Web Search API v7 reference

Article
06/08/2022

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 Web Search API lets you send a search query to Bing and get back search results that include links to webpages, images, and more. This section provides technical details about the webpages, related searches, and ranking results in addition to the query parameters that affect the search results. For examples that show how to make requests, see Search the web.

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. This reference contains JSON object specific to web answers. For details about the JSON objects for other answer types that the search results may include, see the API-specific reference documentation. For example, if the search result contains the images and news answers, see the Image Search API and News Search API.

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 web search results, send a GET request to:

https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/bing/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 this 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.
Pragma	Optional request header By default, Bing returns cached content, if available. To prevent Bing from returning cached content, set the Pragma header to no-cache (for example, Pragma: no-cache).
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. Windows Phone—Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 822) Android—Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.5; en-us; SCH-I500 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML; like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1 iPhone—Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML; like Gecko) Mobile/10B142 iPhone4;1 BingWeb/3.03.1428.20120423 PC—Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; Trident/7.0; Touch; rv:11.0) like Gecko iPad—Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 7_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11A465 Safari/9537.53
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. Each user that uses your application on the device must have a unique, Bing generated client ID. If you do not include this header in the request, Bing generates an ID and returns it in the X-MSEdge-ClientID response header. The only time that you should NOT include this header in a request is the first time the user uses your app on that device. ATTENTION: You must ensure that this Client ID is not linkable to any authenticated user account information. Use the client ID for each Bing API request that your app makes for this user on the device. Persist the client ID. To persist the ID in a browser app, use a persistent HTTP cookie to ensure the ID is used across all sessions. Do not use a session cookie. For other apps such as mobile apps, use the device's persistent storage to persist the ID. The next time the user uses your app on that device, get the client ID that you persisted. 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-MSEdge-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. lat—Required. The latitude of the client's location, in degrees. The latitude must be greater than or equal to -90.0 and less than or equal to +90.0. Negative values indicate southern latitudes and positive values indicate northern latitudes. long—Required. The longitude of the client's location, in degrees. The longitude must be greater than or equal to -180.0 and less than or equal to +180.0. Negative values indicate western longitudes and positive values indicate eastern longitudes. re—Required. The radius, in meters, which specifies the horizontal accuracy of the coordinates. Pass the value returned by the device's location service. Typical values might be 22m for GPS/Wi-Fi, 380m for cell tower triangulation, and 18,000m for reverse IP lookup. ts—Optional. The UTC UNIX timestamp of when the client was at the location. (The UNIX timestamp is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970.) head—Optional. The client's relative heading or direction of travel. Specify the direction of travel as degrees from 0 through 360, counting clockwise relative to true north. Specify this key only if the `sp` key is nonzero. sp—Optional. The horizontal velocity (speed), in meters per second, that the client device is traveling. alt—Optional. The altitude of the client device, in meters. are—Optional. The radius, in meters, that specifies the vertical accuracy of the coordinates. Specify this key only if you specify the `alt` key. disp—Optional. The user's geographic location in the form, disp:<City, State>. For example, disp:Seattle, Washington. This is the display text version of the user's location that you specified using the lat/long keys. If this value conflicts with the lat/long coordinates, Bing uses the disp value as the user's location. NOTE: Bing ignores this header if the query includes a location. For example, if this header reflects the user's location as San Francisco, but the query is restaurants seattle, Bing returns restaurants located in Seattle, Washington. 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 are the query parameters that the request may include. The Required column indicates whether you must specify the parameter. You must URL encode the query parameter values.

