TL;DR Summary:
New Multimodal Filter: Google Search Console now separates visual search traffic from typed searches, making Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads, and Chrome’s Search this image measurable in Performance reports.Where It Appears: The filter shows up in both Search results and Generative AI features reports, but only for sites already getting qualifying visual-search traffic.What It Still Misses: The update does not add click or query-level data to the Generative AI features report, so you can see multimodal traffic exists without seeing the exact terms behind it.How do you know if people find your site through Google Lens or an image search instead of typed words? Google answered that question on September 24, 2026, by adding a Google Search Console multimodal filter to its Performance report. This matters now because visual search has grown quietly for years, and until this update, site owners had no way to measure it.
What the Google Search Console Multimodal Filter Actually Tracks
Google explained on its Search Central blog that the new filter covers four types of visual search. These include Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, direct image uploads to Google Search, and the Chrome right-click “search this image” option. Each of these lets a user search with a picture instead of typed text. The Google Search Console multimodal filter groups all four together so you can see how much of your traffic comes from these visual methods.
Where You Will Find the New Filter
Google added this filter to two places. The first is the standard report for performance on Search results, which most site owners already check daily. The second is the report for Generative AI features, which tracks how your content appears in Google’s AI-driven search tools. You will see the multimodal filter option in both reports, but only if your site already receives traffic from these visual query types. Google confirmed the rollout started globally on September 24, 2026.
Why the Multimodal Filter Changes How You Read Your Data
Before this update, you had no way to separate visual search visits from regular text search visits inside Search Console. Now you can check whether someone found your page because Google Lens matched an image on your site, or because they uploaded a photo and Google Search returned your content. Google said the goal is to help you understand your site’s performance in visual search and adjust your images based on real numbers instead of guesses. Since this kind of visibility depends on both how visitors discover your content and how automated crawlers, including AI and visual search bots, interact with it, a platform like Screpy can help by pairing Search Console metrics with its own crawl and indexing insights, giving you a clearer view of how these systems are actually reading your site.
What the Google Search Console Multimodal Filter Still Does Not Show
The update has a clear gap. The Generative AI features report still lacks click and query-level data, even after this change. This means you can see that multimodal traffic exists in that report, but you cannot see the exact search terms or images that triggered it. Google did not say when, or if, that data will arrive. Treat this as an open question rather than a promised feature.
What This Means for Your Image Content
If your site earns any visual search traffic, you should check the new filter as soon as it appears in your account. Compare your multimodal numbers against your total search traffic to see how big this segment really is for your pages. Since the filter only shows data when you already have qualifying traffic, an empty report simply means Google has not detected multimodal visits yet, not that the feature failed.
Check your Search Console account now and look for the multimodal option under search type filters in both the Search results and Generative AI features reports. Pay attention to which pages and images draw this traffic, since that tells you what to protect or expand. Watch for future updates from Google on whether click and query data will ever reach the Generative AI features report. If you want to go beyond Search Console’s new multimodal filter and get a fuller picture of how both search engines and AI crawlers discover your content, a tool like Screpy combines Search Console data with bot and crawl monitoring in one dashboard.
