If your tracking tool shows AI Mode citations falling to zero in September 2026, do not rewrite anything yet. Google confirmed on September 4 that AI Mode running Gemini 3.8 Flash stopped citing sources on many broad queries, and that this was not intended.
What is known
Gemini 3.8 Flash reached AI Mode on September 1-2 for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Marketer Gagan Ghotra documented many answers without a single source link, and analyst Glenn Gabe confirmed with a side-by-side test that the default model cited normally while 3.8 Flash did not. Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, replied that the behavior is not working as intended and a fix is coming. No date was given.
Five-step check before you change anything
- Which account? The bug affects Pro and Ultra accounts. If your tracker uses a free account, your drop has another cause.
- Which queries? The missing citations were mostly on broad, top-of-funnel questions. Narrow, specific queries behaved normally in many reports.
- Same answer, no links? If the answer text is similar to last week but the links vanished, that matches the bug, not a ranking loss.
- Manual spot check. Run your ten most valuable queries by hand on both a Pro and a free account and compare.
- Wait for the fix. Re-measure a week after Google announces it before touching content.
What to keep doing meanwhile
Direct answers near the top of the page, specific data, and clear authorship earn citations on every model, so none of that work is wasted.
Full analysis in other languages
- Russian, US market: ru-us version
- Russian, Poland market: ru-pl version
- Polish: pl-pl version
- Ukrainian, Poland market: uk-pl version
- Ukrainian, Ukraine market: uk-ua version
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