Custom Search API v7 reference
Warning
Bing Search APIs are moving from Cognitive Services to Bing Search Services. Starting October 30, 2020, any new instances of Bing Search need to be provisioned following the process documented here. Bing Search APIs provisioned using Cognitive Services will be supported for the next three years or until the end of your Enterprise Agreement, whichever happens first. For migration instructions, see Bing Search Services.
The Custom Search API lets you send a search query to Bing and get back web pages from the slice of Web that your Custom Search instance defines. For information about configuring a Custom Search instance, see Configure your custom search experience.
For information about headers that requests should include, see Request Headers.
For information about query parameters that requests should include, see Query Parameters.
For information about the JSON objects that the response may include, see Response Body.
For information about permitted use and display of results, see Bing Search API Use and Display requirements.
Note
Because URL formats and parameters are subject to change without notice, use all URLs as-is. You should not take dependencies on the URL format or parameters except where noted.
Endpoints
To request search results from your custom view of the web, send a GET request to:
https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/bingcustomsearch/v7.0/search
For multi-service subscriptions, you must include the region in the URL. For example: westus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com. See Supported Regions.
The request must use the HTTPS protocol.
Note
The maximum URL length is 2,048 characters. To ensure that your URL length does not exceed the limit, the maximum length of your query parameters should be less than 1,500 characters. If the URL exceeds 2,048 characters, the server returns 404 Not found.
Headers
The following are the headers that a request and response may include.
Header | Description |
---|---|
Accept | Optional request header. The default media type is application/json. To specify that the response use JSON-LD, set the Accept header to application/ld+json. |
Accept-Language | Optional request header. A comma-delimited list of languages to use for user interface strings. The list is in decreasing order of preference. For more information, including expected format, see RFC2616. This header and the setLang query parameter are mutually exclusive—do not specify both. If you set this header, you must also specify the cc query parameter. To determine the market to return results for, Bing uses the first supported language it finds from the list and combines it with the cc parameter value. If the list does not include a supported language, Bing finds the closest language and market that supports the request or it uses an aggregated or default market for the results. To determine the market that Bing used, see the BingAPIs-Market header.Use Accept-Language header and the cc query parameter only if you specify multiple languages. Otherwise, use the mkt and setLang query parameters.A user interface string is a string that's used as a label in a user interface. There are few user interface strings in the JSON response objects. Any links to Bing.com properties in the response objects apply the specified language. |
BingAPIs-Market | Response header. The market used by the request. The form is <languageCode>-<countryCode>. For example, en-US. If you specify a market that is not listed in Market Codes, this value may differ from the market you specified in the mkt query parameter. The same is true if you specify values for cc and Accept-Language that can't be reconciled. |
BingAPIs-TraceId | Response header. The ID of the log entry that contains the details of the request. When an error occurs, capture this ID. If you are not able to determine and resolve the issue, include this ID along with the other information that you provide the Support team. |
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key | Required request header. The subscription key that you received when you signed up for this service in Cognitive Services. |
Retry-After | Response header. The response includes this header if you exceed the number of queries allowed per second (QPS) or per month (QPM). The header contains the number of seconds that you must wait before sending another request. |
User-Agent | Optional request header. The user agent originating the request. Bing uses the user agent to provide mobile users with an optimized experience. Although optional, you are encouraged to always specify this header. The user-agent should be the same string that any commonly used browser sends. For information about user agents, see RFC 2616. The following are examples of user-agent strings.
|
X-MSEdge-ClientID | Optional request and response header. Bing uses this header to provide users with consistent behavior across Bing API calls. Bing often flights new features and improvements, and it uses the client ID as a key for assigning traffic on different flights. If you do not use the same client ID for a user across multiple requests, then Bing may assign the user to multiple conflicting flights. Being assigned to multiple conflicting flights can lead to an inconsistent user experience. For example, if the second request has a different flight assignment than the first, the experience may be unexpected. Also, Bing can use the client ID to tailor web results to that client ID's search history, providing a richer experience for the user. Bing also uses this header to help improve result rankings by analyzing the activity generated by a client ID. The relevance improvements help with better quality of results delivered by Bing APIs and in turn enables higher click-through rates for the API consumer. IMPORTANT: Although optional, you should consider this header required. Persisting the client ID across multiple requests for the same end user and device combination enables 1) the API consumer to receive a consistent user experience, and 2) higher click-through rates via better quality of results from the Bing APIs. The following are the basic usage rules that apply to this header.
