Bing Webmaster Instruments now lets publishers see how their content material seems in AI-generated solutions throughout Microsoft Copilot and Bing, making it the primary main search platform to supply devoted AI look reporting.
Microsoft announced the AI Performance dashboard on February 10, 2026. The function is on the market now in public preview for any verified website.
The report tracks quotation visibility particularly. It would not measure clicks, rankings, or visitors from AI solutions. As an alternative, it solutions a query publishers have been asking since generative search took off: Is my content material truly being referenced?
Fabrice Canel, Product Supervisor at Microsoft, confirmed on X that extra knowledge is coming: “It is only a preview, you’ll get extra in 2026.”
What the AI Efficiency Dashboard Reveals
The dashboard introduces 5 core metrics centered on AI quotation exercise:
- Whole citations: What number of instances your website is cited as a supply in AI-generated solutions throughout a particular interval
- Common cited pages: The day by day common variety of distinctive URLs out of your website referenced throughout AI experiences
- Grounding queries: Pattern phrases the AI used when retrieving content material that was cited in its solutions. These aren’t essentially what customers looked for, however the queries the AI system used to seek out and pull your content material. Microsoft describes them as “the important thing phrases the AI used when retrieving content material that was referenced in AI-generated solutions,” and notes the information proven represents a pattern of total quotation exercise.
- Web page-level quotation exercise: Quotation counts by URL, so you possibly can see which particular pages are referenced most frequently
- Visibility developments over time: A timeline view exhibiting how quotation exercise rises or falls throughout AI experiences
The report covers citations throughout Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing, and choose associate integrations, although Microsoft hasn’t clarified precisely which companions are included.
AI Citations With out Click on-By way of Information
The dashboard would not embrace click-through knowledge. You may see that your content material is being cited, however you possibly can’t see what number of customers truly clicked by from these AI solutions to your website.
As Search Engine Land reported, publishers nonetheless cannot inform if AI visibility is delivering measurable enterprise worth.
Quotation frequency additionally would not point out rating, prominence, or how a lot a web page contributed to a particular reply. A web page could possibly be cited as soon as in passing or function the first supply for an AI response, and the information would not distinguish between the 2.
Nonetheless, that is extra granular AI-specific knowledge than something at present obtainable in Google Search Console (GSC). Google consists of AI Overviews and AI Mode in its total Efficiency reporting, however it would not supply a devoted report or citation-level URL counts.
The best way to Use Bing’s AI Quotation Metrics
Bing’s transfer units a precedent. It is the primary time a serious search platform has handled AI citations as a definite, trackable metric slightly than folding them into conventional search efficiency knowledge.
For SEOs, this report gives a couple of sensible alternatives:
- Cross-reference your top-cited pages along with your top-traffic pages: They could not match. Pages that rank nicely in conventional search aren’t essentially those AI techniques cite. Take a look at what your most-cited pages have in frequent: construction, depth, how claims are supported, and the way just lately they had been up to date. These patterns let you know what AI techniques worth out of your website particularly.
- Use grounding queries to seek out content material gaps: The grounding queries report exhibits the phrases AI used to retrieve your content material. If these phrases do not map to matters you’ve got intentionally focused, you might be getting cited by the way slightly than strategically. When you see grounding queries associated to matters you cowl however particular pages aren’t being cited, that is a sign to enhance construction, add supporting proof, or replace outdated info on these pages.
- Examine cited vs. indexed-but-not-cited pages: If a web page is listed however by no means exhibits up within the quotation knowledge, it is probably not structured or authoritative sufficient for AI techniques to reference. Begin with the fundamentals: clear headings, evidence-backed claims, and up-to-date info.
- Set a baseline: The report consists of time-series knowledge from day one. Log in, export your present numbers, and monitor modifications over time so you possibly can measure the impression of any optimizations you make.
Geertrui Laleman, senior AI search optimization specialist at Semrush, analyzed the grounding question knowledge and located that 39% of the queries used to floor AI responses had been conversational questions or longer multi-word phrases.
“Whereas longer, natural-language queries are more and more frequent in AI-driven search, this exhibits that the identical sample carries by into the validation stage,” Laleman mentioned. “For our content material technique, meaning making certain our pages embrace clear, direct responses to those longer queries, not simply to fulfill customers, however to function a dependable reference level for the AI itself.”
Additional studying: How to Optimize for AI Search Results in 2026
Microsoft framed the launch as an early step towards GEO tooling, and the web optimization group has largely responded by calling on Google to observe.
How the web optimization Group Is Responding
The response has been largely constructive, with most dialog centering on the distinction with Google’s reporting.
Leigh McKenzie, director of on-line visibility at Semrush, noted on LinkedIn that citations damaged out by grounding queries, page-level visibility, and time-series knowledge from day one “places this forward of something we have seen from Google to this point.”
Wil Reynolds, founder and vp of innovation at Seer Interactive, confirmed the grounding queries function was dwell, posting on X: “Bing is now supplying you with grounding queries in Bing Webmaster Instruments!! Simply confirmed, now I gotta perceive what we’re getting from them, what it means and the right way to use it.”
Nikki Pilkington, web optimization advisor and web optimization content material specialist, put the Google comparability bluntly in a LinkedIn publish: “Google Search Console: We have given customers a brand new favicon and customized citations. Bing Webmaster Instruments: Maintain my beer…”
The primary pushback is on attain. Copilot and Bing’s AI options serve a fraction of the customers that Google and ChatGPT do, so the information displays a slender slice of AI search conduct. That is a legitimate limitation, however it’s additionally the one first-party AI quotation knowledge obtainable proper now.
Monitor AI Visibility Past Bing
Bing’s report covers the Microsoft ecosystem. To see how your model seems throughout AI search platforms extra broadly, use Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit.
The Visibility Overview dashboard exhibits which prompts you seem in AI responses for, the place opponents seem and you do not, and which sources LLMs reference.
The Model Efficiency dashboard provides particular suggestions for bettering your AI visibility based mostly in your present knowledge.
Begin with Bing’s quotation knowledge to grasp what’s working in your website. Then use the AI Visibility Toolkit to see how that interprets throughout the broader AI search panorama.
