surfaces: ["google_ai_overview"]AI Overviews sit above the organic results and answer the query before anyone scrolls. There is no official API for them. We render the real results page in a browser and return the AI Overview as a structured Envelope, the answer with its linked sources inline, and, critically, whether it appeared at all: absence is first-class data, not an error.
curl -sS -X POST "https://api.aisearchapi.dev/v1/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AISEARCH_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"query": "how to fix a leaking tap",
"surfaces": ["google_ai_overview"],
"regions": [{ "country": "US" }, { "country": "GB" }, { "country": "DE" }]
}'
# → 202 { "jobId": "…", "children": ["….google_ai_overview.…"] }
# then poll GET /v1/jobs/:childId, or add ?mode=sync for an inline EnvelopeOne canonical Envelope, the same four sections every surface returns, with the fields Google AI Overview actually populates. Field names below are the contract, not a summary.
provenance.surfacePresentThe field that matters most here: AI Overviews trigger on some queries and not others. false means the SERP rendered with no Overview, the job completes, flagged surface_absent, recorded rather than dropped.
answer.text · answer.markdown · answer.blocksThe AI Overview’s text as rendered in the block, normalized, with the pages it links preserved inline in the markdown.
answer.markdown (inline links)The sites the Overview cites come through inline in the answer markdown, the citation set GEO teams live on, ready for your own extraction.
provenance.regionRequested-vs-effective country. Overview presence and content vary hard by market, capture the same query across any ISO countries you target and diff.
html (opt-in proof-of-page)Set include.html:true and the Envelope carries a top-level html URL — a proof-of-page snapshot of the rendered SERP, fetchable at GET /v1/artifacts/{key}. Off by default.
{
"job": {
"id": "job_c2e84d17.google_ai_overview.US",
"surface": "google_ai_overview",
"status": "completed",
"warnings": []
},
"provenance": {
"surfacePresent": true,
"region": { "requested": "US", "effective": "US" }
},
"answer": {
"text": "To fix a leaking tap, first turn off the supply…",
"markdown": "To fix a leaking tap, first turn off the supply [thespruce.com]…",
"blocks": [ { "type": "paragraph", "text": "…" } ]
}
}
// and when no Overview triggers, absence-is-data:
{
"job": { "status": "completed", "warnings": ["surface_absent"] },
"provenance": { "surfacePresent": false },
"answer": { "text": "", "markdown": "", "blocks": [] }
}The AI Overview block captured live from the real results page.
Phase-2 surfaces are roadmap, not product. Requesting one returns an honest 422 today. The full picture is on the coverage page.
By rendering the real Google results page in a stealth browser, the same page a user in that country sees, and extracting the AI Overview block. There is no official Google API for Overviews; capturing what a person actually sees means rendering the SERP.
That is a result, not an error. The job completes with surfacePresent:false and a surface_absent warning, you are charged nothing, and the absent result is recorded rather than dropped. "No Overview shown in DE on this date" is a data point. Overview trigger rates are exactly what visibility teams need to measure.
Yes, the sites the Overview links come through inline in answer.markdown, exactly as it cited them. Parse them out and diff that set across days and regions, the core AI-Overview GEO workflow this endpoint was built for.
Five credits per successful capture, an absent Overview costs nothing. The whole Envelope — answer, provenance and structured evidence — is included; 500 free credits to start.
google_ai_overview targets the Overview block and its answer specifically; google_search captures the classic organic SERP context. Many teams run both on the same query, same Envelope shape, same request, two child jobs.
500 free credits, charged only on success, and the same Envelope for every other surface when you add them.