Name	Value	Type	Required
answerCount	The number of answers that you want the response to include. The answers that Bing returns are based on ranking. For example, if Bing returns webpages, images, videos, and relatedSearches for a request and you set this parameter to two (2), the response includes webpages and images. If you included the `responseFilter` query parameter in the same request and set it to webpages and news, the response would include only webpages. For information about promoting a ranked answer into the response, see promote.	Unsigned Integer	No
cc	A 2-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 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 displays 10 search results per page, set `count` to 10 and `offset` to 0 to get the first page of results. For each subsequent page, increment `offset` by 10 (for example, 0, 10, 20). It is possible for multiple pages to include some overlap in results.	UnsignedShort	No
freshness	Filter search results by the following case-insensitive age values: Day—Return webpages that Bing discovered within the last 24 hours Week—Return webpages that Bing discovered within the last 7 days Month—Return webpages that discovered within the last 30 days To get articles discovered by Bing during a specific timeframe, specify a date range in the form, YYYY-MM-DD..YYYY-MM-DD. For example, `&freshness=2019-02-01..2019-05-30`. To limit the results to a single date, set this parameter to a specific date. For example, `&freshness=2019-02-04`.	String	No
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 displays 10 search results per page, set `count` to 10 and `offset` to 0 to get the first page of results. For each subsequent page, increment `offset` by 10 (for example, 0, 10, 20). it is possible for multiple pages to include some overlap in results.	Unsigned Short	No
promote	A comma-delimited list of answers that you want the response to include regardless of their ranking. For example, if you set answerCount) to two (2) so Bing returns the top two ranked answers, but you also want the response to include news, you'd set `promote` to news. If the top ranked answers are webpages, images, videos, and relatedSearches, the response includes webpages and images because news is not a ranked answer. But if you set `promote` to video, Bing would promote the video answer into the response and return webpages, images, and videos. The answers that you want to promote do not count against the `answerCount` limit. For example, if the ranked answers are news, images, and videos, and you set `answerCount` to 1 and `promote` to news, the response contains news and images. Or, if the ranked answers are videos, images, and news, the response contains videos and news. The following are the possible values. Computation Images News RelatedSearches SpellSuggestions TimeZone Videos Webpages NOTE: Use only if you specify answerCount.	String	No
q	The user's search query term. The term may not be empty. The term may contain Bing Advanced Operators. For example, to limit results to a specific domain, use the site: operator.	String	Yes
responseFilter	A comma-delimited list of answers to include in the response. If you do not specify this parameter, the response includes all search answers for which there's relevant data. The following are the possible filter values. Computation Entities Images News RelatedSearches SpellSuggestions TimeZone Videos Webpages If you want to exclude specific types of content, such as images, from the response, you can exclude them with the hyphen (minus) prefix to the responseFilter value. Separate excluded types with a comma: &responseFilter=-images,-videos Although you may use this filter to get a single answer, you should instead use the answer-specific endpoint in order to get richer results. For example, to receive only images, send the request to one of the Image Search API endpoints. The RelatedSearches and SpellSuggestions answers do not support a separate endpoint like the Image Search API does (only the Web Search API returns them). To include answers that would otherwise be excluded because of ranking, see the promote query parameter.	String	No
safeSearch	filters webpages for adult content. The following are the possible filter values. Off—Return webpages with adult text and images. Moderate—Return webpages with adult text, but not adult images or videos. Strict—Do not return webpages with adult text, images, or videos. The default is Moderate. NOTE: For video results, if `safeSearch` is set to Off, Bing ignores it and uses 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. NOTE: If you use the `site:` query operator, there is the chance that the response may contain adult content regardless of what the `safeSearch` query parameter is set to. Use `site:` only if you are aware of the content on the site and your scenario supports the possibility of adult content.	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. 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. Raw—Use Unicode characters to mark content that needs special formatting. The Unicode characters are in the range E000 through E019. For example, Bing uses E000 and E001 to mark the beginning and end of query terms for hit highlighting. HTML—Use HTML tags to mark content that needs special formatting. For example, use <b> tags to highlight query terms in display strings. The default is Raw. For a list of markers, see Hit Highlighting. For display strings that contain escapable HTML characters such as <, >, and &, if `textFormat` is set to HTML, Bing escapes the characters as appropriate (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 succeeds, the top-level object in the response is the SearchResponse object. If the request fails, the top-level object is the ErrorResponse object.

This list contains JSON objects that are specific to web answers. For details about the JSON objects for other answer types that the search results may include, see the API-specific reference documentation. For example, if the search result contains the images and news answers, see the Image API and News API.

