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 introduced the AI Efficiency dashboard on February 10, 2026. The function is on the market now in public preview for any verified web site.
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 really being referenced?
Fabrice Canel, Product Supervisor at Microsoft, confirmed on X that extra information 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 web site is cited as a supply in AI-generated solutions throughout a particular interval
- Common cited pages: The each day common variety of distinctive URLs out of your web site 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 search 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 may see which particular pages are referenced most frequently
- Visibility traits over time: A timeline view displaying 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 Information
The dashboard would not embody click-through information. You may see that your content material is being cited, however you may’t see what number of customers really clicked via from these AI solutions to your web site.
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 might 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 information than something presently obtainable in Google Search Console (GSC). Google contains AI Overviews and AI Mode in its total Efficiency reporting, however it would not supply a devoted report or citation-level URL counts.
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 information.
For SEOs, this report affords just a few sensible alternatives:
- Cross-reference your top-cited pages along with your top-traffic pages: They could not match. Pages that rank effectively in conventional search aren’t essentially those AI methods cite. Have a look at what your most-cited pages have in frequent: construction, depth, how claims are supported, and the way not too long ago they had been up to date. These patterns inform you what AI methods worth out of your web site particularly.
- Use grounding queries to search out content material gaps: The grounding queries report reveals the phrases AI used to retrieve your content material. If these phrases do not map to subjects you’ve got intentionally focused, chances are you’ll be getting cited by the way slightly than strategically. When you see grounding queries associated to subjects 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 reveals up within the quotation information, it is probably not structured or authoritative sufficient for AI methods to reference. Begin with the fundamentals: clear headings, evidence-backed claims, and up-to-date info.
- Set a baseline: The report contains time-series information from day one. Log in, export your present numbers, and monitor adjustments over time so you may measure the influence of any optimizations you make.
Geertrui Laleman, senior AI search optimization specialist at Semrush, analyzed the grounding question information 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 reveals that the identical sample carries via into the validation stage,” Laleman mentioned. “For our content material technique, meaning making certain our pages embody 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: Optimize for AI Search Ends in 2026
Microsoft framed the launch as an early step towards GEO tooling, and the search engine optimisation neighborhood has largely responded by calling on Google to observe.
How the search engine optimisation Group Is Responding
The response has been largely optimistic, with most dialog centering on the distinction with Google’s reporting.
Leigh McKenzie, director of on-line visibility at Semrush, famous on LinkedIn that citations damaged out by grounding queries, page-level visibility, and time-series information from day one “places this forward of something we have seen from Google up to now.”
Wil Reynolds, founder and vp of innovation at Seer Interactive, confirmed the grounding queries function was stay, 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, search engine optimisation marketing consultant and search engine optimisation content material specialist, put the Google comparability bluntly in a LinkedIn submit: “Google Search Console: We have given customers a brand new favicon and customized citations. Bing Webmaster Instruments: Maintain my beer…”
The principle 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 habits. That is a legitimate limitation, however it’s additionally the one first-party AI quotation information 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 reveals which prompts you seem in AI responses for, the place rivals seem and you do not, and which sources LLMs reference.
The Model Efficiency dashboard provides particular suggestions for enhancing your AI visibility primarily based in your present information.
Begin with Bing’s quotation information to know what’s working in your web site. Then use the AI Visibility Toolkit to see how that interprets throughout the broader AI search panorama.
