{ "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link the page or API address you took it from (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-11-07", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.7", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "tool": { "slug": "bing-grounding", "name": "Grounding with Bing Search", "vendor": "Microsoft", "vendorUrl": "https://www.microsoft.com/bing/apis", "kind": "http-api", "category": "search", "summary": "Grounding with Bing Search is Microsoft's web search tool for agents in Foundry Agent Service. A Foundry model searches Bing during a Responses API run and returns an answer with URL citations, through the bing_grounding and web_search tools.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bing-grounding", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bing-grounding.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bing-grounding.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bing-grounding.json", "dns": "bing-grounding.grade.anchorterminal.com", "license": "Proprietary service under the customer's Microsoft agreement and the separate Grounding with Bing terms of use, which exclude it from the Microsoft Data Protection Addendum", "transports": [ "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://{account}.services.ai.azure.com/api/projects/{project}/openai/v1/responses", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "azure-ai-projects" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@azure/ai-projects" } ], "auth": "oauth", "authNotes": "Microsoft Entra ID bearer token for the Foundry project (scope https://ai.azure.com/.default, for example through DefaultAzureCredential), with the Foundry User role to create and run agents. The bing_grounding tool also needs a Grounding with Bing resource whose key is stored in a project connection, created by someone with Contributor and Foundry Project Manager. The agent never holds the Bing key. The web_search tool needs no Bing resource or connection.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "$14 per 1,000 transactions for Grounding with Bing Search and for Grounding with Bing Custom Search, counted as tool calls per run, plus the model deployment's token charges. No free tier found. An Azure subscription and a person's signup are needed first.", "priceSummary": "$14 / 1k req", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 on the Foundry web search and Bing tools pages, the Grounding with Bing pricing page or the terms of use (checked 2026-11-06). Billing runs through the Azure subscription.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 3, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-11-06" }, "docsUrl": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/web-search", "capabilities": [ "web.search", "search.answer" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "usage-priced", "closed-source", "enterprise", "card-required", "status-page", "python", "typescript" ], "lastRelease": "2026-11-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 63.7, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 502, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1486, "categoryRank": 15, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 61, "maintenance": 80, "payments": 20, "reliability": 68, "schema": 68, "security": 79, "transparency": 66 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "breakdown": [ { "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16, "effectiveWeight": 20, "score": 68, "points": 13.6, "reason": "Graded on the hosted lines, for the Foundry Agent Service tools agents call. Azure status page with post-incident reviews and a Foundry Agent Service component (20). The history page read on 6 November lists one review in the 90 days from 8 August that names Foundry Agent Service, intermittent failures and latency in Sweden Central from 10:03 to 15:58 UTC on 29 September 2026. It was one region and partial, and the review doesn't name Grounding with Bing, so minor only, the reading the Azure Translator listing got for the same review (20). The pricing page publishes 150 transactions a second and 1 million a day for each Grounding with Bing resource (15). The web search troubleshooting table says to answer 429 with exponential backoff and retries. No Retry-After or tool-specific overload guidance was found, and searches have no side effects (8 of 15). No SLA naming Grounding with Bing was found. The terms make it a First Party Consumption Service apart from the Online Services terms, and the Online Services SLA document wasn't opened (0). Grounding with Bing Custom Search is marked preview and Grounding with Bing Search is not, but no page read states general availability for it or for the web_search tool, and the .NET SDK is in preview (5 of 10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 5 = 68.", "checked": "2026-11-06" }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "weight": 10, "effectiveWeight": 0, "pending": true, "points": 0, "reason": "Pending. Latency is measured per call by our probes, which haven't run yet, so this run doesn't score it. Its weight is shared across the assessed categories until the first probe window closes." }, { "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13, "effectiveWeight": 16.25, "score": 68, "points": 11.05, "reason": "The tools are typed in the official SDKs (BingGroundingTool, BingCustomSearchPreviewTool, WebSearchTool) in Python, C#, JavaScript and Java, and the toolbox exposes web search as an MCP tool. No public OpenAPI description of the Responses tool types was confirmed from the pages read (10 of 25). Microsoft Learn serves each page as Markdown with `accept=text/markdown`, though learn.microsoft.com/llms.txt answers 404 (10). The pages say what each of four web grounding routes is for and when to choose it, when to use Custom Search instead, and not to ask the model to summarise a whole page (17 of 20). Parameters are typed with defaults and limits in prose, `count` 1 to 50 with default 5, freshness values and a date-range form, market and language formats, `search_context_size` low, medium or high (11 of 15). Examples in Python, C#, TypeScript, Java and REST with expected output, and troubleshooting tables for connection ID, authentication and 429 problems, but no error codes or bodies for the tools (10 of 15). Requests carry `api-version=v1` on the toolbox, SDK changelogs are dated and a monthly What's New page lists new articles, the latest for August 2026 (10 of 15). 