Object	Description
Computation	Defines an expression and its answer.
Entity	Defines an entity such as a person, place, or thing.
Error	Defines an error that occurred.
ErrorResponse	The top-level object that the response includes when the request fails.
Identifiable	Defines a resource ID.
LicenseAttribution	Defines a contractual rule for license attribution.
LinkAttribution	Defines a contractual rule for link attribution.
MediaAttribution	Defines a contractual rule for media attribution.
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.
RankingGroup	Defines a search results group, such as mainline.
RankingItem	Defines a ranking group item to display.
RankingResponse	Defines where on the search results page content should be placed and in what order.
RelatedSearchAnswer	Defines a list of related queries made by others.
SearchResponse	The top-level object that the response includes when the request succeeds.
SpellSuggestions	Defines a suggested query string that likely represents the user's intent.
TextAttribution	Defines a contractual rule for plain text attribution.
TimeZone	Defines the date and time of one or more geographic locations.
TimeZoneInformation	Defines the time zone information about a geographical location.
WebAnswer	Defines a list of relevant webpage links.
Webpage	Defines a webpage that is relevant to the query.

Entity

Defines an entity such as a person, place, or thing.

Name	Value	Type
bingId	An ID that uniquely identifies this entity.	String
contractualRules	A list of rules that you must adhere to if you display the entity. For example, the rules may govern attributing the entity's description. The following contractual rules may apply. LicenseAttribution LinkAttribution MediaAttribution TextAttribution Not all entities include rules. If the entity provides contractual rules, you must abide by them. For more information about using contractual rules, see Attributing Data.	Object[]
description	A short description of the entity.	String
entityPresentationInfo	Additional information about the entity such as hints that you can use to determine the entity's type. To determine the entity's type, use the `entityScenario` and `entityTypeHint` fields. For example, the fields help you determine whether the entity is a dominant or disambiguation entity and whether it's a person or movie. The entity is a dominant entity if Bing believes that only one entity satisfies the request. If multiple entities could satisfy the request, the entity is a disambiguation entity and the user needs to select the entity they're interested in.	EntityPresentationInfo
image	An image of the entity.	Image
name	The entity's name.	String
webSearchUrl	The URL that takes the user to the Bing search results page for this entity.	String

EntityAnswer

Defines an entity answer.

Name	Value	Type
queryScenario	The supported query scenario. This field is set to DominantEntity or DisambiguationItem. The field is set to DominantEntity if Bing determines that only a single entity satisfies the request. For example, a book, movie, person, or attraction. If multiple entities could satisfy the request, the field is set to DisambiguationItem. For example, if the request uses the generic title of a movie franchise, the entity's type would likely be DisambiguationItem. But, if the request specifies a specific title from the franchise, the entity's type would likely be DominantEntity.	String
value	A list of entities.	Entity[]

EntityPresentationInfo

Defines additional information about an entity such as type hints.

Name	Value	Type
entityScenario	The supported scenario.	String
entityTypeDisplayHint	A display version of the entity hint. For example, if `entityTypeHints` is Artist, this field may be set to American Singer.	String
entityTypeHint	A list of hints that indicate the entity's type. The list could contain a single hint such as Movie or a list of hints such as Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant. Each successive hint in the array narrows the entity's type. For a list of possible types, see Entity Types. If the object does not include this field, Generic is assumed.	String[]

Computation

Defines an expression and its answer.

Element	Description	Type
expression	The math or conversion expression. If the query contains a request to convert units of measure (for example, meters to feet), this field contains the from units and `value` contains the to units. If the query contains a mathematical expression such as 2+2, this field contains the expression and `value` contains the answer. Note that mathematical expressions may be normalized. For example, if the query was sqrt(4^2+8^2), the normalized expression may be sqrt((4^2)+(8^2)). If the user's query is a math question and the textDecorations query parameter is set to true, the expression string may include formatting markers. For example, if the user's query is log(2), the normalized expression includes the subscript markers. For more information, see Hit Highlighting.	String
value	The expression's answer.	String

Error

Defines the error that occurred.

