Google AI Overview Checker

What is a Google AI Overview?

An AI Overview is the answer Google writes with AI at the top of some search results, above the regular links. It sums up the topic in a few paragraphs and cites the pages it used, as small links next to the text or in a list on the side.

For a buyer who types "best tool for X", this answer is often the first shortlist they read. The pages it cites get the visibility. The others may never be seen.

How to check an AI Overview and its sources

With the checker above. Type the query and pick a country. The checker runs a real Google search from that country, waits for the AI Overview to load, and shows you three things: the answer text, the pages it cites in order, and the Reddit threads among them. Each number in the text matches a page in the source list. Add your domain to see if your site is cited.

By hand. Open a private window, so your history does not change the results, and search the query on Google. If an AI Overview appears, click "Show more" to read all of it, then open the list of links on the side. This works, but only for your own country, and you have to repeat it for every query.

Cited, ranked or absent: what the result means

The checker puts your site in one of four cases. Only one of them is the goal.

• Cited in the AI Overview. Google used one of your pages to write the answer. The position shows how early it appears in the source list.
• Ranked, but not cited. Your page is in the top 10, but the AI Overview used other pages. This is the most common case, and the most useful one to fix: Google already trusts your page for the query.
• Not in the top 10 and not cited. Google does not connect your site to this query yet. Start with the regular results.
• No AI Overview for this query. Google showed only regular results. The checker still lists the Reddit threads in the top 10.

Where does Google's AI Overview get its information?

From pages in Google's own index. The cited sources are often pages that also rank for the query, but not always. The AI Overview can cite a page from page two, and skip the first result. It picks passages that answer the question directly.

The sources are usually a mix of three kinds of pages: articles and listicles, the websites of the products in question, and discussions such as Reddit threads. The checker shows you that mix for your query.

Why Reddit threads show up in AI Overviews

Google cites Reddit threads often, because people there compare real products and answer each other's questions in plain words. For a query like "best X for Y", a thread where users list what they use is exactly the kind of passage an AI answer needs.

For you, a cited Reddit thread is the one source you can take part in. You cannot edit a competitor's blog post. You can post a helpful answer in a thread Google already uses, and mention your product where it truly fits.

How to get cited in an AI Overview

There is no setting or tag that gets you into an AI Overview. What helps:

1. Rank for the query first. Most cited pages also rank in the regular results for the same query.
2. Answer the question in one clear passage. A short paragraph or list that answers the query directly is easier for the AI to use than an answer spread over a long page.
3. Be present in the sources Google already cites. If a Reddit thread is cited for your query, a useful reply in it puts your product inside a source Google trusts.
4. Check again. AI Overviews change often. Run the same queries every few weeks to see which sources come and go.

Why doesn't my query show an AI Overview?

Google shows AI Overviews only when it judges them useful. Short queries, brand names and queries for a specific website often get none. Questions and comparisons, such as "how to X" or "best X for Y", get one much more often. The result can also change by country and from one day to the next.

What this tool does not check

The checker reads one query, from one country, on desktop, at one moment. It does not check Google's AI Mode, mobile results or personalized results. It does not check ChatGPT, Claude or other AI assistants, which choose their sources in their own way. Results are kept for 7 days, and the date of the check is shown under the results.

Follow the threads, not just one query

Your buyers search many variations of the same question, and new Reddit threads start ranking every week. RedShip finds the Reddit threads that rank on Google and in AI answers for your keywords, and tells you which ones are worth a reply. Check a query here, and let RedShip watch the rest.