10 + 10 + 17 + 11 + 10 + 10 = 68.", "checked": "2026-11-06" }, { "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13, "effectiveWeight": 16.25, "score": 61, "points": 9.91, "reason": "Read as a server-side search tool inside an agent run. The tools return a model's answer with citations rather than raw results, and `search_context_size` sets how much context web search uses. A caller can't size or inspect the result set itself, since the Bing tools never return their output. Custom Search confines grounding to chosen domains without code (18 of 25). `count`, freshness, market and language filters, and domain restriction through Custom Search. No pagination or offset (13 of 20). Troubleshooting tables give causes and fixes for connection ID, RBAC and 429 problems, but the tools document no error codes (8 of 20). Searches only read, so a retry is safe apart from the per-transaction charge. No MCP annotations are documented for the toolbox's web search tool (10 of 20). The web_search route needs only a project, a model deployment and the Foundry User role. bing_grounding also needs a paid Bing resource and a project connection. SDKs in Python, C#, JavaScript and Java (12 of 15). Prompt caching gets no hits with the Bing tools, because they add a timestamp to every request. 18 + 13 + 8 + 10 + 12 = 61.", "checked": "2026-11-06" }, { "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14, "effectiveWeight": 17.5, "score": 79, "points": 13.83, "reason": "Callers authenticate to the Foundry project with Microsoft Entra ID tokens and RBAC roles (Foundry User to run agents, Foundry Project Manager to add connections), with just-in-time Contributor through Entra PIM for provisioning. The Bing resource key sits in a project connection and the agent never holds it. No key in a URL (28 of 30). The tools only read. Custom Search confines grounding to configured public domains, and an admin can turn web search off for a whole subscription. There is no per-agent read-only toggle to set, since the tools have no write path (15 of 20). The web search page tells developers to treat web search results as untrusted input and to keep secrets and personal data out of prompts, and the tool best practices page says the same of all tool outputs. Raw results are not passed back to the caller (10 of 15). Run steps show each tool call and the Bing query sent, and Azure's activity log covers resource changes. No per-query audit log for Bing was found (10 of 15). Microsoft runs a coordinated vulnerability disclosure policy and bounty programmes through MSRC. microsoft.com's security.txt passed its Expires date on 23 September 2026 and still carries it on 6 November, and the Azure compliance attestations are not shown to cover a service whose data leaves the compliance boundary (16 of 20). 28 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 16 = 79.", "checked": "2026-11-06" }, { "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10, "effectiveWeight": 12.5, "score": 20, "points": 2.5, "reason": "No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $14 per 1,000 transactions for Grounding with Bing Search and Custom Search, published on microsoft.com without a login (20). No free tier for Grounding with Bing, and an Azure subscription needs a card, as on the Azure Translator listing (0). A person signs up for Azure, creates a Foundry project and, for bing_grounding, a Bing resource (0).", "checked": "2026-11-06" }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "weight": 10, "effectiveWeight": 0, "pending": true, "points": 0, "reason": "Pending. Task success needs the category task suites run through each tool, which haven't run yet, so this run doesn't score it. Its weight is shared across the assessed categories until then. A data provider's data-quality score is published on its listing now and becomes half of this category when it's scored." }, { "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7, "effectiveWeight": 8.75, "score": 80, "points": 7, "reason": "Read as a closed service with official SDKs, as the other Azure listings are. The web search page was updated on 2 November 2026 and the Bing tools page on 12 October, and azure-ai-projects 2.10.0 shipped on PyPI and npm on 30 October 2026, the SDK that carries the tool types (30). azure-ai-projects released 2.6.0 (4 September), 2.6.1, 2.7.0, 2.8.0 (5 October), 2.9.0 (17 October) and 2.10.0 in the 90 days from 8 August. Their changelogs weren't read for web search changes, so they count as SDK releases (20). Microsoft Learn feedback, Microsoft Q\u0026A and the Azure SDK issue trackers, whose reply times weren't sampled (10 of 15). Current official SDKs in Python, JavaScript, .NET and Java, the .NET one in preview (15). The SDKs live in the azure-sdk monorepos and CI wasn't checked (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 80.", "checked": "2026-11-06" }, { "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7, "effectiveWeight": 8.75, "score": 66, "points": 5.78, "note": "editorial 45, provenance 87", "reason": "Closed service. The terms of use, updated November 2025, are