#AIConsoleNow
AI Console Now: open letter for AI webmaster tools
An open letter asking every AI platform that uses web sources to show verified site owners how their pages appear in AI answers, and which appearances send visits.
Open letter
Open letter: give website owners a Webmaster Console for AI search
If you run a website, publish content or work in SEO, you need to know how AI answers use your pages and what visits they send. Bing and Google have taken first steps. Sign to ask them to finish the job and every other platform to match it.
To OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Perplexity, Anthropic, Meta, xAI and every company building AI answer engines.
AI assistants now answer millions of questions using content that we, website owners, publishers and SEOs, create and maintain. Yet for most of these platforms we cannot see if, when or how our pages are used.
Some of you have shown it can be done. Bing Webmaster Tools reports AI citations, cited pages and grounding queries. Google Search Console reports AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions by page. Those are real first steps, and we thank the teams who shipped them.
We ask every AI platform that shows web sources to provide, at minimum and per verified site:
- impressions or citations of our URLs in AI answers;
- clicks to our site;
- the landing pages involved;
- aggregated topics or prompt categories, with the privacy thresholds you already use in search;
- country, device and date breakdowns;
- an export or API.
We are not asking for anyone's conversations. Aggregated, thresholded, delayed data protects users, just as Search Console has done for two decades.
If you prefer one shared solution, support an open reporting standard (for example the Content Telemetry events already being developed by OpenAttribution for retrieval, grounding, citation, display and engagement) so that site owners get one consistent view.
Measurement is what keeps the open web worth publishing on. Open the console.
Francisco Leon de Vivero, SEO consultant, and everyone who signs below.
The minimum ask
What we ask for, per verified site
Aggregated, thresholded and delayed, like Search Console. No conversations.
| Data | Granularity | Precedent |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions or citations in AI answers | Per URL and day, with definitions of what is counted. | Bing reports citations and cited pages. Google provides impressions by page and date. |
| Clicks to the site | Per URL and day, under the same safeguards. | OpenAI's confidential partner report included per-URL clicks. The UK CMA requires Google to give publishers clicks for its AI features for UK users, with six months to implement from 3 June 2026. |
| Landing pages | The site URLs that clicks arrive on. | The OpenAI partner report tied metrics to URLs. Bing's cited pages are another precedent for URL-level reporting, although a citation is not a visit. |
| Topics or prompt categories | Aggregated, above privacy thresholds, never individual conversations. | Bing provides sampled grounding queries and intents and topics. |
| Country, device and date | Aggregated breakdowns by site and page where thresholds are met. | Google's Generative AI performance report has these breakdowns for impressions. |
| Export or API | Access to the verified site's data for use in other tools. | OpenAttribution's Content Telemetry events offer shared definitions to build on. Export or API access is part of the ask; it does not exist on every platform today. |
Two paths, and we ask for both: (A) one console per platform, verified like Search Console; (B) support for a shared open standard such as OpenAttribution Content Telemetry, so any tool can show every platform together. And specifically: Bing, add clicks. Google, add queries and clicks everywhere, which the UK CMA already requires for UK users.
Status
What each platform gives site owners today
Status as of 27 October 2026. "No public report found" describes public availability only, not internal systems.
| Platform | What site owners get today | What is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Bing / Copilot | AI Performance reports citations, cited pages and sampled grounding queries. June additions include intents, topics, citation share and period comparisons. | Clicks to the site. |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Search Console’s Generative AI performance report combines both features, with impressions by page, country, device and date. | Clicks and queries. |
| OpenAI / ChatGPT | Tagged outbound clicks. A confidential partner report included per-URL impressions, clicks, CTR and UI placement. | A public console available to any verified site. |
| Perplexity | Analytics for Publisher Program members. Comet Plus revenue sharing uses visits, citations and agent actions. | Self-serve reporting for any site. |
| Anthropic / Claude | Clicks can appear as referrals. | A site-owner report. |
| Gemini app, Meta AI, Grok | No public site-owner report found as of 27 October 2026. | Public reporting for verified sites. |
The full argument, objections and what you can measure today: AI platforms need a webmaster console.
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