NOTE: Bing responses may or may not include this header. If the response includes this header, capture the client ID and use it for all subsequent Bing requests for the user on that device. NOTE If you include the X-MSEdge-ClientID, you must not include cookies in the request. |
X-Search-ClientIP | Optional request header. The IPv4 or IPv6 address of the client device. The IP address is used to discover the user's location. Bing uses the location information to determine safe search behavior. NOTE: Although optional, you are encouraged to always specify this header and the X-Search-Location header. Do not obfuscate the address (for example, by changing the last octet to 0). Obfuscating the address results in the location not being anywhere near the device's actual location, which may result in Bing serving erroneous results. |
X-Search-Location | Optional request header. A semicolon-delimited list of key/value pairs that describe the client's geographical location. Bing uses the location information to determine safe search behavior and to return relevant local content. Specify the key/value pair as <key>:<value>. The following are the keys that you use to specify the user's location.
NOTE: Although many of the keys are optional, the more information that you provide, the more accurate the location results are. NOTE: Although optional, you are encouraged to always specify the user's geographical location. Providing the location is especially important if the client's IP address does not accurately reflect the user's physical location (for example, if the client uses VPN). For optimal results, you should include this header and the X-Search-ClientIP header, but at a minimum, you should include this header. |
Note
Remember that the Terms of Use require compliance with all applicable laws, including regarding use of these headers. For example, in certain jurisdictions, such as Europe, there are requirements to obtain user consent before placing certain tracking devices on user devices.
Query parameters
The following is the list of query parameters that you may specify. See the Required column for required parameters. The query parameter values must be URL encoded.
Name | Value | Type | Required |
---|---|---|---|
cc | A two-character country code of the country where the results come from. For a list of possible values, see Market Codes. If you set this parameter, you must also specify the Accept-Language header. Bing uses the first supported language it finds in the specified languages and combines it with the country code to determine the market to return results for. If the languages list does not include a supported language, Bing finds the closest language and market that supports the request. Or, Bing may use an aggregated or default market for the results. Use this query parameter and the Accept-Language header only if you specify multiple languages. Otherwise, you should use the mkt and setLang query parameters.This parameter and the mkt query parameter are mutually exclusive—do not specify both. |
String | No |
count | The number of search results to return in the response. The default is 10 and the maximum value that you may specify is 50. The actual number delivered may be less than requested. Use this parameter along with the offset parameter to page results. For more information, see Paging Webpages.For example, if your user interface presents 10 search results per page, you would set count to 10 and offset to 0 to get the first page of results. For each subsequent page, you would increment offset by 10 (for example, 0, 10, 20). It is possible for multiple pages to include some overlap in results. |
UnsignedShort | No |
customConfig | Unique identifier that identifies your custom search instance. |
String | Yes |
mkt | The market where the results come from. Typically, mkt is the country where the user is making the request from. However, it could be a different country if the user is not located in a country where Bing delivers results. The market must be in the form <language code>-<country code>. For example, en-US. The string is case insensitive. For a list of possible market values, see Market Codes.NOTE: If known, you are encouraged to always specify the market. Specifying the market helps Bing route the request and return an appropriate and optimal response. If you specify a market that is not listed in Market Codes, Bing uses a best fit market code based on an internal mapping that is subject to change. This parameter and the cc query parameter are mutually exclusive—do not specify both. |
String | No |
offset | The zero-based offset that indicates the number of search results to skip before returning results. The default is 0. The offset should be less than (totalEstimatedMatches - count ).Use this parameter along with the count parameter to page results. For example, if your user interface presents 10 search results per page, you would set count to 10 and offset to 0 to get the first page of results. For each subsequent page, you would increment offset by 10 (for example, 0, 10, 20). It is possible for multiple pages to include some overlap in results. |
Unsigned Short | No |
q | The user's search query string. The query string must not be empty. NOTE: The query string must not contain Bing Advanced Operators. Including them may adversely affect the custom search experience. |
String | Yes |
safeSearch | A filter used to filter webpages for adult content. The following are the possible filter values.
