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Adel Dahani
GEO Analyst
Adel tracks AI citation rates across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews. He turns raw visibility data into actionable insights that guide our optimization strategy.
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Short answer
- In Search Console's Performance report for Search results, set the Search type filter to Web: multimodal. That shows clicks and impressions from Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads and Chrome's "Search this image". Queries aren't shown for this traffic.
People who point a phone camera at a product, circle a photo on Android or right-click an image in Chrome are searching Google. Since September 24, 2026, you can find that Google Lens traffic in Search Console as its own search type, which Google calls Web: multimodal.
Google announced it in a short Search Central post. This guide sticks to that post and to Search Console's own help pages. You get the exact filter names, the steps to compare and export, what the view hides (queries, mainly), and what Google's image docs say to fix once you know which pages people reach this way. Where Google hasn't said something, we say so.
What did Google add to Search Console?
A new search type. Google put it this way: "Today, we are excited to introduce Search Console reporting for web multimodal search, in the report for performance on Search results as well as in the report for Generative AI features."
It counts searches made with an image instead of typed words. The post lists four ways in: "The data reported here includes searches with Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and the Chrome right-click "Search this image" feature."
| Question | What Google says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Since when? | "rolling out globally starting today" (September 24, 2026) | Google's post |
| Which searches count? | Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, Chrome's right-click "Search this image" | Google's post |
| Which reports have it? | The Performance report for Search results and the report for Generative AI features | Google's post |
| What do you click? | "the new multimodal search type filter". Help pages name the option "Web: multimodal" | Performance report help |
| Can you download it? | "Click "Export" to download the data" | Google's post |
| Will every site see data? | Only "if your site is receiving traffic from these queries" | Google's post |
| Are queries shown? | No. "the queries dimension isn't available when this search type is selected" | Dimensions help |
| Can you split Lens from Circle to Search? | Not stated by Google | |
| Is there data from before September 24? | Not stated by Google | |
| Which Web option is the default? | Not stated by Google | |
| Does older "Web" history now count as text-based? | Not stated by Google |
Is Web: multimodal the same as the Image search type?
No, and this is the easiest mistake to make. The search type filter now lists Web: text-based, Web: multimodal, Image, Video and News. The Performance report help page defines the three that matter here:
- Web: text-based: "Includes search traffic originating from text queries entered into the standard Google search bar."
- 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."
- Image: "Includes search traffic from results shown in the Google Images tab."
So "image search" can mean two things. If someone types "red trail running shoes" and clicks your photo in the Images tab, that is Image. If someone photographs a shoe with Lens and reaches your product page, that is Web: multimodal. Check both.
How do you find Google Lens traffic in Search Console?
Six steps. The labels below are the ones Google uses in its help pages.
1. Open the Performance report for Search results
Use the Performance report link from Google's help page and pick your property. The default view shows "click and impression data for your site in Google Search results for the past three months."
2. Set Search type to Web: multimodal
Click the Search type filter at the top of the report and choose Web: multimodal. Google's help notes that "You can't remove the Search type or date filters", so this filter is always there to change.
If the chart stays empty, Google's post gives the likely reason: you only see the metrics "if your site is receiving traffic from these queries."
3. Pick a date range
Click the date filter to change the period. Google hasn't said whether data exists from before September 24, 2026, the launch date. Start your range on or after that day, so you know the whole period was covered.
4. Compare multimodal with text-based search
Google's advanced filtering help says Compare can "Evaluate two devices, countries, Search types, or Search appearances side by side." The steps, in Google's words:
- "Open or add a filter by editing an existing filter, or click New to add a new one (for example, for Date or Search type)."
- "Choose Compare in the filter properties dialog box."
- Add the two values you want. Here that is Web: multimodal and Web: text-based.
- "Click Apply."
The table then shows "a Difference column to compare values in each row." That is the raw gap, and on most pages typed searches will be the bigger number. To see which pages rely most on multimodal traffic, export the Pages tab for each search type and divide multimodal clicks by the two added together. That method is ours, not Google's.
Google allows "only one comparison at a time." To compare this month with last month instead, swap the comparison over to dates and set the chart to Weekly or Monthly. Google says that "neutralizes the "day-of-the-week" effect."
5. Work from the other table tabs
Google says the queries dimension isn't available with this search type. It doesn't comment on the other tabs (Pages, Countries, Devices, Search appearance, Dates). Those are the ones to use. More on queries below.
6. Click Export
Google's post says to "Click "Export" to download the data and analyze it in your other tools." The help page adds that "Values shown as either ~ or - in the report (not available/not a number) will be zeros in the downloaded data." Don't read those zeros as real zeros.
No API access yet (checked November 11, 2026). The Search Console API's searchanalytics.query reference lists discover, googleNews, news, image, video and web as search types. No multimodal value. When we requested search type "MULTIMODAL" for our own property on November 11, 2026, the API returned HTTP 400, "Invalid value at 'search_type'". Google has also not said whether the API's web type includes multimodal traffic. So for now this data comes out through the Search Console interface and its Export button only. Scripts and dashboards that pull from the API can't request it yet. Google has not said when that changes.