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Google Search Console now logs AI Mode prompts as queries

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Google Search Console now records AI Mode prompts as search queries, giving online retailers a rare look at how shoppers talk to generative search. That matters because those long, conversational strings are a new demand signal, not noise to ignore. According to Practical Ecommerce, Google’s John Mueller confirmed that follow-up prompts from AI Mode appear in Search Console as queries.

What Search Console is showing

ChatGPT launched nearly four years ago, and Claude followed a few months later. Operators still have little public data on consumer prompts or how platforms generate answers. Most teams still infer generative search behavior from traditional query reports. Bing is the exception: it reports the prompts, called Grounding Queries, that drive fan-out responses.

Google’s AI Mode now records both initial prompts and follow-up prompts as search queries. Anastasia Kourou, SEO manager at Greece-based Relevance Digital Agency, tagged Google’s John Mueller on LinkedIn after seeing genAI-like strings in Search Console, including “yes” and “yes, pricing.” Mueller replied that those were follow-up prompts from users in AI Mode, confirming that the Search Console data is real.

Practical Ecommerce recommends filtering for long, prompt-like queries with regex. In Search Console, go to Performance, add a filter, choose Query, then Custom (regex), and use:

([^” “]*\s){10,}?

That pattern surfaces long queries that look more like AI prompts than classic keyword searches. The report is national and platform-level, not a New York dataset. For NYC marketplace sellers and DTC operators, the same pattern still applies: shoppers in AI Mode are asking follow-ups, and those strings are now sitting in the same Performance report you already use for organic search.

What this means for online retailers

AI Mode queries are not a separate dashboard. They land in the same query list as “best running shoes” and brand terms. Short follow-ups such as “yes” or “yes, pricing” will look like junk unless you know they can be AI Mode continuations. Long, multi-word prompts are easier to spot and closer to how a customer would brief an assistant: product constraints, pricing questions, and comparison language.

That changes how you read Search Console. A spike in unusually long queries may mean shoppers are using AI Mode against your category, not that your keyword targeting broke. Follow-up fragments can also tell you what the model’s first answer left unresolved. If “yes, pricing” appears, the user likely saw a product or plan summary and then asked about cost. That is a merchandising and content gap, not a ranking glitch.

For New York e-commerce operators, this is still a national Google behavior. There is no local Search Console split in the source. Treat it as a US-wide measurement change that will show up in any property getting AI Mode traffic, including stores that sell into New York and the broader US.

This article is educational and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.

Practical takeaways for operators

  • Add a regex query filter in Search Console Performance and review long, prompt-like queries on a regular cadence.
  • Do not dismiss one-word or two-word queries such as “yes” and “yes, pricing” as bot noise until you check whether they cluster with AI Mode sessions.
  • Map long prompts to category pages, FAQs, and product copy. If shoppers ask about pricing, shipping, or comparisons in prompt form, those answers should exist on-site in plain language.
  • Watch Bing Grounding Queries where you have Bing visibility, then compare themes with Google’s long-query set. You still will not get a full prompt-to-answer map from Google, but overlapping themes are a useful proxy.
  • Share the filtered query list with merchandising and customer service, not only SEO. Prompt language often matches the questions your team already hears on chat and email.

The data is incomplete. You still cannot see the full AI Mode conversation or Google’s response methodology. You can see the prompts that made it into Search Console, and that is more than most operators have had since ChatGPT launched. Start with the regex filter, tag the prompt-like queries, and use them to tighten product answers before competitors do.

Want to talk through Search Console reporting with other NYC operators? Contact the New York eCommerce Forum.

Source: Filter AI Mode Prompts in Search Console, Practical Ecommerce.