AI Overviews vs AI Mode vs Gemini for small businesses

Google runs three AIs that can recommend a business. AI Overviews is the summary at the top of ordinary Google results.²² AI Mode is the chat-style mode inside Google Search. The Gemini app is Google's separate assistant.

What is the difference between AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini?

AI Overviews appear inside normal Google results, but only when Google's systems decide a generated summary will help.⁵ Google says they often don't show at all.⁸

AI Mode is built for questions that used to take several searches, like comparing options.⁶ People open it at google.com/ai, with the AI Mode button after a search, or in the Google app.⁶ Google says it splits a question into subtopics and searches for each one at the same time.⁶

Since January 2026 on phones, and May 2026 on computers too, a follow-up question asked under an AI Overview carries on in AI Mode,⁷²¹ and Google now describes the two as one Search experience.² They still pick their sources separately, as the studies below show.

The Gemini app lives at gemini.google.com and on phones. It is not part of Search, but it can ground its answers in the Google Search index,⁹ and for places it uses public Google Maps information: addresses, websites, ratings and opening hours.¹⁰ The name adds to the confusion: Google's AI models are also called Gemini, and they power AI Overviews and AI Mode too.⁷²¹

Compared	AI Overviews	AI Mode	Gemini app
Where it shows	At the top of Google results22	Its own mode in Google Search6	gemini.google.com and phone apps10
Monthly users	Over 2.5 billion3	Over 1 billion2	Over 1 billion1
Where it looks	Google Search, can run several searches8	Google Search, several searches at once6	Google Search index9
Local sources	Business Profile, 67% of third-party citations13	Business Profile, 53% of third-party citations13	Public Google Maps information10
How to opt out	Search Console toggle15	Search Console toggle15	Google-Extended in robots.txt9
Free Google report	Search Console impressions14	Search Console impressions14	Not in Search Console14

How many people use each one?

Google publishes a monthly user count for all three:

• AI Overviews: over 2.5 billion monthly active users, announced at Google I/O on 19 May 2026.³
• AI Mode: over 1 billion monthly active users, first announced at the same event³ and repeated in Alphabet's Q2 2026 earnings remarks on 22 July.²
• Gemini app: over 1 billion monthly users, announced on 11 August 2026.¹

You will also see 2 billion quoted for AI Overviews. That is Google's own older figure, from July 2025.⁴ The 2.5 billion figure replaced it in May 2026.³

Three cautions. The counts overlap, because one person can use all three in a day, so don't add them up. They are not like for like either: AI Overviews appear on ordinary searches without being asked for,⁵ while the Gemini app is something people open on purpose. And ChatGPT reports weekly users, not monthly, so its numbers sit on a different scale.¹⁶

How does each one pick its sources?

For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google says there is nothing extra to do. A page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google with a snippet, and no AI text files or special schema markup are needed.⁸ We look at that claim in does schema or llms.txt help AI search.

Both features may use what Google calls query fan-out: running several related searches and gathering supporting pages while the answer is written.⁸ Google also says the two may use different models and techniques, so their answers and links will vary.⁸ On 15 October 2026 it said it will test a section at the top of AI answers that points to official websites, for tasks where only one or two official pages will do.²⁰

Studies show how different their habits are. BrightEdge, which sells search software, compared citations across five AI engines in a study published in April 2026:

• About 17.5% of AI Overviews citations came from forums, videos and other posts by users.¹²
• For Gemini that share was 0.2%.¹² About 26% of Gemini's citations came from government, academic and other institutional sites, more than for any other engine in the study.¹²
• AI Mode drew on a wider spread of sites than most engines in the study.¹²

A local study by BrightLocal, which sells local SEO tools including an AI visibility tracker, points the same way: AI Mode cited 81,817 different third-party domains (in 861,263 citations), against 8,541 (in 161,094) for AI Overviews.¹³

Do AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini cite the same pages?

Less often than you might expect from one company. Two studies measured it in different ways.

