Microsoft set to pull the plug on Bing Search APIs in favor of AI alternative
- Reference: 1747319235
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/05/15/bing_search_apis_retired/
- Source link:
The Bing Search APIs allowed users to add search capabilities to their applications. The latest APIs included image, video, news, and web search.
There are also organizations, such as DuckDuckGo, that [1]source some search results from Bing.
[2]
Microsoft [3]confirmed : "Any existing instances of Bing Search APIs will be decommissioned completely, and the product will no longer be available for usage or new customer signup."
[4]
[5]
While users with longstanding agreements or contracts with Microsoft, like DuckDuckGo, will [6]reportedly not be immediately affected, the message is clear: stop using the Bing Search APIs and rely on summaries generated by the company's LLMs.
Microsoft added: "Customers may want to consider Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents. Grounding with Bing Search allows Azure AI Agents to incorporate real-time public web data when generating responses with an LLM."
[7]
The solution may not satisfy customers used to raw search results. It's also not as if the service was free – Microsoft [8]charged customers for using the APIs, and [9]massively hiked the price in 2023. The increases were as much as 900 percent, depending on a customer's tier.
Companies that absorbed the increases at the time now have another decision to make. Without Bing's search index immediately on tap, the choice is to either select another solution – the [10]Brave Search API or [11]Mojeek's Web Search API are two options – or accept the AI-powered alternative Microsoft suggests.
[12]Europe plots escape hatch from the enshittification of search
[13]If Google is forced to give up Chrome, what happens next?
[14]You'll never guess which mobile browser is the worst for data collection
[15]Microsoft expands Copilot bug bounty targets, adds payouts for even moderate messes
One Reddit user [16]described the impending discontinuation of the Bing Search APIs as the "end of an era."
The action might indeed represent the end of an era, but it is also understandable (if unpalatable) considering the move to AI summaries in search results and the use of services such as ChatGPT instead of traditional search tools.
The aggressive timeline is, however, not so understandable. August 11 is not far away, and considering the statement that "any existing instances of Bing Search APIs will be decommissioned completely," affected developers will not have long to move to an alternative. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aCYPmxBEf4flnwbBBugpyQAAAtQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates?id=492574
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aCYPmxBEf4flnwbBBugpyQAAAtQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aCYPmxBEf4flnwbBBugpyQAAAtQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.wired.com/story/bing-microsoft-api-support-ending/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aCYPmxBEf4flnwbBBugpyQAAAtQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/pricing
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/20/rely_on_microsoft_bing_search/
[10] https://brave.com/search/api/
[11] https://www.mojeek.com/services/search/web-search-api/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/openwebsearch_eu/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/opinion_column_google_chrome_potential_divestiture/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/mobile_browser_data_collection/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/microsoft_copilot_bug_bounty_updated/
[16] https://www.reddit.com/r/bing/comments/1kl2cq5/comment/mrznj83/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The enshittification continues...
So now if i'm looking for a driver this LLM is going to give me a summary of what a driver is ?
Or what hardware is ?
Fark off M$....
Re: The enshittification continues...
Imagine actual driver with LLM backend and eval, figuring out how to talk to hardware live. Coming soon to your PC.
Re: The enshittification continues...
If I was looking for a driver, the LLM would probably show me a putter.
So that's Bing written off as a basis of privacy-respecting search engines.
So that's Bing written off as a basis of privacy-respecting search engines.
It will no longer produce reliable or sensible results. I hate it when the search engine returns "oh, do you mean $(thisunrelatedthing)" when searhcing e.g. for an error message or well, just anything.
No. I meant what I wrote. Or it tries to summarise things originally written in $(languageIknow) in $(anotherlanguageIknow) and... fails, because it does not understand it. At all. And don't get me started on the ML translated "documentation" on the Microsoft homepage, they are bad enough when they are just autogenerated in English, but the translations are really brain dead.
They are "search" engines, and no longer "find" engines. The only reason to push subpar ML products is to show shareholders that the mangelment did not fritter away the money on the emperor's new LLM. As WTYP said "happy friendship day" to them.
I imagine the phone calls
Microsoft: "Hey Google, we're seeing how much money you make by providing a dog shit service that gets worse every year, so we'd like to copy you.
Google: "Hold my beer!"
https://search.google/ways-to-search/ai-mode/
No great loss
Bing was shit, the AI made it worse. Just seems to be the final nail in the coffin
altavista
Your 2nd coming awaits you
If only Europe could extractum digitorum
and get their OpenWebSearch initiative up and running some time before the heat death of the Universe we might have some hope there will be a method of searching the internet corpus that returns relevant, rational, unbiased, balanced results and reproducibly rather than the septic tank pump out we endure currently.
Otherwise coprophagia all round, I am afraid.
Seems that no matter what Micro$oft product you are using you WILL be forced to use their "AI" enshittification :(
Micro$oft's belief in Nuclear Fusion and Majorana quantum computing being available in the next couple of years seem to be their driving force...
Pity that viable Nuclear Fusion is still decades away and Majorana quantum computing seems to be a well-developed hoax - based on my readings