separate from the Online Services terms and sit under the customer's Microsoft agreement (15 of 30). The docs and the terms agree that the Data Protection Addendum and the Product Terms' privacy and security terms don't apply, that Microsoft and the customer are independent controllers, and that the query and parameters leave the Azure compliance and geographic boundary. The terms defer storage and use of query data to the general Microsoft Privacy Statement and state no retention period (15 of 30). The Bing Search APIs retirement was announced on 16 May 2025 for 11 August 2025, under three months' notice, and the web search page marks the Deep Research tool deprecated with a replacement. Microsoft's lifecycle policy covers Azure services, but no deprecation terms for Grounding with Bing were found (10 of 20). Data location for Bing processing isn't stated, and no sub-processor list for it was found (5 of 20). 15 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 45.", "checked": "2026-11-06" } ], "assessment": { "date": "2026-11-06", "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "notes": { "ergonomics": "Read as a server-side search tool inside an agent run. The tools return a model's answer with citations rather than raw results, and `search_context_size` sets how much context web search uses. A caller can't size or inspect the result set itself, since the Bing tools never return their output. Custom Search confines grounding to chosen domains without code (18 of 25). `count`, freshness, market and language filters, and domain restriction through Custom Search. No pagination or offset (13 of 20). Troubleshooting tables give causes and fixes for connection ID, RBAC and 429 problems, but the tools document no error codes (8 of 20). Searches only read, so a retry is safe apart from the per-transaction charge. No MCP annotations are documented for the toolbox's web search tool (10 of 20). The web_search route needs only a project, a model deployment and the Foundry User role. bing_grounding also needs a paid Bing resource and a project connection. SDKs in Python, C#, JavaScript and Java (12 of 15). Prompt caching gets no hits with the Bing tools, because they add a timestamp to every request. 18 + 13 + 8 + 10 + 12 = 61.", "maintenance": "Read as a closed service with official SDKs, as the other Azure listings are. The web search page was updated on 2 November 2026 and the Bing tools page on 12 October, and azure-ai-projects 2.10.0 shipped on PyPI and npm on 30 October 2026, the SDK that carries the tool types (30). azure-ai-projects released 2.6.0 (4 September), 2.6.1, 2.7.0, 2.8.0 (5 October), 2.9.0 (17 October) and 2.10.0 in the 90 days from 8 August. Their changelogs weren't read for web search changes, so they count as SDK releases (20). Microsoft Learn feedback, Microsoft Q\u0026A and the Azure SDK issue trackers, whose reply times weren't sampled (10 of 15). Current official SDKs in Python, JavaScript, .NET and Java, the .NET one in preview (15). The SDKs live in the azure-sdk monorepos and CI wasn't checked (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 80.", "payments": "No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $14 per 1,000 transactions for Grounding with Bing Search and Custom Search, published on microsoft.com without a login (20). No free tier for Grounding with Bing, and an Azure subscription needs a card, as on the Azure Translator listing (0). A person signs up for Azure, creates a Foundry project and, for bing_grounding, a Bing resource (0).", "reliability": "Graded on the hosted lines, for the Foundry Agent Service tools agents call. Azure status page with post-incident reviews and a Foundry Agent Service component (20). The history page read on 6 November lists one review in the 90 days from 8 August that names Foundry Agent Service, intermittent failures and latency in Sweden Central from 10:03 to 15:58 UTC on 29 September 2026. It was one region and partial, and the review doesn't name Grounding with Bing, so minor only, the reading the Azure Translator listing got for the same review (20). The pricing page publishes 150 transactions a second and 1 million a day for each Grounding with Bing resource (15). The web search troubleshooting table says to answer 429 with exponential backoff and retries. No Retry-After or tool-specific overload guidance was found, and searches have no side effects (8 of 15). No SLA naming Grounding with Bing was found. The terms make it a First Party Consumption Service apart from the Online Services terms, and the Online Services SLA document wasn't opened (0). Grounding with Bing Custom Search is marked preview and Grounding with Bing Search is not, but no page read states general availability for it or for the web_search tool, and the .NET SDK is in preview (5 of 10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 5 = 68.", "schema": "The tools are typed in the official SDKs (BingGroundingTool, BingCustomSearchPreviewTool, WebSearchTool) in Python, C#, JavaScript and Java, and the toolbox exposes web search as an MCP tool. No public OpenAPI description of the Responses tool types was confirmed from the pages read (10 of 25). Microsoft Learn serves each page as Markdown with `accept=text/markdown`, though learn.microsoft.com/llms.txt answers 404 (10). The pages say what each of four web grounding routes is for and when to choose it, when to use Custom Search instead, and not to ask the model to summarise a whole page (17 of 20). Parameters are typed with defaults and limits in prose, `count` 1 to 50 with default 5, freshness values and a date-range form, market and language formats, `search_context_size` low, medium or high (11 of 15). Examples in Python, C#, TypeScript, Java and REST with expected output, and troubleshooting tables for connection ID, authentication and 429 problems, but no error codes or bodies for the tools (10 of 15). Requests carry `api-version=v1` on the toolbox, SDK changelogs are dated and a monthly What's New page lists new articles, the latest for August 2026 (10 of 15). 