What is Bing Webmaster Tools, and is it free?
It is Microsoft's free control panel for your website's presence in Bing, and there is no paid tier, no trial and no upsell. You sign in at bing.com/webmasters with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account, prove you own your site, and you get a set of reports about how Bing sees it.
It is the same idea as Google Search Console, and the two do not talk to each other. Neither can tell you anything about the other engine. You need both for the whole picture, which is why the import route below matters: one makes the other nearly instant.
What you need is short: an account to sign in with, your website address copied from the browser bar, and — only if you verify by hand — a way into your website's settings.
Is Bing worth it for SEO in the UK?
Bing took 5.67% of UK searches across all devices in August 2026, against Google's 91.75%, according to StatCounter Global Stats. On desktop alone the gap narrows a good deal: Bing 10.38%, Google 85.9%. Those are the honest numbers, and you should judge the twenty minutes against them rather than against anyone's enthusiasm.
| Search engine | UK share, all devices | UK share, desktop only |
|---|---|---|
| 91.75% | 85.9% | |
| Bing | 5.67% | 10.38% |
| Yahoo! | 1.25% | 2.2% |
| DuckDuckGo | 0.71% | 0.85% |
The desktop figure is the one that matters for a lot of service businesses: it is the figure for someone at a work computer with Edge open and Bing already the default. If you supply trade customers or take enquiries from people researching at their desk, that audience is a tenth of the market, not a twentieth.
Bing's reach is also wider than Bing. DuckDuckGo's help pages say it sources its traditional links and images “largely… from Bing”, and Yahoo's web results come from the same place. Hold Bing plus the engines it feeds in your head, not Bing alone.
Correction to an earlier version of this guide. This page used to say Bing handles “around 1 in 10 UK searches”. That is only true on desktop. Across all devices the August 2026 StatCounter figure is 5.67%, which is closer to 1 in 18. The correction matters because it changes the honest answer to “is this worth my afternoon”.
The real reason to set it up: the AI Performance report
On 10 February 2026 Microsoft opened AI Performance as a public preview, and it is the only free tool that tells a small business whether AI answers are citing its website. The announcement describes it plainly: it lets you “see where, and how often, your content is cited in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries, and select partner integrations”.
Until it existed, a business could suspect an assistant was recommending it and had no way of checking. Here is what each metric means, in Microsoft's own words:
| Metric | What it counts | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Total Citations | “The total number of citations that are displayed as sources in AI-generated answers” in the period you have selected | A yes-or-no answer to “am I in AI answers at all” |
| Average Cited Pages | “The average number of unique pages from your site that are displayed as sources” per day | Tells you whether one page carries you or several do |
| Grounding Queries | “The key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced” | The most useful screen on the site: the actual wording of the questions |
| Page-level citations | Citation counts for individual URLs | Shows which page is doing the work, so you can write more like it |
On 16 June 2026 Microsoft added four more views. Intents sorts grounding queries into categories such as informational, commercial, navigational and local. Topics clusters related queries, because, as Microsoft puts it, topics “help publishers understand visibility in the same thematic structure that modern AI systems use to organize information”. Citation Share is “the percentage of citations attributed to your site out of all citations shown across all sites for that same grounding query”. Compare overlays an earlier period on the current one.
For a local business the Grounding Queries screen is worth more than the headline count. Seeing that an assistant reached for your page on emergency roof repair Basingstoke weekend tells you something you cannot learn anywhere else, and it is rarely the phrase you would have guessed.
What the AI Performance report cannot tell you
It counts citations and nothing else — there are no clicks, no impressions and no ranking in it, and Microsoft does not claim otherwise. Being cited is not the same as being visited, and the report will not close that gap for you. Four limits worth knowing before you read too much into it:
- The grounding query data is a sample. Microsoft states that it “represents a sample of overall citation activity” and that it will “continue to refine this metric as additional data is processed”. Treat the list of phrases as a window, not an inventory.
