ChatGPT prompts in Google Search Console, and how to filter them
Some AI tools send their prompts to Google as searches, and Search Console logs them as queries that never click. Where they come from, what they do to your CTR, and the one filter that finds them.
In short
- ChatGPT normally rewrites a prompt into short searches. In late 2025 a glitch sent some prompts to Google whole and they showed up in Search Console; OpenAI said in November 2025 that it had resolved it.
- Software still sends prompts to Google as searches. On a client's site, 68 matched our filter between 24 June 2025 and 3 November 2026: 769 impressions and no clicks.
- Each one adds impressions without a click, so it lowers click-through rate and makes reach look bigger than it is.
- Find them in Performance > Search results > Add filter > Query > Custom (regex), and switch to Doesn't match regex to take them out before you read CTR.
ChatGPT prompts in Google Search Console are rows in the Performance report where the query is text written for an AI model, sent to Google as a search and logged like one. They read nothing like what a person types, and they rarely if ever bring a click, so they add impressions and lower your click-through rate. One regex filter lists them, and the same filter can take them out.
On a client's site we checked on 6 November 2026, Search Console held 68 of them, with 769 impressions and no clicks between them.
Why do ChatGPT prompts show up in Google Search Console?
Because a tool sent the prompt to Google as it was, instead of first turning it into a short search. ChatGPT normally does that step. OpenAI's help page on searching the web with ChatGPT, read on 6 November 2026, says ChatGPT search "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" for its search partners. Its example turns a researcher's question about cancer drugs that target CCR8 into the search "CCR8 immunotherapy drug development 2025".
In late 2025 that step failed for some prompts. Jason Packer, who runs the analytics firm Quantable, found searches in Search Console that read like ChatGPT prompts, some more than 300 characters long, and wrote them up in October 2025. With the consultant Slobodan Manić he traced the pattern: every one started with the address https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/, and they turned up on sites that ranked on Google for the words in that address.
Ars Technica reported it in November 2025. An OpenAI spokesperson told Ars the company had "resolved" a glitch "that temporarily affected how a small number of search queries were routed", and Google declined to comment. heise online covered it on 8 November 2025. OpenAI did not say how many prompts were affected. Packer's reading, added to his post after OpenAI replied, is that the layer that turns a prompt into a web search was being skipped, so the raw prompt was searched instead.
The prompt rows we have found on the sites we manage do not start with that address, and nothing in them names the tool that sent them. They look like the work of prompt templates and research scripts that send their own searches to Google.
What do AI prompts look like in Search Console?
They are long, and they carry words written for a model or a script. Two we have found, word for word:
context: location: united states (not for language). do not include location references in your response. question: keyword gap analysis software comparison
分析以下金融事件：albania expressed aspirations to join the european union as of january 2024. -filetype
-site.com -site.com -site.com -site.com -site.com -site.com -site.com -site.com -site.net -site.com -site.com -site.com -site.wikipedia.org -site.com
The first is a prompt template with its labels left in, ending in a question about software. The second opens with Chinese for "Analyse the following financial event:", then shuts 14 websites out of the results one by one. Nobody types either.
| Marker | Why it gives the query away |
|---|---|
context: and question: | Labels from a prompt template |
your response | An instruction addressed to a model |
-site: | A search operator that removes one website from the results, which software stacks by the dozen |
https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/ at the start | ChatGPT's 2025 routing glitch |
Length is the other sign. The 68 rows on our client's site ran to a median of 53 words, and the longest was 912 characters.
How many AI prompts were on a client's site?
We ran the filter on a client's Search Console through Google's API on 6 November 2026, over all the data it held: 24 June 2025 to 3 November 2026. It matched 68 searches, with 769 impressions, no clicks and an average position of 12.5. The first appeared on 20 February 2026 and the latest on 3 November 2026, so they are still arriving.
All 68 used -site:, and 63 of them shut out 10 or more websites that way. None used "context:" or "question:"; the labelled prompt above came from another site we manage. The shapes differ from site to site, which is why the filter looks for four markers at once.
Why do AI prompts pull your click-through rate down?