10 + 10 + 17 + 11 + 10 + 10 = 68.", "security": "Callers authenticate to the Foundry project with Microsoft Entra ID tokens and RBAC roles (Foundry User to run agents, Foundry Project Manager to add connections), with just-in-time Contributor through Entra PIM for provisioning. The Bing resource key sits in a project connection and the agent never holds it. No key in a URL (28 of 30). The tools only read. Custom Search confines grounding to configured public domains, and an admin can turn web search off for a whole subscription. There is no per-agent read-only toggle to set, since the tools have no write path (15 of 20). The web search page tells developers to treat web search results as untrusted input and to keep secrets and personal data out of prompts, and the tool best practices page says the same of all tool outputs. Raw results are not passed back to the caller (10 of 15). Run steps show each tool call and the Bing query sent, and Azure's activity log covers resource changes. No per-query audit log for Bing was found (10 of 15). Microsoft runs a coordinated vulnerability disclosure policy and bounty programmes through MSRC. microsoft.com's security.txt passed its Expires date on 23 September 2026 and still carries it on 6 November, and the Azure compliance attestations are not shown to cover a service whose data leaves the compliance boundary (16 of 20). 28 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 16 = 79.", "transparency": "Closed service. The terms of use, updated November 2025, are separate from the Online Services terms and sit under the customer's Microsoft agreement (15 of 30). The docs and the terms agree that the Data Protection Addendum and the Product Terms' privacy and security terms don't apply, that Microsoft and the customer are independent controllers, and that the query and parameters leave the Azure compliance and geographic boundary. The terms defer storage and use of query data to the general Microsoft Privacy Statement and state no retention period (15 of 30). The Bing Search APIs retirement was announced on 16 May 2025 for 11 August 2025, under three months' notice, and the web search page marks the Deep Research tool deprecated with a replacement. Microsoft's lifecycle policy covers Azure services, but no deprecation terms for Grounding with Bing were found (10 of 20). Data location for Bing processing isn't stated, and no sub-processor list for it was found (5 of 20). 15 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 45." }, "sources": [ { "what": "web search tool docs", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/web-search", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Grounding with Bing tools docs", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-tools", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Grounding with Bing pricing", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/grounding-pricing", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Grounding with Bing terms of use", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/grounding-legal-enterprise", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Bing Search APIs retirement notice", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Azure status history", "url": "https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status/history/", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Foundry Agent Service limits and regions", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/concepts/limits-quotas-regions", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Foundry tool catalogue", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/concepts/tool-catalog", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "tool best practices", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/concepts/tool-best-practice", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "What's new in Microsoft Foundry", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/whats-new-foundry", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "azure-ai-projects on PyPI", "url": "https://pypi.org/project/azure-ai-projects/", "seen": "2026-11-06" }, { "what": "Microsoft security.txt", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/.well-known/security.txt", "seen": "2026-11-06" } ], "openQuestions": [ "Judgement call on scope. The listing covers the web_search, bing_grounding and bing_custom_search_preview tools as one product, since the web search page says all three use Grounding with Bing Search. The standalone Bing Search APIs are retired and are not listed.", "firstReleased is 16 May 2025, the date of the retirement notice that names Grounding with Bing Search as the existing replacement. No earlier first-hand launch date was found.", "unchecked: whether Grounding with Bing Search and the web_search tool are generally available. Only Custom Search is labelled preview on the pages read.", "unchecked: an SLA for Grounding with Bing. It is a First Party Consumption Service under separate terms, and the Online Services SLA document wasn't opened.", "unchecked: a public OpenAPI description of the bing_grounding and web_search tool types in the Azure REST API specifications.", "unchecked: how the general web_search tool is billed when no Grounding with Bing resource is attached. The page says Grounding with Bing incurs costs and links the same pricing page.", "The terms forbid using Bing output on sites that block the customer's crawler and using its links for crawling or scraping, recorded as facts about the