- The labels are rough in places. On Intents and Topics, Microsoft warns that during preview “some labels may still be broad — especially for highly specialized or niche domains”. A specialist trade will see itself flattened into a generic bucket.
- Citation Share is not a scoreboard. Microsoft says it is “designed as an observational metric – not a ranking system or a competitive scoreboard”. You cannot tell from it who your competitors are.
- It moves for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Citation activity, in Microsoft's words, “can be influenced by many factors including evolving AI models, competing content, freshness signals, and shifts in user demand”. A drop is not automatically something you did.
And it covers only Microsoft's own surfaces plus unnamed partners. It is not a report on AI in general.
Which AI assistants are downstream of Bing, and which are not
Microsoft Copilot is; ChatGPT has never been confirmed to be; Google's AI answers are not. This is where most advice on the subject goes wrong, so it is worth being exact.
Microsoft is clear about its own products: its Copilot Studio documentation, last updated 1 February 2026, states that agents “access the web via Bing APIs”. Copilot is built into Windows and Edge, so for a lot of people it is simply the assistant that is there.
ChatGPT is a different story. OpenAI has never named its search providers. Its help article on ChatGPT search says only that ChatGPT “sometimes partners with other search providers”, and Bing is not mentioned anywhere in it. What OpenAI does name is its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and it says that to make a website eligible for inclusion you allow that crawler to crawl your site. Plenty of guides still assert that ChatGPT runs on Bing. No primary source supports it, so do not set up Bing Webmaster Tools expecting to see ChatGPT in the numbers — that is a separate job with separate checks.
Google's AI Overviews and Gemini sit on Google's own index. Nothing you do in Bing Webmaster Tools affects them.
Correction to an earlier version of this guide. This page previously implied that “AI tools” in general answer from Bing's index. That is too broad. Copilot does. ChatGPT is unconfirmed by OpenAI. Google's AI answers do not.
How to import your site from Google Search Console
If your site is already verified in Search Console this takes about five minutes and no code at all, and it is the route most people never find. Microsoft lists it as one of five ways to prove ownership: if your site is already verified in Google Search Console, “you can import your verified ownership directly”.
- Go to bing.com/webmasters and sign in. Use the same Google account that owns your Search Console property — this is the step people get wrong.
- On the add-a-site screen choose the Google Search Console import option rather than typing your address in.
- Grant Bing permission to read your Search Console account when Google asks.
- Pick your site from the list and confirm.
Bing verifies the site for you and brings your sitemaps across. You never touch your website. If you have not set Search Console up yet, do that first for its own sake — this then becomes a five-minute afterthought.
How to verify your site manually
If you are not on Search Console, Microsoft offers four other ways to prove you own the site, and the one this guide used to lead with is no longer the easiest. In Bing's own order:
| Method | What it involves | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Connect | Microsoft's recommended route: you log in to your DNS provider and it verifies automatically | Anyone on GoDaddy, Bluehost, Wix and similar — no code |
| XML file | Download a file from Bing, upload it to the root folder of your site | Sites where you have FTP or file access |
| Meta tag | Paste one line into the head section of your home page | Website builders with a custom-code box |
| DNS TXT record | Add a text record at your domain registrar | When you control the domain but not the site |
| Search Console import | No code at all, see above | Everyone who already has Search Console |
WordPress
If you already run an SEO plugin, use it. Yoast has a Bing field under Settings, then Site connections. Rank Math and All in One SEO have the same box under their own webmaster-verification settings. Otherwise install a header-and-footer snippet plugin and paste the meta tag into the header. Site Kit by Google does not cover Bing.
Wix
Settings, then Custom Code under Advanced, then Add Code to the Head section. Set it to load on all pages and name it something you will recognise later. This needs a paid plan with a connected domain. Wix is also a Domain Connect provider, so try that first.
Squarespace
Settings, then Developer Tools, then Code Injection, and paste into the Header box. On older sites Developer Tools sits under Advanced instead.
Anything else
Look in your settings for wording like custom code, header code, code injection or tracking code. If someone else built the site, send them the line and ask them to put it in the head of the home page. Then go back to Bing and press Verify.
