Starting today, you can access Google’s innovative AI Overview feature with our SERP API! This new capability will provide you with AI-generated summaries from search results, including all references to the domains Google’s AI sourced information from to provide a response.
➤ What is AI Overview?
AI Overview in Google Search is a new SERP feature that delivers concise, AI-generated summaries based on the search query results. Powered by Google Gemini, this feature gathers information from various online sources to create a quick, comprehensive overview of a topic, complete with links for those who want to explore further. The idea is to save Search users time by presenting them with a quick and relevant answer to their queries, right at the top of the SERP, so users do not need to manually sift through all the search results.
Here’s what an AI Overview may look like.
➤ The Rollout of AI Overviews in Google Search
Google began rolling out AI Overviews in May 2024, initially to US-based users, with plans to expand globally by the end of the year. Originally part of the Google Search Labs’ Search Generative Experience (SGE) experiment, this feature was available only to those who opted in. However, Google has since broadened access, and it’s expected that over a billion users will encounter AI Overviews in their search results by the end of 2024.
Given the scale of AI Overview implementation and the prominence it takes up in SERP real estate, it’s crucial for the SEO community to stay informed and keep an eye on the impact this new feature has and will have on organic rankings and overall SEO performance.
Understanding the importance of this Google SERP feature release, here at DataForSEO, we started preparing for the change a while ago to ensure our users can track and easily collect information from the AI Overview when it becomes available for impersonalized searches.
With today’s update, we are glad to announce that you can already access AI Overview from Google results with the Advanced functions of DataForSEO SERP API!
➤ AI Overview Types
There are two types of AI Overview elements that are generated in search results.
➤ Synchronous (cached by Google) – this type of AI Overview is immediately available when the search results load. Google has already processed and cached the content, so it’s embedded directly within the HTML of the search results page. When you receive the results, this type of AI Overview is directly included in the response.
➤ Asynchronous – this variant is not immediately available in the HTML content when the search results are first loaded. This happens when the AI Overview needs more time to generate or retrieve the necessary information, meaning there’s a slight delay before the overview becomes visible to the user. However, worry not – DataForSEO already has a solution for you – simply set load_async_ai_overview in your POST request body to true and whenever there’s the AI Overview feature in the results, we will retrieve it for you even if it is not immediately available within the HTML. We’ll explain this in more detail further.
➤ What’s new in SERP API and how to track AI Overview with it?
Effortless AI Overview appearance tracking
First off, you can easily identify when an AI Overview is present. We now automatically include the ai_overview element in the item_types list regardless of its type (synchronous/asynchronous), whenever we detect it in the search results.
New POST request settings
➤ load_async_ai_overview – when set to true, the API will make an additional request to retrieve data if an asynchronous AI Overview is detected. Note that your account will be additionally charged when this parameter set to true in a request. For example, a Standard request with normal priority costs $0.0006. If this request contains "load_async_ai_overview": "true", you will be billed $0.0006 extra, which makes the total charge per reuqest $0.0012. If the asynchronous AI Overview is not available in the SERP, the additional charge will be refunded.
Here are some examples:
- If
"load_async_ai_overview": "true", but a cached AI Overview is present in the SERP, the additional charge is refunded. - If
"load_async_ai_overview": "true", and an asynchronous AI Overview is retrieved, the data is returned, and the additional charge applies. - If
"load_async_ai_overview": "false", and a cached AI Overview is present, the feature is returned without additional charge. - If
"load_async_ai_overview": "false", and an asynchronous AI Overview is detected, the API will return ai_overview:null.
➤ expand_ai_overview – when set to true, this parameter allows the API to “expand” the AI Overview element, retrieving more detailed information for Standard HTML and Live HTML endpoints at no additional charge. By default, this parameter is set to false. In the responses of Advanced SERP API endpoints, you will always get complete expanded JSON data from this feature.
Here’s what the expanded AI Overview may look like from the visualized HTML response.
Example of new parameters in the POST request payload:
[
{
"language_code": "en",
"location_code": 2840,
"keyword": "get organized at work tips",
"load_async_ai_overview": true,
"expand_ai_overview": true
}
]
➤ Summary
This update enhances the SERP API‘s capabilities, making it easy for you to obtain complete AI-generated insights with flexible options for data retrieval. We’re eager to see how this new feature will help streamline search analysis for you and your customers.
Please refer to the updated Google SERP API documentation for detailed instructions on implementing and utilizing the AI Overview feature. To learn more about this element and its component in SERP API response, visit our SERP features page.