The default is Moderate. NOTE: If the request comes from a market that Bing's adult policy requires that safeSearch is set to Strict, Bing ignores the safeSearch value and uses Strict. |
String | No |
setLang | The language to use for user interface strings. You may specify the language using either a 2-letter or 4-letter code. Using 4-letter codes is preferred. For a list of supported language codes, see Bing supported languages. Bing loads the localized strings if setlang contains a valid 2-letter neutral culture code (fr) or a valid 4-letter specific culture code (fr-ca). For example, for fr-ca, Bing loads the fr neutral culture code strings.If setlang is not valid (for example, zh) or Bing doesn't support the language (for example, af, af-na), Bing defaults to en (English).To specify the 2-letter code, set this parameter to an ISO 639-1 language code. To specify the 4-letter code, use the form <language>-<country/region> where <language> is an ISO 639-1 language code (neutral culture) and <country/region> is an ISO 3166 country/region (specific culture) code. For example, use en-US for United States English. Although optional, you should always specify the language. Typically, you set setLang to the same language specified by mkt unless the user wants the user interface strings displayed in a different language.This parameter and the Accept-Language header are mutually exclusive—do not specify both. A user interface string is a string that's used as a label in a user interface. There are few user interface strings in the JSON response objects. Also, any links to Bing.com properties in the response objects apply the specified language. |
String | No |
textDecorations | A Boolean value that determines whether display strings should contain decoration markers such as hit highlighting characters. If true, the strings may include markers; otherwise, false. The default is false. To specify whether to use Unicode characters or HTML tags as the markers, see the textFormat query parameter. For information about hit highlighting, see Hit Highlighting. |
Boolean | No |
textFormat | The type of markers to use for text decorations (see the textDecorations query parameter).The following are the possible values.
The default is Raw. For a list of markers, see Hit Highlighting. If textFormat is set to HTML, and display strings contain escapable HTML characters such as <, >, and &, Bing escapes the characters (for example, < is escaped to <).For information about processing strings with the embedded Unicode characters, see Hit Highlighting. |
String | No |
Response objects
Note
To comply with the new EU Copyright Directive in France, the Bing Web, News, Video, Image and all Custom Search APIs must omit some content from certain EU News sources for French users. The removed content may include thumbnail images and videos, video previews, and snippets which accompany search results from these sources. As a consequence, the Bing APIs may serve fewer results with thumbnail images and videos, video previews, and snippets to French users.
The following are the JSON response objects that the response may include. If the request is successful, the top-level object in the response is the SearchResponse object; otherwise, it is the ErrorResponse object.
Object | Description |
---|---|
Error | Defines an error that occurred. |
ErrorResponse | The top-level object that the response includes when the request fails. |
MetaTag | Defines a webpage's metadata. |
OpenGraphImage | Defines the location and dimensions of an image relevant to a webpage. |
Query | Defines a query string. |
QueryContext | Defines the query context that Bing used for the request, if the specified query string contains a spelling error. |
SearchResponse | The top-level object that the response includes when the request succeeds. |
WebAnswer | Defines a list of relevant webpage links. |
Webpage | Defines a webpage that is relevant to the query. |
Error
Defines an error that occurred.
Element | Description | Type |
---|---|---|
code | The error code that identifies the error. For a list of possible codes, see Error Codes. | String |
message | A description of the error. | String |
parameter | The query parameter in the request that caused the error. | String |
value | The query parameter's value that was not valid. | String |
ErrorResponse
The top-level object that the response includes when the request fails.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
_type | Type hint. | String |
errors | A list of the reasons why the request failed. | Error[] |
MetaTag
Defines a webpage's metadata.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
content | The metadata. | String |
name | The name of the metadata. | String |
OpenGraphImage
Defines the location and dimensions of an image relevant to a webpage.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
contentUrl | The image's location. | String |
width | The width of the image. May be zero (0). | UInt32 |
height | The height of the image. May be zero (0). | UInt32 |
Query
Defines a search query.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
displayText | The display version of the query string. This version of the query string may contain special characters that highlight the search term found in the query string. The string contains the highlighting characters only if the query enabled hit highlighting (see the textDecorations query parameter). For details about hit highlighting, see Hit Highlighting. | String |
text | The query string. Use this string as the query string in a new search request. | String |
QueryContext
Defines the query string that Bing used for the request if the specified query string contains a spelling mistake.
Element | Description | Type |
---|---|---|
adultIntent | A Boolean value that indicates whether the specified query has adult intent. The value is true if the query has adult intent. If true, and the request's safeSearch query parameter is set to Strict, the response will not contain results. |
Boolean |
alterationOverrideQuery | The query string to use to force Bing to use the original string. For example, if the query string is saling downwind, the override query string is +saling downwind. Remember to encode the query string, which results in %2Bsaling+downwind. The object includes this field only if the original query string contains a spelling mistake. |
String |
alteredQuery | The query string used by Bing to perform the query. If the original query string contained spelling mistakes, Bing uses the altered query string. For example, if the query string is saling downwind , the altered query string is sailing downwind .The object includes this field only if the original query string contains a spelling mistake. |
String |
originalQuery | The query string as specified in the request. | String |
SearchResponse
The response's top-level object for search requests.