Verification failed? Three causes cover nearly all of it: the code was pasted into the body rather than the head, the change was saved but not published, or the platform caches for a few minutes. Load your home page, view source, and search it for msvalidate. If it is not in there, Bing is right.
Submit your sitemap and switch on IndexNow
Submit the sitemap once and Bing rechecks it at least once every 24 hours, by Microsoft's own description. In the left menu open Sitemaps and enter your address followed by /sitemap.xml. Most builders generate one automatically — type the address into your browser before assuming you have not got one.
Then turn on IndexNow, which is the difference between Bing finding a new page in days and finding it in minutes. It is a separate setting, it is free, and on most platforms it is one switch. The IndexNow guide walks through it platform by platform. Do it the same afternoon, while you are logged in.
The tools nobody opens, and what each is actually good for
Most people set the account up, look at Search Performance twice and never return — which leaves five genuinely useful tools unopened. What each is for, plainly:
| Tool | What it does | When it is worth opening |
|---|---|---|
| URL Inspection | Analyses indexing status, crawlability, HTTP response codes and blocked resources for one page | When a specific page is missing from Bing and you want to know why, rather than guess |
| Site Scan | A technical audit that detects broken links, duplicate tags and missing metadata | Once, after a redesign or a platform move. It finds the page titles two pages share |
| IndexNow | Notifies Bing and other participating engines the moment content is added, updated or deleted | Set once, then never again. Highest value per minute in the whole tool |
| Keyword Research | Search phrases and volumes drawn from Bing's own query data | Sense-checking the wording of a new service page against how people actually ask |
| Backlinks | Referring domains and the anchor text pointing at your site | Checking which directory listings actually link to you, and spotting spam |
Search Performance holds 16 months of impressions, clicks and position data — but only from the day you verify, which is the argument for doing this now rather than in spring.
Site Scan deserves a mention for small sites, because the faults it finds are usually real and usually easy: two pages sharing a title, a missing meta description, an internal link to a page deleted in 2023. None of it is glamorous and all of it is fixable in an afternoon.
Bing Places for Business is a separate thing
Bing Webmaster Tools covers your website; Bing Places covers your business listing, and they are different accounts. Bing Places is the Bing equivalent of a Google Business Profile: the listing with your hours, address and phone number that appears in Bing search and Bing Maps, and Microsoft describes it as a free platform for creating and managing it.
The address changed. Microsoft rebuilt Bing Places in October 2025 and moved it from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness, with an import flow it says is “faster, more reliable, and better at preserving key attributes like business name, hours, and contact details” — so it pulls most of your details across from Google rather than making you retype them. That is why an old bookmark no longer works.
Do both: Webmaster Tools for the website, Places for the listing, and a Google Business Profile for the far larger Google side of the same job.
How long before you see data, and what to look at first
Search Performance normally shows something within a few days; AI Performance can take weeks and may sit at zero on a small site for longer than that. Neither is broken. Bing has to crawl you, index you, and then serve you to somebody before there is anything to count.
Look at two screens, in this order. Search Performance first, because the pattern matters more than the totals: if your business name brings you up but none of your services do, that is a content problem, not a Bing problem, and it will be true on Google too. AI Performance second, for the grounding queries.
Expect small numbers. Small numbers with clear patterns are still useful. The failure mode here is not a low count; it is setting the account up and never opening it again.
If the AI report stays empty. That is a finding, not a fault. It usually means your pages answer nothing specific enough to be worth citing. Assistants quote pages that answer a question completely, on their own, in their own words — which is the same thing that works for venues and trades alike.
Common questions
- Is Bing Webmaster Tools free?
- Yes. There is no paid tier and no trial. Every report is included, from Search Performance to Site Scan to the AI Performance dashboard Microsoft opened as a public preview on 10 February 2026. You sign in with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account. The only cost is the twenty minutes of setup, or roughly five if you import an already verified site from Google Search Console.
- What is the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools?
