Entity Search API v7 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
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.

To know which market Bing used, get the BingAPIs-Market header in the response.

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
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>-<country/region>. 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.

To know which market Bing used, get the BingAPIs-Market header in the response.

This parameter and the cc query parameter are mutually exclusive — do not specify both.
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 (q=fishing+site:fishing.contoso.com). Note that the results may contain results from other sites depending on the number of relevant results found on the specified site.
String Yes
responseFilter A comma-delimited list of answers to include in the response. If you don't specify this parameter, the response includes all search answers for which there's relevant data.

The following are the possible filter values:
  • Entities
  • Places
If you want to exclude a specific type of content, such as places, from the response, you can exclude it by prefixing a hyphen (minus) to the responseFilter value. For example, &responseFilter=-places.
String No
responseFormat The media type to use for the response. The following are the possible case-insensitive values:
  • JSON
  • JSONLD

The default is JSON. For information about the JSON objects that the response contains, see Response objects.

If you specify JsonLd, the response body includes JSON-LD objects that contain the search results. For information about the JSON-LD, see JSON-LD.
String No
safeSearch Used to filter search results for adult content. The following are the possible filter values:
  • Off — Returns content with adult text and images but not adult videos.
  • Moderate — Returns webpages with adult text, but not adult images or videos.
  • Strict — Does not return 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 be set to Strict, Bing ignores the safeSearch value and uses Strict.

NOTE: If you use the site: query operator, there is a 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 use the specified language.
String No