Element	Description	Type
code	The error code that identifies the category of error. For a list of possible codes, see Error Codes.	String
message	A description of the error.	String
moreDetails	A description that provides additional information about the error.	String
parameter	The query parameter in the request that caused the error.	String
subCode	The error code that identifies the error. For example, if `code` is InvalidRequest, `subCode` may be ParameterInvalid or ParameterInvalidValue.	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 errors that describe the reasons why the request failed.	Error[]

Identifiable

Defines the identity of a resource.

Name	Value	Type
id	An identifier.	String

Image

Defines an image.

Note

Because the URL format and parameters are subject to change without notice, all image URLs should be used as-is; you should not take dependencies on the URL format or parameters. The exception is those parameters and values discussed by Resize and crop thumbnail images.

Name	Value	Type
height	The height of the source image, in pixels.	Unsigned Short
hostPageUrl	The URL of the webpage that includes the image. This URL and `contentUrl` may be the same URL.	String
name	An optional text string that contains random information about the image.	String
provider	The source of the image. The array will contain a single item. You must attribute the image to the provider. For example, you may display the provider's name as the cursor hovers over the image or make the image a click-through link to the provider's website where the image is found.	Organization[]
thumbnailUrl	The URL to a thumbnail of the image. For information about resizing the image, see Resize and crop thumbnail images.	String
width	The width of the source image, in pixels.	Unsigned Short

LicenseAttribution

Defines a contractual rule for license attribution.

Name	Value	Type
_type	A type hint, which is set to LicenseAttribution.	String
license	The license under which the content may be used.	License
licenseNotice	The license to display next to the targeted field. For example, "Text under CC-BY-SA license". Use the license's name and URL in the `license` field to create a hyperlink to the website that describes the details of the license. Then, replace the license name in the `licenseNotice` string (for example, CC-BY-SA) with the hyperlink you just created.	String
mustBeCloseToContent	A Boolean value that determines whether the contents of the rule must be placed in close proximity to the field that the rule applies to. If true, the contents must be placed in close proximity. If false, or this field does not exist, the contents may be placed at the caller's discretion.	Boolean
targetPropertyName	The name of the field that the rule applies to.	String

LinkAttribution

Defines a contractual rule for link attribution.

Name	Value	Type
_type	A type hint, which is set to LinkAttribution.	String
mustBeCloseToContent	A Boolean value that determines whether the contents of the rule must be placed in close proximity to the field that the rule applies to. If true, the contents must be placed in close proximity. If false, or this field does not exist, the contents may be placed at the caller's discretion.	Boolean
targetPropertyName	The name of the field that the rule applies to. If a target is not specified, the attribution applies to the entity as a whole and should be displayed immediately following the entity presentation. If there are multiple text and link attribution rules that do not specify a target, you should concatenate them and display them using a "Data from: " label. For example, "Data from <provider name1> \| <provider name2>".	String
text	The attribution text.	String
url	The URL to the provider's website. Use `text` and URL to create of hyperlink.	String

MediaAttribution

Defines a contractual rule for media attribution.

Name	Value	Type
_type	A type hint, which is set to MediaAttribution.	String
mustBeCloseToContent	A Boolean value that determines whether the contents of the rule must be placed in close proximity to the field that the rule applies to. If true, the contents must be placed in close proximity. If false, or this field does not exist, the contents may be placed at the caller's discretion.	Boolean
targetPropertyName	The name of the field that the rule applies to.	String
url	The URL that you use to create of hyperlink of the media content. For example, if the target is an image, you would use the URL to make the image clickable.	String

MetaTag

Defines a webpage's metadata.

Name	Value	Type
content	The metadata.	String
name	The name of the metadata.	String

Organization

Defines a publisher.

Note that a publisher may provide their name or their website or both.

Name	Value	Type
name	The publisher's name.	String
url	The URL to the publisher's website. Note that the publisher may not provide a website.	String

Query

Defines a search query.