- It is a dashboard showing where and how often your pages are cited as sources in AI-generated answers. Microsoft's announcement describes it as covering citations "across Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries, and select partner integrations". It reports Total Citations, Average Cited Pages per day, the Grounding Queries the AI used to retrieve your content, and citation counts for individual URLs. Since 16 June 2026 it also groups those queries into Intents and Topics and shows Citation Share.
- Does ChatGPT use Bing?
- OpenAI has never said so. Its own help article on ChatGPT search says only that ChatGPT "sometimes partners with other search providers" and names none of them; Bing does not appear in it anywhere. What OpenAI does name is its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and it says that to make a site eligible for inclusion you allow that crawler to crawl it. So do not set up Bing Webmaster Tools expecting it to report ChatGPT. Getting seen there is a separate job.
- What is the difference between Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console?
- They are the same kind of tool for different search engines, and neither can see the other's data. Search Console covers Google, where 91.75% of UK searches happened in August 2026. Bing Webmaster Tools covers Bing, at 5.67%, plus the engines Bing feeds. The one thing Bing has that Google does not give a small business is the AI Performance report, which names the queries that led an AI answer to cite you.
- Can I import my site from Google Search Console?
- Yes, and it is the fastest way in. Microsoft lists Google Search Console import as one of five ways to prove you own a site: if the site is already verified in Search Console, you can import that verified ownership directly. Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools, choose the import option, grant access to your Search Console account and pick your site. Verification and your sitemaps come across with it, so you never touch your website's code.
- How do I get Bing to index my site?
- Verify the site, submit an XML sitemap, then switch on IndexNow so future changes are pushed rather than waited for. Microsoft says Bing processes sitemaps at least once every 24 hours. For a single urgent page, use URL Submission or URL Inspection. None of this guarantees indexing: Bing still applies its own crawl quota and quality checks, and a thin or blocked page will simply be found faster and still left out.
- Where do I find my Bing verification code?
- It appears on screen the moment you add your site manually, under the Meta Tag option, as a single line beginning with a meta name of msvalidate.01. Copy it and paste it into the head section of your home page, or into your SEO plugin's verification field — Yoast has a Bing box under Site connections. If you would rather not touch code at all, use Domain Connect or the Google Search Console import instead.
- How long before Bing Webmaster Tools shows data?
- Search Performance usually has something within a few days of verification, and it holds 16 months of history once it fills up. AI Performance takes longer and can stay empty for weeks on a small site, because it only records occasions when an AI answer actually cited you. An empty AI report is information, not a fault. Give it a month before drawing any conclusion from it.
Related guides
Every figure and quotation checked on 15 September 2026. UK search shares for August 2026, all devices and desktop: StatCounter Global Stats. AI Performance metric definitions, the surfaces covered and the sampling caveat: Microsoft's Bing Webmaster Blog, “Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview”, 10 February 2026. Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare and their caveats: Microsoft's Bing Blog, “New AI Visibility Insights in Bing Webmaster Tools”, 16 June 2026. Sign-in options, the five verification methods including Domain Connect and Google Search Console import, the 16 months of Search Performance data, the 24-hour sitemap processing and the descriptions of URL Inspection, Site Scan, IndexNow, Keyword Research and Backlinks: Microsoft's Bing Webmaster Blog, “Start Using Bing Webmaster Tools to Improve Your Site Visibility”, 17 June 2025. Copilot web access via Bing APIs: Microsoft Learn, Copilot Studio web search data and privacy documentation, last updated 1 February 2026. ChatGPT search providers and OAI-SearchBot: OpenAI Help Center, “Searching the web with ChatGPT”. DuckDuckGo result sources: DuckDuckGo help pages. Bing Places rebuild, the move to bing.com/forbusiness and the import wording: Microsoft's Bing Blog, October 2025. Microsoft does not publish a figure for how long AI Performance takes to populate on a new site, and none could be established, so the timings given for it here are described as ranges rather than stated as fact. AI Performance remained labelled a public preview at the time of checking.