service." ] }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "First-party Bing grounding inside Foundry Agent Service, called with Entra ID so the agent never holds a search key, at a published $14 per 1,000 transactions. The tools return a model's answer with citations, never the raw results, and data sent to them falls outside Microsoft's Data Protection Addendum and Azure's compliance boundary.", "bestFor": "Teams already building on Foundry Agent Service who want cited answers from Bing without handling a search key.", "strengths": [ "Callers authenticate with Microsoft Entra ID and Foundry RBAC roles, and the Bing resource key stays in a project connection", "Price and limits published without a login, $14 per 1,000 transactions, 150 a second and 1 million a day", "Count, freshness, market and language parameters, and a Custom Search variant that limits grounding to chosen domains", "Docs say to treat web search results as untrusted input, and admins can turn web search off for a whole subscription" ], "weaknesses": [ "The Bing tools never return raw results to developers, only a model-written answer with citation links", "The Data Protection Addendum does not apply and query data leaves the Azure compliance and geographic boundary", "No free tier, and a first call needs an Azure subscription, a Foundry project, a model deployment and, for bing_grounding, a paid Bing resource", "Terms forbid using Bing output to train or evaluate AI models and limit storing or caching it" ], "agentNotes": [ "Use the citations in the response annotations as the sources; the tool output itself is not returned, and the terms require showing the URLs and the Bing query link", "Expect each run to bill one transaction per tool call at $14 per 1,000, plus model tokens, and set count and freshness in the tool configuration", "Treat cited page text as untrusted input and don't put secrets or personal data in prompts, since queries leave the Azure compliance boundary", "On 429 back off exponentially; no Retry-After header is documented for the tool" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 63.7 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 61, "maintenance": 80, "payments": 20, "reliability": 68, "schema": 68, "security": 79, "transparency": 45 }, "provenanceScore": 87, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-06", "maintenance": "2026-11-06", "payments": "2026-11-06", "reliability": "2026-11-06", "schema": "2026-11-06", "security": "2026-11-06", "transparency": "2026-11-06" }, "last": "2026-11-06", "oldest": "2026-11-06", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 }, "scoreHistory": [ { "date": "2026-11-06", "grade": "B", "kind": "listed", "method": "0.7", "score": 63.7 } ] }, "connect": { "install": "pip install azure-ai-projects azure-identity", "http": "curl -X POST \"$FOUNDRY_PROJECT_ENDPOINT/openai/v1/responses\" \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $AGENT_TOKEN\" \\\n -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\":\"'$FOUNDRY_MODEL_DEPLOYMENT_NAME'\",\"input\":\"How does Wikipedia explain Euler identity?\",\"tool_choice\":\"required\",\"tools\":[{\"type\":\"bing_grounding\",\"bing_grounding\":{\"search_configurations\":[{\"project_connection_id\":\"'$BING_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID'\",\"count\":7,\"market\":\"en-US\",\"set_lang\":\"en\",\"freshness\":\"week\"}]}}]}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/web.search", "tool": "https://letme.dev/bing-grounding" }, "sameCompany": [ "azure-openai", "azure-foundry-fine-tuning", "azure-ai-content-safety", "azure-speech-to-text", "azure-text-to-speech", "microsoft-agent-framework", "microsoft-execution-containers", "microsoft-entra-agent-id", "azure-key-vault", "azure-document-intelligence", "azure-devops-mcp", "microsoft-learn-mcp", "tokeneconomizer", "playwright-mcp", "azure-mcp", "azure-maps", "azure-translator", "microsoft-graph-calendar", "azure-blob-storage", "onedrive-sharepoint", "microsoft-teams", "dynamics-365-sales", "copilot-studio-mcp", "power-automate", "foundry-local", "microsoft-decision-1", "microsoft-advertising-api", "microsoft-excel-graph", "outlook-mail-graph", "microsoft-graph-people", "mage-vl-cowork" ], "notable": [ "Microsoft retired the Bing Search APIs on 11 August 2025 and told customers to move to Grounding with Bing Search in Azure AI Agents, in a notice dated 16 May 2025 (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement)", "The Microsoft Data Protection Addendum does not apply to data sent to Grounding with Bing, and that data flows outside the Azure compliance and geographic boundary (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-tools)", "The Bing tools do not return their raw output to developers or end users. The model's answer carries URL citations and a link to the Bing query (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-tools)", "$14 per 1,000 transactions, at most 150 transactions a second and 1 million a day, for both Grounding with Bing Search and Custom Search (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/grounding-pricing)", "The terms of use, updated November 2025, forbid training or improving AI models with Bing output and allow storing output only as part of the customer's own work product (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/grounding-legal-enterprise)", "Web search can be added to a Foundry toolbox, which exposes it through an MCP endpoint and returns the answer as a resource item with url_citation annotations (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/web-search)" ], "area": "web-data", "details": [ { "label": "Surface listed", "value": "The Grounding with Bing Search and Custom Search tools (`bing_grounding`, `bing_custom_search_preview`) and the general `web_search` tool in Foundry Agent Service, called through the