Google’s Search Console help documentation now describes a new split inside the Performance report’s “Web” search type: Text-based and Multimodal. The multimodal option covers web search results reached through an image, photo, or screenshot rather than a typed query, and Google’s own documentation says the queries dimension isn’t available for that traffic. Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz reported on September 24 that Google is rolling out the filter, noted that Tauqueer Aziz had posted a screenshot of it earlier, and added in an update that there seems to be no query data yet for the filter.
Two Labels Under One Filter
The Performance report’s search type filter covers web, image, video, and news searches. The new split sits one level down, inside “Web.” Google’s dimensions help page now describes a “Query data for multimodal searches” case; a companion overview page says the filter shows “data for web (text-based or multimodal), image, video, or news searches.”
The two sub-types get their own definitions. “Web: text-based” is, per Google, traffic “originating from text queries entered into the standard Google search bar.” “Web: multimodal” is traffic where “an image was used as part of the search.” A description Search Engine Roundtable quotes from Google draws the same line more plainly: “Web-multimodal tracks search results triggered by a query that uses an image, photo, or screenshot. Text-only queries are tracked as Web text-based.” Multimodal stays a subset of Web. It is not the existing “Image” search type in the same filter, which remains its own separate option.
What is the multimodal search type in Search Console?
The multimodal search type in Search Console’s Performance report covers web search results a person reached by using an image, photo, or screenshot as part of a query, instead of typing text. It sits inside the “Web” search type next to the new “Text-based” option, and it stays separate from the existing “Image” search type in the same filter. Google’s documentation says the queries dimension isn’t available once multimodal is selected, because those searches mostly use images rather than text.
No Query Data for This Slice
Google is direct about the gap. Its dimensions help page states: “Because multimodal searches mostly use images rather than text, specific text query data isn’t available for this traffic. As a result, the queries dimension isn’t available when this search type is selected.” The search queries behind this traffic are not available.
Schwartz noticed the same gap. In an update to his post he wrote: “It seems there is no query data yet for this filter?” His question mark reflects his own observation. Google’s help page ties the missing queries to how these searches work, not to the rollout.
The shape isn’t new to Search Console. When Search Console’s generative-AI reports launched showing impressions but no click data, the report shipped with that gap built in from day one. Multimodal repeats the pattern on the query side: a new slice of the report that arrives without query data.
Not the Image Type, and Absent From the API Reference
Multimodal is not a rename of the “Image” search type, which stays its own separate option in the filter. It is also absent from the API reference. The searchanalytics.query reference still lists six values for the search type parameter: discover, googleNews, news, image, video, and web, the default. As of this writing, it lists no multimodal or text-based value.
The rollout isn’t finished, either. Schwartz wrote he “assume[s] some of you may start seeing this filter soon” — it is rolling out, and not every property shows it yet.
What to Check in Your Own Property
Analysts pulling query-level reports to explain a page’s traffic have a blind spot to account for on multimodal traffic. Open the Performance report, click the search type filter, and look under Web for a Text-based / Multimodal split; if it isn’t there, the property may simply not have it yet. Where it is, expect no queries dimension once Multimodal is selected. Google’s filtering help adds that seeing more than one search type at once requires a comparison, and a comparison is limited to two items.
Treat multimodal as a distinct slice of Web traffic, not as the “Image” type under a different name, and don’t try to reconstruct its query behavior from other reports. Google’s documentation doesn’t say whether query data will ever be available for this slice. The pattern also echoes Pinterest’s Visual Search Ads announcement, which introduced a new image-driven placement with no reporting line of its own on record.