Same question, same pages? Ahrefs, which sells an AI visibility tool, compared AI Overviews and AI Mode answers to the same US searches, using September 2025 data. Across 730,000 query pairs the answers were 86% similar in meaning, but across 540,000 pairs only 13.7% of cited URLs matched.¹¹ It compared one answer from each, and 45% of AI Overview citations change from one answer to the next, so Ahrefs notes the real overlap may be somewhat higher.¹¹ AI Mode also named more people and brands per answer: 3.3 against 1.3.¹¹

Same favourite sites? BrightEdge compared the 100 domains each engine cites most. AI Mode and AI Overviews overlapped by roughly 59%.¹² Gemini overlapped by only 34% with AI Overviews and 27% with AI Mode,¹² and by 39% with ChatGPT.¹²

The two results fit together. Across many questions, AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on a shared pool of websites, but on any one question they usually pick different pages. Gemini sits further from both, and closer to ChatGPT.

Same brands? More often than the same pages. Ahrefs found that a brand named in an AI Overview had a 61% chance of appearing in AI Mode's answer too.¹¹ Across the five engines BrightEdge studied, the 100 brands each pair named most overlapped by 36% to 55%, a steadier range than for their sources.¹² So being named in one often, but not always, carries over to another.

Both studies come from companies that sell AI search tools, and neither looked only at small local businesses.

Do Google's AIs use my Google Business Profile?

For local questions, yes: your Business Profile is the common thread. BrightLocal's study, published in August 2026, looked at the sources cited for 1,355 business locations in the US, UK and Australia:¹³

• In AI Overviews, Business Profile links were 108,018 of the 161,094 citations BrightLocal counted for third-party sites, about two in three.¹³
• In AI Mode, they were 455,123 of 861,263, just over half.¹³
• Counting every citation across the three AIs it tested, ChatGPT included, BrightLocal puts the Business Profile at 28.5%.¹³
• Yelp came second for both Google AIs, and first for ChatGPT.¹³

BrightLocal did not test the Gemini app, but Google says Gemini uses public Google Maps information for places,¹⁰ which is where your profile's details show. A complete, accurate profile feeds all three. Google's own guidance for its AI features says the same: keep your Business Profile information up to date.⁸ Your website counts too: about 93% of the domains cited in BrightLocal's study were individual business websites.¹³ For more local numbers, see AI local search statistics for 2026.

Can you see or control where you appear?

Partly, and the free tools are worth turning on.

Search Console has a generative AI performance report, open to every website since 31 August 2026. It counts how often links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date.¹⁴ A site with few AI impressions may see no data yet.¹⁴

The report counts links, not mentions, so an answer that names you but links only to your Yelp page would not count. It does not show the questions people asked, and it does not cover the Gemini app or ChatGPT.¹⁴

Opting out works differently for each. A Search Console toggle takes a site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Google says sites that opt out get no traffic or impressions from those features.¹⁵

Whether the Gemini app can use your pages is a separate setting: the Google-Extended rule in robots.txt, which Google says does not affect your place in Google Search.⁹ The same rule also decides whether your pages can train future Gemini models, so it is one choice for both.⁹ If you want the Gemini app to use your site, check that nothing blocks Google-Extended by mistake.

What does this mean for tracking?

Treat them as three places to be found, plus ChatGPT.

1. Check each Google AI on its own. A page cited in AI Overviews is usually not one AI Mode cites for the same search,¹¹ and Gemini's favourite sites differ even more.¹²
2. Add ChatGPT. OpenAI announced 900 million weekly ChatGPT users in February 2026.¹⁶ For local questions it leans on Yelp more than on your Business Profile,¹³ so it can name different businesses from Google's AIs.
3. Ask more than once. In one agency study of repeated local questions, Google's local pack returned the same top business 83.3% of the time.¹⁷ Gemini, asked through Google's API, did so 5.1% of the time.¹⁷ One check is a snapshot, not a trend.
4. Use both kinds of data. Search Console counts real impressions on Google's two Search AIs. A tracker shows which questions name you, and who is named instead.

During the free week, Seenboard asks ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode¹⁸ 25 questions written for your business, every day,¹⁸ and shows who is named instead. Search Console counts the links Google's two Search AIs showed to your site, but not the questions behind them or which businesses were named. Seenboard sees only the questions it asks, so the two work best side by side.

To start smaller, run the free check on ChatGPT and AI Mode,¹⁹ which takes about two minutes and needs no card,¹⁹ or ask the AIs yourself with our guide to checking whether ChatGPT recommends your business. Comparing trackers? See the best AI visibility tools for small businesses and how Seenboard compares with Peec AI.