Our recommendation, not a Google rule: export the multimodal view monthly and keep the files, because the pages we read do not say how far back this data goes.
What Does the Filter Miss?
| Question | What the pages we read say |
|---|---|
| Which image was searched? | No dimension identifies an image. Data is grouped by page, country, device or date. |
| What text query was used? | Not available; the queries dimension is switched off for multimodal. |
| Clicks from AI features? | The Generative AI report describes impressions only, in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and excludes Search Labs experiments. |
| Pages on other sites? | Both reports cover properties you have verified. Coverage hosted by a publisher appears in that publisher's property. |
| Are the two reports additive? | No. Google says the Generative AI report “includes data from the Web search type in the Performance report.” |
| Data before September 24, 2026? | Not documented in the pages we read. |
The practical effect is that the filter counts arrivals and says little about cause. It cannot tell a logo from a cover-art screenshot or a product photo on the same page. For what the Generative AI report does and does not show more broadly, see what Search Console shows for AI answers, and for the difference between the two AI surfaces, Google AI Overviews vs AI Mode.
Does It Show Whether People Find Press and Podcast Images?
Only indirectly. A press page with headshots, a media kit page (see press kit vs media kit) or an episode page carrying guest photos and cover art (see how to write podcast show notes) is a page like any other in the Pages table. If that URL shows multimodal impressions, an image-started search surfaced it. Whether the image was the headshot is not something the data can confirm.
Our suggested reading, not a platform rule: compare the same URLs under Web: multimodal and under Image, treat the multimodal row as a proxy for image-led discovery, and avoid calling a page's multimodal numbers “headshot traffic”. The pages we read say nothing about what makes a page appear in these searches, so no change to images or markup should be expected to move the numbers.
What This Means for Anyone Buying a Placement
Search Console reports on properties you verify. A paid article, sponsored post or paid podcast spot is advertising: it should be labeled as sponsored, and its links are typically nofollow or sponsored. It lives on the publisher's domain, so any image-led discovery of it shows up in the publisher's reporting, not yours. The same applies to earned coverage; see who controls a placement once it runs.
The uncomfortable conclusion is that this filter measures your own pages, where press imagery is usually a small part of what exists. It cannot credit a placement with visual-search discovery, and nothing in Google's pages suggests a placement produces multimodal impressions for the buyer. Any vendor reporting “visual search results” from a placement should be asked which property and which report the figure came from.
Methodology and Limitations
Four limits apply. First, we read Google's September 24, 2026 blog post, three Search Console Help pages and the Search Analytics API reference on October 12, 2026; help pages change without notice. Second, we did not run the filter on a live property, so behavior is as documented, not observed. Third, the pages do not say whether data before September 24 exists or how long it is kept. Fourth, the chart counts the dimensions Google lists; it measures how many cuts are documented, not how much data exists.
Conclusion
Search Console now separates image-started web searches from typed ones, and that is new, usable data. It is page-level, limited to your own properties, without query text and silent on which image was searched. Use it to baseline how often press, media kit and episode pages surface through Lens and similar tools, export it monthly, and read it beside the Image filter. Do not use it to prove that a placement or an image change worked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Search Console show Google Lens traffic?
Yes, since a September 24, 2026 announcement. Searches made with Lens are included in the “Web: multimodal” search type, alongside Circle to Search on Android, uploaded images and Chrome image search (Google Search Central Blog; Search Console Help).
Where is the multimodal filter in Search Console?
It is an option in the search type filter of the Performance report for Search results, and the Generative AI report has the same text-based and multimodal options. Google says metrics appear only if your site is receiving traffic from these searches.
Is multimodal traffic the same as Google Images traffic?
No. Google defines the Image type as traffic from results shown in the Google Images tab, and Web: multimodal as traffic when users search using images, such as with a smartphone camera (Search Console Help). A page can appear under either.
Can I see search queries for multimodal traffic?
No. Google says specific text query data is not available for this traffic, so the queries dimension is unavailable when the multimodal search type is selected (Search Console Help).
Can I export multimodal data from Search Console?
Yes. Google's post says to click Export to download the data. Values shown as ~ or - in the report become zeros in the download, so check for gaps before analyzing (Search Console Help).
Does a paid placement show up in my multimodal data?
Only if the page is on a property you have verified in Search Console. A sponsored article on a publisher's site appears in the publisher's reporting, and nothing in Google's pages says any placement produces multimodal impressions.
Sources
Built from Google's September 24, 2026 Search Central Blog post, three Search Console Help pages and the Search Analytics API reference, all read on October 12, 2026. The suggestions to export monthly, to compare Web: multimodal with Image and not to add the two reports together are our recommendations, not Google rules. We did not test the filter on a live property.
- official Google Search Central Blog, Announcing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console. Supports the September 24, 2026 date, authors, scope, rollout statement and Export instruction. Read October 12, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Console Help, Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup. Supports the search type definitions, dimension list, aggregation rules and export behavior. Read October 12, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Console Help, Performance report (Search results): Dimensions and data groupings. Supports the absence of query data and of the queries dimension for multimodal. Read October 12, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report (Search). Supports the AI Overviews and AI Mode scope, Search Labs exclusion, search types, dimensions, row limit, Web-type overlap and the August 31, 2026 rollout note. Read October 12, 2026.
- platform documentation Google for Developers, Search Analytics: query (Search Console API reference). Supports the list of type values, with no multimodal value. Read October 12, 2026.