Why Bing matters again
For years many teams treated Bing Webmaster Tools as an optional extra. That has changed. Microsoft Copilot answers are grounded in Bing’s index, and Bing has been a major retrieval source for ChatGPT Search. Being indexed and understood by Bing is now part of being visible in AI-generated answers.
Bing still handles a single-digit share of global search, with estimates in 2026 around 4 to 5%, much of its recent growth driven by Copilot in Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365. Desktop and business audiences tend to be over-represented, which matters a lot for B2B and SaaS sites.
How AI search uses Bing’s index
When an AI assistant answers with live web results, it typically runs one or more searches, retrieves candidate pages, and cites the ones it uses. That process is called grounding. If the search index behind it has not crawled your page, or has an outdated copy, your page cannot be retrieved.
- Indexation is the gate. A page missing from Bing’s index is invisible to Bing-grounded answers no matter how good it is.
- Freshness matters. AI answers favour current information. A stale cached version weakens your chances.
- Clarity helps retrieval. Pages with clear headings, direct answers and structured data are easier to quote.
Setting up Bing Webmaster Tools properly
- Sign in at Bing Webmaster Tools and choose Import from Google Search Console. It brings your verified sites and sitemaps across in one step.
- Confirm your XML sitemaps are submitted and processing without errors.
- Check robots.txt does not block
bingbot. Some security plugins and CDN rules block non-Google crawlers by accident. - Enable IndexNow (next section).
- Connect Bing to GSC MCP Server so you can query it alongside Google. Our setup guide covers this.
IndexNow: get changes seen faster
IndexNow is an open protocol that lets your site notify participating search engines the moment a URL is added, updated or deleted, instead of waiting to be recrawled. Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver support it; Google does not.
- Many platforms support it natively or through a plugin, including popular WordPress SEO plugins and several CDNs.
- For custom sites, generate a key, host the key file at your domain root, and send a request to the IndexNow endpoint whenever content changes.
- Ping only real changes. Submitting unchanged URLs repeatedly adds noise.
Developers can wire IndexNow into a deploy step. Our technical SEO for developers guide shows how to check the results from your editor.
What to check every month
GSC MCP Server’s get_bing_crawl_stats tool returns daily pages crawled, crawl errors, HTTP status counts, pages in index, inbound links and robots.txt blocks. Ask:
Show Bing crawl stats for the last 30 days. Are crawl errors or robots.txt blocks rising? How has the number of pages in Bing’s index changed?
List my sitemaps and feeds in Bing and Google. For each, show submitted vs indexed counts and any errors.
Comparing Google and Bing side by side
The two engines often rank the same site quite differently. Gaps are useful clues.
Compare my top 30 pages by clicks in Google and Bing for the last 28 days. Which pages do well in Google but barely appear in Bing, and vice versa?
- Strong in Google, absent in Bing: check indexing in Bing first, then on-page clarity. Bing has historically leaned more on exact-match titles and headings.
- Strong in Bing, weak in Google: often a sign of quality or intent signals Google weighs more heavily. Review the page against what currently ranks in Google.
Tracking AI citations
In early 2026 Microsoft added an AI Performance report to Bing Webmaster Tools, in public preview. It shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing’s AI-generated answers, which pages are cited, and the grounding queries that triggered those citations. At the time of writing it is available as a dashboard and CSV export rather than through the API.
On the Google side, impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the Web search totals of the Search Console Performance report, not split out as a separate channel there. Keep that in mind when CTR moves without a ranking change.
Together, these give you a practical view of AI visibility: Bing’s citation counts, Google’s blended search totals, and your own referral traffic from AI assistants in analytics.
A Bing visibility checklist
- Site verified in Bing Webmaster Tools
- XML sitemaps submitted with no errors
bingbotallowed in robots.txt and firewall/CDN rules- IndexNow enabled for content changes
- Pages-in-index trend stable or rising
- Key pages have clear titles, headings and direct answers
- Monthly Google vs Bing comparison of top pages
- AI Performance report reviewed for cited pages and queries
Agencies can add a Bing section to monthly client reports in a few minutes. See the AI reporting workflow. And if Bing numbers suddenly fall, the steps in our traffic drop guide apply to Bing too.
Frequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT Search use Bing?
ChatGPT’s search features draw on several sources, and Bing’s index has been a central one since the OpenAI and Microsoft partnership. Microsoft Copilot is grounded in Bing. If Bing has not indexed a page, it is much less likely to be cited by either.
Is Bing Webmaster Tools free?
Yes. Bing Webmaster Tools is free. You can verify a site in minutes by importing it from Google Search Console.
Does Google support IndexNow?
Google does not use IndexNow. It is supported by Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and others. Google discovers changes through crawling and sitemaps.
Why are my Bing numbers so much smaller than Google’s?
Bing has a much smaller share of traditional search, so raw clicks are usually lower. Its value is increasingly as a gateway to AI answers in Copilot and ChatGPT, which do not always show up as Bing clicks.
Can GSC MCP Server read Bing data?
Yes. It reads Bing Webmaster Tools traffic, top queries and pages, sitemaps and feeds, and crawl statistics, and it can compare them with Google Search Console data in one conversation.