The SpellSuggestions object uses this object to suggest a query string that likely represents the user's intent. It's also used by RelatedSearchAnswer to return a related query that other users have made.

Name	Value	Type
displayText	The display version of the query term. This version of the query term 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 term in a new search request.	String
webSearchUrl	The URL that takes the user to the Bing search results page for the query. Only related search results include this field.	String

QueryContext

Defines the query string that Bing used for the request.

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 contain only news results, if applicable.	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 that Bing used to perform the query. Bing uses the altered query string if the original query string contained spelling mistakes. 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
askUserForLocation	A Boolean value that indicates whether Bing requires the user's location to provide accurate results. If you specified the user's location by using the X-MSEdge-ClientIP and X-Search-Location headers, you can ignore this field. For location aware queries, such as "today's weather" or "restaurants near me" that need the user's location to provide accurate results, this field is set to true. For location aware queries that include the location (for example, "Seattle weather"), this field is set to false. This field is also set to false for queries that are not location aware, such as "best sellers."	Boolean
originalQuery	The query string as specified in the request.	String

RankingGroup

Defines a search results group, such as mainline.

Name	Value	Type
items	A list of search result items to display in the group.	RankingItem[]

RankingItem

Defines a search result item to display. For more information about how to use the IDs, see Using Ranking to Display Results.

Name	Value	Type
answerType	The answer that contains the item to display. For example, News. Use the type to find the answer in the SearchResponse object. The type is the name of a `SearchResponse` field.	String
resultIndex	A zero-based index of the item in the answer. If the item does not include this field, display all items in the answer. For example, display all news articles in the News answer.	Integer
value	The ID that identifies either an answer to display or an item of an answer to display. If the ID identifies an answer, display all items of the answer.	Identifiable

RankingResponse

Defines where on the search results page content should be placed and in what order.

Name	Value	Type
mainline	The search results to display in the mainline.	RankingGroup
pole	The search results that should be afforded the most visible treatment (for example, displayed above the mainline and sidebar).	RankingGroup
sidebar	The search results to display in the sidebar.	RankingGroup

RelatedSearchAnswer

Defines a list of related queries made by others.

Name	Value	Type
id	An ID that uniquely identifies the related search answer. The object includes this field only if the Ranking answer specifies that you display all related searches in a group. For more information about how to use the ID, see Using Ranking to Display Results.	String
value	A list of related queries that were made by others.	Query[]

SearchResponse

The response's top-level object for search requests.

By default, the Search API includes all answers unless:

The query specifies the responseFilter query parameter to limit the answers
One or more of the search components does not return results (for example, no news results are relevant to the query)
The subscription key does not have access to the search component.

If the service suspects a denial of service attack, the request succeeds (HTTP status code is 200 OK), but the body of the response is empty.

Name	Value	Type
_type	Type hint.	String
computation	The answer to a math expression or units conversion expression.	Computation
entities	A list of entities that are relevant to the search query.	EntityAnswer
images	A list of images that are relevant to the search query.	Images
news	A list of news articles that are relevant to the search query.	News
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
rankingResponse	The order that Bing suggests that you display the search results in.	RankingResponse
relatedSearches	A list of related queries made by others.	RelatedSearchAnswer
spellSuggestions	The query string that likely represents the user's intent.	SpellSuggestions
timeZone	The date and time of one or more geographic locations.	TimeZone
videos	A list of videos that are relevant to the search query.	Videos
webPages	A list of webpages that are relevant to the search query.	WebAnswer

SpellSuggestions

Defines a suggested query string that likely represents the user's intent.

The search results include this response if Bing determines that the user may have intended to search for something different. For example, if the user searches for alon brown, Bing may determine that the user likely intended to search for Alton Brown instead (based on past searches by others of Alon Brown).

Name	Value	Type
id	An ID that uniquely identifies the spelling suggestion answer. You use this field when you use the ranking response to display the spelling suggestions. For more information about how to use the ID, see Using Ranking to Display Results.	String
value	A list of suggested query strings that may represent the user's intention. The list contains only one `Query` object.	Query[]

TextAttribution

Defines a contractual rule for plain text attribution.

