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Copilot Studio agents have an optional feature that allows them to reference web content when responding to user prompts. Allowing Copilot Studio agents to reference web content improves the quality of agent responses by grounding them in the latest information from the web.
Copilot Studio web search functionality
Copilot Studio accesses the web via Bing APIs through three different mechanisms: specific URLs, open web search, or custom search. These capabilities can be used individually or in combination. Specific URLs as individual knowledge sources. Open web search via the Web Search setting. Or a custom search in a generative answers node. All or a subset of public websites indexed by Bing are searched, per the maker’s configuration, using the Grounding with Bing Search or Grounding with Bing Custom Search APIs.
How web search works
When web search is enabled and a user asks a question, Copilot Studio generates a search query. This is a brief, focused keyword query derived from the user’s question. Copilot Studio then sends this query to the Bing search service. This generated query isn't the full user prompt or conversation, but a distilled set of terms the system determines will retrieve relevant info. For example, if the user asks, “What are the latest trends in electric vehicle sales worldwide?” Copilot Studio might send a query such as “latest global electric vehicle sales statistics 2025” to Bing.
Bing then processes this query and returns relevant search results (web page titles, snippets, citations). Copilot Studio uses the information from these results to compose a summarized final answer given to the user. It integrates the web content with any other active knowledge sources or actions. The user sees a unified answer combining all relevant information and the cited websites (including links to those websites) that informed the generation of the summary output.
Web search query logging
Search queries that Copilot Studio sends to Bing aren't associated with the customer’s tenant ID. There are also no cookies or tracking tokens sent with the query that could link it to a user session. The Bing service treats the query as an anonymous request from Copilot Studio, preventing any customer-specific profiling.
The content of the query is logged to Bing’s systems and used according to the Microsoft Privacy Statement including to improve the search service – for example, to refine Bing’s ranking algorithms or results quality. Because the queries lack identifiers, this logging can't single out an organization or users. Bing uses the data in aggregate to tune search results but can't attribute any query to any individual or organization.
Terms governing Bing web search in Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio’s web search capabilities are governed by the Terms of Use for Grounding with Bing Search and Grounding with Bing Custom Search and the Microsoft Privacy Statement. These terms specify that the Microsoft Privacy Statement applies to any data sent to Bing and that the Microsoft Products and Services Data Protection Addendum (DPA) doesn't apply to that data. Copilot Studio service’s own terms (which include Microsoft’s Online Services Terms for enterprise) carve out Bing queries from the usual enterprise customer data protections. This is because the data is leaving the controlled enterprise boundary and entering Bing’s consumer service. Microsoft is committed to compliance with all applicable laws as a data controller for this information, including GDPR and other privacy regulations.
Controls available to manage web search
Admins can enable or disable Bing search in Power Platform admin center. Calls to the Grounding with Bing Search and Grounding with Bing Custom Search APIs introduce cross-geo data flows.