If the service suspects a denial of service attack, the request succeeds (HTTP status code is 200 OK); however, the body of the response is empty.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
_type | Type hint, which is set to SearchResponse. | String |
queryContext | The query string that Bing used for the request. The response includes the context only if the query string contains a spelling mistake or has adult intent. |
QueryContext |
webPages | A list of webpages that are relevant to the search query. | WebAnswer |
WebAnswer
Defines a list of relevant webpage links.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
totalEstimatedMatches | The estimated number of webpages that are relevant to the query. Use this number along with the count and offset query parameters to page through the results. For information, see Paging Results. | Long |
value | A list of webpages that are relevant to the query. | WebPage[] |
webSearchUrl | The URL to the Bing website that contains the search results for the user's query. The results include content that is not limited to your custom view of the web, and may include other types of content such as images and videos. | String |
Webpage
Defines a webpage that is relevant to the query.
Name | Value | Type |
---|---|---|
dateLastCrawled | The last time that Bing crawled the webpage. The date is in the form, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS. For example, 2015-04-13T05:23:39. | String |
deepLinks | An array of Webpage objects. Each object contains a link to related content within the website that contains this webpage. The Webpage object in this context includes only the name , url , and snippet fields. |
Webpage[] |
displayUrl | The display URL of the webpage. The URL is meant for display purposes only and is not well formed. | String |
id | An identifier. | String |
name | The name of the webpage. Use this name along with url to create a hyperlink that when clicked takes the user to the webpage.The name may contain special characters that highlight the search term found in the name. The name contains the highlighting characters only if the query enabled hit highlighting (see the textDecorations query parameter). For details about hit highlighting, see Hit Highlighting. |
String |
searchTags | A list of search tags that the webpage owner specified on the webpage. The API returns only indexed search tags. The name field of the MetaTag object contains the indexed search tag. Search tags begin with search.* (for example, search.assetId). The content field contains the tag's value. |
MetaTag[] |
snippet | A snippet of text from the webpage that describes its contents. | String |
url | The URL to the webpage. Use this URL along with name to create a hyperlink that when clicked takes the user to the webpage. |
String |
openGraphImage | URL for an image that the page owner chose to represent the page content. Included only if available. |
OpenGraphImage |
Error codes
The following are the possible HTTP status codes that a request returns.
Status Code | Description |
---|---|
200 | Success. |
400 | One of the query parameters is missing or not valid. |
401 | The subscription key is missing or is not valid. |
403 | The user is authenticated (for example, they used a valid subscription key) but they don’t have permission to the requested resource. Bing may also return this status if the caller exceeded their queries per month quota. |
410 | The request used HTTP instead of the HTTPS protocol. HTTPS is the only supported protocol. |
429 | The caller exceeded their queries per second quota. |
500 | Unexpected server error. |
If the request fails, the response contains an ErrorResponse object, which contains a list of Error objects that describe what caused of error. If the error is related to a parameter, the parameter
field identifies the parameter that is the issue. And if the error is related to a parameter value, the value
field identifies the value that is not valid.
{
"_type": "ErrorResponse",
"errors": [
{
"code": "InvalidRequest",
"subCode": "ParameterMissing",
"message": "Required parameter is missing.",
"parameter": "q"
}
]
}
{
"_type": "ErrorResponse",
"errors": [
{
"code": "InvalidAuthorization",
"subCode": "AuthorizationMissing",
"message": "Authorization is required.",
"moreDetails": "Subscription key is not recognized."
}
]
}
The following are the possible error code and sub-error code values.
Code | SubCode | Description |
---|---|---|
ServerError | UnexpectedError ResourceError NotImplemented |
HTTP status code is 500. |
InvalidRequest | ParameterMissing ParameterInvalidValue HttpNotAllowed Blocked |
Bing returns InvalidRequest whenever any part of the request is not valid. For example, a required parameter is missing or a parameter value is not valid. If the error is ParameterMissing or ParameterInvalidValue, the HTTP status code is 400. If you use the HTTP protocol instead of HTTPS, Bing returns HttpNotAllowed, and the HTTP status code is 410. |
RateLimitExceeded | No sub-codes | Bing returns RateLimitExceeded whenever you exceed your queries per second (QPS) or queries per month (QPM) quota. If you exceed QPS, Bing returns HTTP status code 429, and if you exceed QPM, Bing returns 403. |
InvalidAuthorization | AuthorizationMissing AuthorizationRedundancy |
Bing returns InvalidAuthorization when Bing cannot authenticate the caller. For example, the Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key header is missing or the subscription key is not valid.Redundancy occurs if you specify more than one authentication method. If the error is InvalidAuthorization, the HTTP status code is 401. |
InsufficientAuthorization | AuthorizationDisabled AuthorizationExpired |
Bing returns InsufficientAuthorization when the caller does not have permissions to access the resource. This can occur if the subscription key has been disabled or has expired. If the error is InsufficientAuthorization, the HTTP status code is 403. |
Market codes
The following table lists the market code values that you may use to specify the mkt
query parameter. Bing returns content for only these markets. The list is subject to change.