Name	Value	Type
_type	A type hint, which is set to TextAttribution.	String
text	The attribution text. Text attribution applies to the entity as a whole and should be displayed immediately following the entity presentation. If there are multiple text or link attribution rules that do not specify a target, you should concatenate them and display them using a "Data from: " label.	String

TimeZone

Defines the data and time of one or more geographic locations.

Name	Value	Type
otherCityTimes	A list of dates and times of nearby time zones.	TimeZoneInformation[]
primaryCityTime	The data and time, in UTC, of the geographic location specified in the query. If the query specified a specific geographic location (for example, a city), this object contains the name of the geographic location and the current date and time of the location, in UTC. If the query specified a general geographic location, such as a state or country, this object contains the date and time of the primary city or state found in the specified state or country. If the location contains additional time zones, the `otherCityTimes` field contains the data and time of cities or states located in the other time zones.	TimeZoneInformation

TimeZoneInformation

Defines a date and time for a geographical location.

Name	Value	Type
location	The name of the geographical location. For example, County; City; City, State; City, State, Country; or Time Zone.	String
time	The data and time specified in the form, YYYY-MM-DDThh;mm:ss.ssssssZ.	String
utcOffset	The offset from UTC. For example, UTC-7.	String

WebAnswer

Defines a list of relevant webpage links.

Name	Value	Type
id	An ID that uniquely identifies the web answer. The object includes this field only if the Ranking answer suggests that you display all web results in a group. For more information about how to use the ID, see Using Ranking to Display Results.	String
someResultsRemoved	A Boolean value that indicates whether the response excluded some results from the answer. If Bing excluded some results, the value is true.	Boolean
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 the results.	Long
value	A list of webpages that are relevant to the query.	WebPage[]
webSearchUrl	The URL to the Bing search results for the requested webpages.	String

Webpage

Defines a webpage that is relevant to the query.

Name	Value	Type
about	For internal use only.	Object
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	A list of links to related content that Bing found in the website that contains this webpage. The `Webpage` object in this context includes only the `name`, `url`, `urlPingSuffix`, 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 ID that uniquely identifies this webpage in the list of web results. The object includes this field only if the Ranking answer specifies that you mix the webpages with the other search results. Each webpage contains an ID that matches an ID in the Ranking answer. For more information, see Using Ranking to Display Results.	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.	String
mentions	For internal use only.	Object
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

Entity Types

This section contains the possible entity hints. The hints are grouped by category of entities.

The following are the base entity types.

Generic
Person
Place
Media
Organization

The following are the entity hints that fall under the Place base type.

Attraction
City
Continent
Country
Hotel
House
LocalBusiness
Locality
MinorRegion
Neighborhood
Other
PointOfInterest
PostalCode
RadioStation
Region
Restaurant
State
StreetAddress
SubRegion
TouristAttraction
Travel

The following are the entity hints that fall under the Media base type.

Book
Movie
TelevisionSeason
TelevisionShow
VideoGame

The following are the event-related entity hints.

Event

The following are the profession-related entity hints.

Actor
Artist
Attorney

The following are the education-related entity hints.

CollegeOrUniversity
School
Speciality

The following are unrelated entity hints.

Animal
Car
Drug
Food
Product
SportsTeam

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

Web Search API v7 reference

Endpoints

The request must use the HTTPS protocol.

Headers

Query parameters

Response objects

Entity

EntityAnswer

EntityPresentationInfo

Computation

Error

ErrorResponse

Identifiable

Image

LicenseAttribution

LinkAttribution

MediaAttribution

MetaTag

Organization

Query

QueryContext

RankingGroup

RankingItem

RankingResponse

RelatedSearchAnswer

SearchResponse

SpellSuggestions

TextAttribution

TimeZone

TimeZoneInformation

WebAnswer

Webpage

Entity Types

Error codes

Market codes

Country codes

Bing supported languages

Additional resources

Additional resources