project's Responses API or a toolbox MCP endpoint. Read from Microsoft Learn, the Grounding with Bing pricing page and terms of use on 6 November 2026. No Azure account was made and no call was sent" }, { "label": "Three tool types", "value": "`web_search` (WebSearchTool) adds Bing-backed search to a prompt agent or a toolbox with no Bing resource. `bing_grounding` needs a Grounding with Bing resource and a project connection. `bing_custom_search_preview` restricts grounding to domains configured in a Bing Custom Search instance, and is marked preview" }, { "label": "What comes back", "value": "A model-generated answer with `url_citation` annotations and a link to the Bing query. The Bing tools do not return their raw output. Over MCP the toolbox returns one resource item holding the answer, with citations in `_meta.annotations`" }, { "label": "Parameters", "value": "`count` (default 5, at most 50), `freshness` (Day, Week, Month or a date range), `market` (such as en-US) and `set_lang` for bing_grounding. `user_location` and `search_context_size` (low, medium, high) for web_search" }, { "label": "History", "value": "The standalone Bing Search APIs were retired on 11 August 2025, after a notice dated 16 May 2025 that named Grounding with Bing Search as the replacement" }, { "label": "Data boundary", "value": "Only the Bing query, tool parameters and the resource key are sent to Bing, outside the Azure compliance boundary and outside the Data Protection Addendum. Microsoft and the customer are independent controllers under the terms. Bing traffic uses public egress even from a network-secured project" }, { "label": "Regions", "value": "Grounding with Bing Search is listed for a subset of regions, including West Europe, Canada East, Switzerland North, East US, West US, UK South, Japan East and others on the limits page. Not every model supports the tools" }, { "label": "Display rules", "value": "The terms require showing the website URLs and the Bing search query URL, unmodified, near the output, and allow the output only in search experiences relevant to the user's query" }, { "label": "Admin control", "value": "`az feature register --name OpenAI.BlockedTools.web_search` turns web search off for every Foundry account in a subscription" } ], "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Grounding with Bing Search transaction", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 14, "note": "Counted as tool calls per run, plus the model deployment's token charges" }, { "item": "Grounding with Bing Custom Search transaction", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 14, "note": "Same limits, 150 a second and 1 million a day" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Microsoft Corporation", "domain": "microsoft.com", "domainRegistered": "1991-05-02", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.microsoft.com/bing/apis/grounding-legal-enterprise", "privacy": "https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement", "statusPage": "https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status", "changelog": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/whats-new-foundry", "securityTxt": "expired", "checked": "2026-11-06", "notes": [ "The Foundry project endpoint is on services.ai.azure.com, a Microsoft domain. Domain registration date carried from the Azure listings' provenance.", "The Grounding with Bing terms of use (updated November 2025) are subject to the customer's Microsoft agreement (MCA, MBSA or MOSA) and name no separate contracting entity. They forbid using output on sites that block the customer's crawler, using links for crawling or scraping, and bypassing transaction limits.", "www.microsoft.com/.well-known/security.txt still carries Expires 2026-09-23T16:00:00.000Z on 6 November 2026.", "learn.microsoft.com/robots.txt allows the documentation paths read. The Azure status history page lists post-incident reviews for five years." ], "score": 87, "checks": [ { "check": "Legal entity named", "value": "Microsoft Corporation", "points": 20, "max": 20, "state": "ok" }, { "check": "Domain age", "value": "microsoft.com, registered 1991-05-02 (35 years)", "points": 15, "max": 15, "state": "ok" }, { "check": "Endpoint on the vendor's domain", "value": "{account}.services.ai.azure.com", "points": 15, "max": 15, "state": "ok" }, { "check": "Terms of service", "value": "read, states 3 of the 7 things a reader expects, and has 2 clauses that cost points", "points": 2.6, "max": 10, "state": "part" }, { "check": "Privacy policy", "value": "read, states 8 of the 8 things a reader expects, and has 1 clause that costs points", "points": 8, "max": 10, "state": "part" }, { "check": "Status page", "value": "azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status", "points": 10, "max": 10, "state": "ok" }, { "check": "Changelog", "value": "published", "points": 10, "max": 10, "state": "ok" }, { "check": "security.txt", "value": "published but past its Expires date", "points": 5, "max": 10, "state": "part" }, { "check": "People named", "value": "4 named with their role, 1 with a public profile", "points": 10, "max": 10, "state": "ok" }, { "check": "Support route", "value": "help pages", "points": 5, "max": 5, "state": "ok" } ], "policies": [ { "kind": "terms", "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/bing/apis/grounding-legal-enterprise", "state": "read", "readAt": "2026-11-06", "statedDate": "2025-11-01", "words": 2474, "points": 2.6, "max": 10, "expected": [ { "key": "terms.date", "label": "Gives the date it was last updated", "found": true, "quote": "Last updated: November 2025", "says": "Last updated 2025-11-01" }, { "key": "terms.law", "label": "Names the governing law or courts", "found": false }, { "key": "terms.liability", "label": "States a limit on its liability", "found": false }, { "key": "terms.termination", "label": "Says how the agreement or account can be ended", "found": true, "quote": "If Microsoft suspends the Services under this Section 3(e), Microsoft will suspend only to the extent reasonably necessary." }, { "key": "terms.changes", "label": "Says how changes to the terms are announced", "found": false }, { "key": "terms.use", "label": "Lists what users may not do", "found": true, "quote": "If the Bing Services Output includes Microsoft's or its suppliers' logos or proprietary notices, Customer will not change, obscure, remove, or resize any logo, trademark, copyright, or other notice of Microsoft or its suppliers or digital watermarks in the Bing Services Output." }, { "key": "terms.sla", "label": "Refers to a service level or uptime commitment", "found": false } ], "toKnow": [ { "key": "training", "label": "Says it may use customer content to train or improve models, and no opt-out was found", "found": true, "quote": "Use or facilitate the use of the Bing Services Output to train, evaluate or improve any AI Model, including without limitation Customer's proprietary AI Model, or any new or existing services that Customer or third parties may offer;", "costsPoints": true }, { "key": "terms.automated", "label": "Restricts automated access", "found": true, "quote": "Use or facilitate the use of the Bing Services Output for websites where Customer is restricted by the website from using such Bing Services Output, including but not limited to, where Customer's crawler has been blocked via robots.txt;", "costsPoints": true } ] }, { "kind": "privacy", "url": "https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement", "state": "read", "readAt": "2026-10-08", "statedDate": "2026-09-01", "words": 33580, "points": 8, "max": 10, "expected": [ { "key": "privacy.date", "label": "Gives the date it was last updated", "found": true, "quote": "Last Updated: September 2026", "says": "Last updated 2026-09-01" }, { "key": "privacy.collected", "label": "Says what personal data is collected", "found": true, "quote": "The data we collect depends on the context of your interactions with Microsoft and the choices you make, including your privacy settings and the products and features you use." }, { "key": "privacy.retention", "label": "Says how long data is kept", "found": true, "quote": "When you delete an email or item from a mailbox in Outlook.com, the item generally goes into your Deleted Items folder where it remains for approximately 7 days unless you move it back to your inbox, you empty the folder, or the service empties the folder automatically, whichever comes first.", "says": "Names a period of 7 days" }, { "key": "privacy.processors", "label": "Says who else receives the data", "found": true, "quote": "Service providers that help us determine your device’s location." }, { "key": "privacy.sale", "label": "Says whether personal data is sold or shared for advertising", "found": true, "quote": "not use or share student personal data for advertising or similar commercial purposes, such as providing personalized advertising to students;" }, { "key": "privacy.rights", "label": "Says what rights people have over their data", "found": true, "quote": "State Data Privacy Notice (including notice at collection details) and the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy for additional information about your rights and the processing of your personal data." }, { "key": "privacy.contact", "label": "Gives a privacy contact", "found": true, "quote": "If you have a privacy concern, complaint, or question for the Microsoft privacy team or Data Protection Officer, please visit our privacy support and requests page and click on “Contact the Microsoft privacy team or the Microsoft Data Protection Officer” menu.", "says": "Names a data protection officer" }, { "key": "privacy.transfers", "label": "Says where data is transferred or stored", "found": true, "quote": "In such cases, we implement legal safeguards-such as standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission – to help protect your rights and ensure your data remains protected.", "says": "Relies on standard contractual clauses" } ], "toKnow": [ { "key": "training", "label": "Says it may use customer content to train or improve models, and no opt-out was found", "found": true, "quote": "As part of our efforts to improve and develop our products, we may use your data to develop and train our AI models.", "costsPoints": true }, { "key": "privacy.sells", "label": "Says it sells personal data or shares it for advertising", "found": true, "quote": "We also disclose personal data for digital advertising purposes." } ], "notes": [ { "date": "2026-10-08", "text": "For enterprise and developer products, the customer's agreement with Microsoft takes precedence over this privacy statement where the two conflict.", "quote": "In the event of a conflict between our privacy statement and the terms of any agreement(s) between a customer and Microsoft for Enterprise and Developer Products, the terms of those agreement(s) will control." }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "text": "Advertisements may be chosen from the current interaction, including Copilot conversations and files shared in them.", "quote": "Ads may be shown that relate to the current interaction you are having with us, such as your Copilot conversations (including files you share); your current location; transactions; product usage; search queries; or the content you’re viewing." }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "text": "Microsoft staff manually review some results of automated systems, including AI, against the source data.", "quote": "For example, to build, train, and improve the accuracy of our automated systems – such as AI - we manually review