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Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report: what it shows and how to use it

The Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report counts how often your pages are cited as sources in AI answers. It covers Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and select partner products. Microsoft launched it as a public preview on 10 February 2026. It lists grounding queries. It does not report clicks.

By SeenLens · Last updated

What does the AI Performance report show?

Microsoft's Bing team announced the report on 10 February 2026. The announcement describes citation activity for your site across Microsoft Copilot, AI generated summaries in Bing and "select partner integrations". The dashboard has five parts:

AI Performance report parts, as described by Microsoft on 2026-02-10
PartMeaning
Total CitationsHow many times your content appeared as a source in AI generated answers in the selected period.
Average Cited PagesThe average number of unique pages from your site cited per day.
Page level citation activityCitation counts for individual URLs.
Grounding queriesKey phrases the AI used to retrieve your content. Microsoft says the list is a sample of citation activity.
Visibility trendsA timeline of citation activity.

A citation here means a page shown as a source in an AI answer. A grounding query is a short query that the AI system generates in the background to find web content before it writes an answer. It is not the text the user typed. The glossary entries grounding queries and query fan-out explain the idea.

What does the report not show?

  • Clicks and referral traffic. The report counts citations only. Use your own analytics for visits.
  • Placement. Microsoft says the totals count references "without indicating placement or presentation" in an answer.
  • Page importance. Microsoft says page level data shows how often a page is cited, and not how important the page is.
  • The user prompt. The report shows grounding queries and not the text a person typed.
  • A split by product or partner. Microsoft does not name the partners. One report covers Copilot, Bing summaries and partners together.
  • Other assistants. Adobe's tutorial states that the report does not yet include assistants such as ChatGPT.

Microsoft calls the dashboard supplementary to the existing search performance reports, which cover clicks, impressions and position.

How do you open and export the report?

  1. Sign in at Bing Webmaster Tools.
  2. Add your site and verify that you own it. Submit your sitemap. New sites need time before data appears.
  3. Open AI Performance for the site. Microsoft's announcement links to it at aka.ms/BWTAIpref.
  4. Choose a date range. The Topics Portfolio tab offers one, two or three months.
  5. Read the Citations & Pages tab: total citations, average cited pages, pages and grounding queries.
  6. If your site has enough data, open the Topics Portfolio (Beta) tab. It groups your grounding queries into topics.
  7. Export the data. A third party guide (GEO Toolbox, October 2026), which summarizes Microsoft's help page, reports CSV and Excel export. We could not open the help page ourselves, so check the export button in your account.

A very small site can see an empty grounding query list. The same guide says low or infrequent citation activity may not appear. An empty list is not a penalty.

How do you use grounding queries to find content gaps?

Grounding queries show what the AI looked for when it used your pages. Gaps appear where the AI looked for a topic and found a weak page, or found a competitor instead. Follow this routine once a month:

  1. Export the grounding queries and the page level citations for the last three months.
  2. Match each query to the page that was cited for it. Put the pairs in a sheet.
  3. Mark queries where the cited page only mentions the topic in passing. These pages need a section that answers the query.
  4. Open Topics Portfolio. Microsoft describes a Top Opportunity Queries list of strong queries where other sites appear and yours does not. Each topic also shows Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries.
  5. Write or extend one page per gap. Use a clear heading, a direct answer in the first paragraph, a table where it helps and a short FAQ.
  6. After you publish, notify Bing with IndexNow. Check the same topic in the report a month later.

Treat the numbers with care. Microsoft labels Topics Portfolio as beta because the topic grouping is AI generated and the figures are approximate. Microsoft calls them directional signals for planning. Branded queries can also appear as opportunities.

Microsoft's own advice in the announcement is to deepen coverage of the cited topics, use headings, tables and FAQs, support claims with evidence, keep content updated, keep text, images and video consistent, and use IndexNow.

How does the report relate to Copilot and other partners?

The report covers Microsoft's own AI answers: Microsoft Copilot and AI summaries in Bing. Microsoft adds "select partner integrations" without naming them. Bing says it respects robots.txt and other content owner controls, so allow Bingbot to crawl the pages you want cited. The AI crawler checker tests that. Microsoft's AI Training and AI Grounding preferences can keep a page out of Copilot answers; see Bing AI grounding and AI training.

Other assistants may also draw on the Bing index. In April 2025 court testimony, OpenAI said that ChatGPT search uses Bing (vendor claim, reported in trial coverage). The report does not show ChatGPT citations, so a page cited in ChatGPT does not appear in the report as such.

Two free AI reports compared
Bing AI PerformanceGoogle Search Console generative AI report
LaunchPublic preview, 2026-02-102026-06-03 for a subset of sites, all sites worldwide by 2026-08-31
Main metricCitationsImpressions
Query dataGrounding queries (sample)None. Dimensions are pages, countries, devices and dates
ClicksNoNot in the announcement
Products coveredCopilot, Bing summaries, unnamed partnersGenerative AI features in Google Search and Discover

What changed since the launch?

  • 2026-02-10: Microsoft announced AI Performance as a public preview.
  • 2026-10-13: Microsoft announced Topics Portfolio (Beta). It groups grounding queries into topics and lists opportunity queries.

Some third party guides describe more additions from June 2026. We could not confirm them on Microsoft's blog, so this guide leaves them out. The preview label means that features can still change. Check the Bing Webmaster blog for updates.

Frequently asked questions about the AI Performance report

What is the Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report?

It is a report inside Bing Webmaster Tools that counts how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and select partner products. It also lists grounding queries and page level citations.

Does the AI Performance report show clicks?

No. It counts citations. Microsoft says citations are measured separately from clicks, impressions and average position. Use your analytics for visits.

Does Bing AI Performance have an API?

We found no API for this report. Microsoft's announcement does not describe one, and a third party guide says the help page documents none. Export the data from the interface.

Is the AI Performance report free?

It is part of Bing Webmaster Tools, and Microsoft's announcement lists no fee. Look in your Bing Webmaster Tools account to confirm that the report is available for your site.

Why are my grounding queries different from the prompts people type?

The AI writes its own short queries to retrieve content before it answers. One user prompt can produce several grounding queries. Microsoft says the list is a sample.

Does the report include ChatGPT citations?

No. It covers Microsoft's AI experiences and unnamed partners. To check other assistants, read how to check AI visibility.

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