What is the Bing Image Search API?
Warning
On October 30, 2020, the Bing Search APIs moved from Azure AI services to Bing Search Services. This documentation is provided for reference only. For updated documentation, see the Bing search API documentation. For instructions on creating new Azure resources for Bing search, see Create a Bing Search resource through the Azure Marketplace.
The Bing Image Search API enables you to use Bing's image search capabilities in your application. By sending search queries to the API, you can get high-quality images similar to bing.com/images.
While the Bing Image Search API provides image-only search results, you can combine or use the other available Bing Search APIs to find many types of content on the web.
Bing Image Search features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Suggest search terms in real-time | Improve your app experience by using the Bing Autosuggest API to display suggested search terms as they're typed. |
| Filter and restrict image results | Filter the images that Bing returns by editing query parameters. |
| Crop, resize, and display thumbnails | Edit and display thumbnail previews for the images returned by Bing Image Search. |
| Pivot & expand user search queries | Expand your search capabilities by including and displaying Bing-suggested search terms to queries. |
| Get trending images | Customize a search for trending images from around the world. |
Workflow
The Bing Image Search API is a RESTful web service, making it easy to call from any programming language that can make HTTP requests and parse JSON. You can use the service using either the REST API, or the SDK.
- Create an Azure AI services API account with access to the Bing Search APIs. If you don't have an Azure subscription, you can create an account for free.
- Send a request to the API, with a valid search query.
- Process the API response by parsing the returned JSON message.
Next steps
First, try the Bing Image Search API interactive demo. This demo shows how you can quickly customize a search query and scour the web for images.
To quickly get started with your first API request, you can learn to:
- Send search queries to Bing using the REST API, or
- Request and filter the images Bing returns using the SDK.
See also
Pricing details for the Bing Search APIs.
The Bing Image Search API v7 reference section contains information on the API's endpoints, headers, API responses, and query parameters.
The Bing Use and Display Requirements specify acceptable uses of the content and information gained through the Bing search APIs.
The Getting images from the web with the Bing Image Search API article describes how to search and get images from the web.
The Sending and working with search queries article describes how to make, customize, and pivot search queries.
Visit the Bing Search API hub page to explore the other available APIs.