some of the results against the underlying data." } ] } ] }, "humans": { "slug": "bing-grounding", "checked": "2026-11-06", "company": "Microsoft", "people": [ { "name": "Bill Gates", "role": "Co-founder and technical adviser, Microsoft", "founder": true, "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates", "x": "https://x.com/BillGates", "bio": "Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and led it through its growth in business and personal software. In 2008 he moved to full-time work at the Gates Foundation, which he chairs, and he founded Breakthrough Energy to back clean-technology companies.", "bioSources": [ "https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/leadership/bill-gates" ], "page": "/people/bill-gates/" }, { "name": "Paul Allen", "role": "Co-founder, Microsoft, left day-to-day work there in 1983", "founder": true, "bio": "Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975. He left day-to-day work at the company in 1983 but stayed on its board as vice-chairman, and co-founded Vulcan Inc. in 1986.", "bioSources": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen" ], "page": "/people/paul-allen/" }, { "name": "Satya Nadella", "role": "Chairman and CEO, Microsoft", "photo": "/assets/img/people/microsoft-satya-nadella.webp", "photoSource": "https://news.microsoft.com/source/leadership/", "bio": "Satya Nadella is chairman and chief executive of Microsoft, which he joined in 1992 and has led as CEO since February 2014. He earlier ran its Cloud and Enterprise group and led research and development for its Online Services Division, and before Microsoft was on the technology staff at Sun Microsystems.", "bioSources": [ "https://news.microsoft.com/source/exec/satya-nadella/" ], "page": "/people/satya-nadella/" }, { "name": "Kevin Scott", "role": "Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft", "photo": "/assets/img/people/microsoft-kevin-scott.webp", "photoSource": "https://news.microsoft.com/source/exec/kevin-scott/", "bio": "Kevin Scott is Microsoft's chief technology officer. He was earlier senior vice president of engineering and operations at LinkedIn, which he led through its IPO, and before that oversaw mobile ads engineering at Google, including the integration of AdMob. He hosts the Behind the Tech podcast and sits on Shopify's board.", "bioSources": [ "https://news.microsoft.com/source/exec/kevin-scott/" ], "page": "/people/kevin-scott/" } ], "peopleNote": "Microsoft's leadership page on its Source newsroom, read on 28 October 2026, lists Satya Nadella as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Scott's executive page there gives him as Chief Technology Officer. The co-founders, and Bill Gates's current role as technical adviser, come from Wikipedia's Microsoft and Paul Allen articles. Product people named on single listings are left as they are, except those with no first-hand source. Copied from the Microsoft listings' humans file (azure-translator, checked 28 October 2026) on 6 November 2026. No product person for Grounding with Bing is named on the pages read.", "companySocial": { "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft", "x": "https://x.com/Microsoft" }, "support": { "urls": [ "https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/", "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us" ] }, "sources": [ "https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/leadership/bill-gates", "https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/verified-accounts", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/", "https://x.com/Microsoft/with_replies", "https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/", "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us", "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-tools" ], "ownership": { "status": "public", "exchange": "NASDAQ", "ticker": "MSFT", "checked": "2026-10-28", "sources": [ "https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/msft", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft" ] } }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bing-grounding.json", "live": { "slug": "bing-grounding", "probe": { "target": "https://{account}.services.ai.azure.com/api/projects/{project}/openai/v1/responses", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T17:49:31.011197169Z", "lastOk": false, "lastStatus": 0, "lastMs": 0, "lastNote": "invalid character \"{\" in host name", "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 0, "uptime30d": 0, "p50ms24h": 0, "p95ms24h": 0, "samples24h": 195, "samples30d": 195, "days": [ { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 13, "ok": 0 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 182, "ok": 0 } ], "outages": [ { "start": "2026-11-06T22:45:07.390416052Z", "end": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "note": "invalid character \"{\" in host name" } ] }, "versions": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@azure/ai-projects", "version": "2.10.0", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:11:06.900508365Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "azure-ai-projects", "version": "2.10.0", "released": "2026-10-30", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:11:05.00335007Z" } ], "npmWeekly": 1368538, "pypiWeekly": 1896178, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://microsoft.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-10-27T16:00:00.000Z", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:02:01.196666056Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/bing/apis/grounding-legal-enterprise", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:31:40.128456318Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "ddf25722851a" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T17:49:31.011197169Z" } } }