Search Console works out click-through rate as clicks divided by impressions, in Google's definition. A prompt row adds impressions and, on our client's site, not one click, so each one lowers the rate and makes the site's reach look bigger than it is.
How much depends on their share. On that client's site the 68 rows were about 1 in every 100 impressions from the searches Search Console lists by name, so the site-wide rate barely moved. They did not arrive evenly: 347 of the 769 impressions came in August 2026. On a small site, a single page or a single month, a few hundred prompt impressions can be a large part of the total.
How do you filter ChatGPT prompts in Google Search Console?
- Open Search Console and choose Performance, then Search results.
- Click Add filter and choose Query.
- Change the first box to Custom (regex) and leave the second on Matches regex.
- Paste this line and click Apply:
.*(context:|question:|your response|-site:).* - Set the date range to 16 months and read the Queries tab.
- Read the list before acting on it. A person can type "question:" or "your response" into Google, so check that each match reads like software.
In the line, .* stands for any run of characters and | means "or", so it keeps every search that contains at least one of the four markers anywhere in it.
The same Custom (regex) filter, with a different line, lists the longer searches your pages already show up for.
Search Console filter builder
.*(context:|question:|your response|-site:).*In Search Console: Performance > Search results > + Add filter > Query > Custom (regex), choose Doesn't match regex, paste, Apply. Takes out the prompts AI tools logged as searches, which never click and drag your click-through rate down.
- Kept lullaflex mattress
- Kept best cooling mattress singapore
- Kept super single bed size in cm
- Kept how big is a queen bed
Should you use Matches regex or Doesn't match regex?
Use Matches regex to see the prompts on their own: how many there are, which pages they land on and in which months. Switch the second box to Doesn't match regex to take them out and read what is left.
One catch applies to both. Google's help page on data discrepancies, read on 6 November 2026, says anonymised searches, the rare ones it leaves out of the table for privacy, "are included in the chart totals unless a query filter is applied", and that the "match" and "does not match" totals "may not add up to the unfiltered total". Any query filter, this one included, drops those hidden searches from the totals. Compare a filtered view only with the same filter on another date range.
When should you take AI prompts out before reading CTR?
- Before you write down a baseline. The numbers you will compare against for months should count people. Our guide to setting your SEO baseline has the table to fill in.
- When impressions jump and clicks do not. Check this filter alongside the other causes in why Search Console impressions move while clicks stay flat.
- When you report CTR for one page or a small site, where a few hundred prompt impressions are a large share.
- When you read an agency's report. Ask whether its click-through rate counts these rows, and whether it filters out your own business name too. What an SEO report should show covers both.
You can leave them in when you only count clicks, since they add none. In our technical SEO work, a client's Search Console baseline is written down with its dates before anything on the site changes.
Sources
- OpenAI: Searching the web with ChatGPT, read 6 November 2026
- Jason Packer, Quantable: the original write-up, October 2025, updated after OpenAI's reply
- Ars Technica: Oddest ChatGPT leaks yet: Cringey chat logs found in Google analytics tool, November 2025
- heise online: ChatGPT prompts apparently appeared in Google Search Console, 8 November 2025
- Google: Performance report (Search results): Troubleshooting data discrepancies, read 6 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
How do I see AI prompts in Search Console?
Open Performance, then Search results, click Add filter, choose Query, switch to Custom (regex) and paste .*(context:|question:|your response|-site:).*. Set the date range to 16 months. Every row left contains one of the markers AI prompts carry, so read them before you exclude any.
Why did someone's ChatGPT prompt show up in my Google Search Console?
In late 2025 a glitch sent some ChatGPT prompts to Google whole, each starting with https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/, and they were logged for sites that ranked for those words. OpenAI said in November 2025 that it had resolved it. The prompt rows we have found on the sites we manage do not carry that address, and nothing in them names the tool that sent them.
Can Search Console show what people ask ChatGPT about my business?
Only by accident. OpenAI says ChatGPT normally rewrites a prompt into short searches, so most questions never reach Search Console as they were typed. To see what ChatGPT tells customers about you, ask it yourself; our check of what ChatGPT says about your business walks through it.
Want this done on your site? Send us your website and we will tell you what we would fix first. The audit is free.