For a list of country codes that you may specify in the cc
query parameter, see Country codes.
Country/Region | Language | Market code |
---|---|---|
Argentina | Spanish | es-AR |
Australia | English | en-AU |
Austria | German | de-AT |
Belgium | Dutch | nl-BE |
Belgium | French | fr-BE |
Brazil | Portuguese | pt-BR |
Canada | English | en-CA |
Canada | French | fr-CA |
Chile | Spanish | es-CL |
Denmark | Danish | da-DK |
Finland | Finnish | fi-FI |
France | French | fr-FR |
Germany | German | de-DE |
Hong Kong SAR | Traditional Chinese | zh-HK |
India | English | en-IN |
Indonesia | English | en-ID |
Italy | Italian | it-IT |
Japan | Japanese | ja-JP |
Korea | Korean | ko-KR |
Malaysia | English | en-MY |
Mexico | Spanish | es-MX |
Netherlands | Dutch | nl-NL |
New Zealand | English | en-NZ |
Norway | Norwegian | no-NO |
People's republic of China | Chinese | zh-CN |
Poland | Polish | pl-PL |
Republic of the Philippines | English | en-PH |
Russia | Russian | ru-RU |
South Africa | English | en-ZA |
Spain | Spanish | es-ES |
Sweden | Swedish | sv-SE |
Switzerland | French | fr-CH |
Switzerland | German | de-CH |
Taiwan | Traditional Chinese | zh-TW |
Turkey | Turkish | tr-TR |
United Kingdom | English | en-GB |
United States | English | en-US |
United States | Spanish | es-US |
Country codes
The following are the country codes that you may specify in the cc
query parameter. The list is subject to change.
Country/Region | Country Code |
---|---|
Argentina | AR |
Australia | AU |
Austria | AT |
Belgium | BE |
Brazil | BR |
Canada | CA |
Chile | CL |
Denmark | DK |
Finland | FI |
France | FR |
Germany | DE |
Hong Kong SAR | HK |
India | IN |
Indonesia | ID |
Italy | IT |
Japan | JP |
Korea | KR |
Malaysia | MY |
Mexico | MX |
Netherlands | NL |
New Zealand | NZ |
Norway | NO |
People's Republic of China | CN |
Poland | PL |
Portugal | PT |
Republic of the Philippines | PH |
Russia | RU |
Saudi Arabia | SA |
South Africa | ZA |
Spain | ES |
Sweden | SE |
Switzerland | CH |
Taiwan | TW |
Turkey | TR |
United Kingdom | GB |
United States | US |
Bing supported languages
The following are the Bing supported languages that you may specify in the setLang
query parameter. The list is subject to change.
Supported Languages | Language Code |
---|---|
Arabic | ar |
Basque | eu |
Bengali | bn |
Bulgarian | bg |
Catalan | ca |
Chinese (Simplified) | zh-hans |
Chinese (Traditional) | zh-hant |
Croatian | hr |
Czech | cs |
Danish | da |
Dutch | nl |
English | en |
English-United Kingdom | en-gb |
Estonian | et |
Finnish | fi |
French | fr |
Galician | gl |
German | de |
Gujarati | gu |
Hebrew | he |
Hindi | hi |
Hungarian | hu |
Icelandic | is |
Italian | it |
Japanese | jp |
Kannada | kn |
Korean | ko |
Latvian | lv |
Lithuanian | lt |
Malay | ms |
Malayalam | ml |
Marathi | mr |
Norwegian (Bokmål) | nb |
Polish | pl |
Portuguese (Brazil) | pt-br |
Portuguese (Portugal) | pt-pt |
Punjabi | pa |
Romanian | ro |
Russian | ru |
Serbian (Cyrylic) | sr |
Slovak | sk |
Slovenian | sl |
Spanish | es |
Swedish | sv |
Tamil | ta |
Telugu | te |
Thai | th |
Turkish | tr |
Ukrainian | uk |
Vietnamese | vi |