What Bing AI Performance Reporting Measures and What It Leaves Out

If you manage a site and want to know whether Microsoft’s AI search experiences cite its pages, Bing Webmaster Tools’ AI Performance report shows when Bing reports those pages as sources in AI-generated answers. A citation means Bing displayed or referenced a page as a source. It does not mean someone clicked the page or that it led to a sale.

Microsoft introduced AI Performance as a public preview on February 10, 2026. The report covers citations in Microsoft Copilot and AI-generated summaries in Bing. It also includes selected partner integrations. It measures reported citation activity, not a site’s overall performance across AI services. (Microsoft’s launch announcement)

What the report counts

AI Performance summarizes citations over time and by page. Its main metrics include the total number of citations, the number of different pages cited each day, and the average number of pages cited per day during the selected period. The page view shows how many citations each URL received.

The report also groups related activity under grounding queries, short phrases linked to content Bing retrieved and cited in AI answers. These phrases connect topics to cited pages, but they are not the exact questions people asked. One phrase can be linked to several pages, and one page can appear under several phrases. The report does not show the full answer or explain why Bing chose a page. (Bing’s AI Performance documentation)

As of November 11, 2026, Microsoft’s report includes views to classify grounding queries by intent and group them into topics. It also lets users compare periods and estimate Citation Share. Citation Share is the site’s share of citations reported for a particular grounding query. It does not show the site’s share of clicks, users, or market demand. Microsoft introduced these views in June 2026 and says their classifications and estimates are imperfect or approximate. (Microsoft’s announcement of the expanded views)

You can choose 7-day, 30-day, three-month, and custom date ranges from the available history. Microsoft says data refreshes daily, but processing takes time. A check during the day therefore misses some of that day’s activity.

What the numbers cannot tell you

The report does not show standard search rankings, clicks, site visits, conversions, or revenue. It also does not pair each citation with the full prompt and answer. Microsoft describes the figures as aggregated and sampled, and says low or infrequent citation activity may not appear. Treat the counts as reported observations, not a complete count of every AI answer.

When a graph rises or falls, the report shows that a metric changed but does not say why. Microsoft says changes can reflect shifts in user demand, how current the content is, system or model updates, partner refresh cycles, or interest in a topic. If the numbers change after you update a page, that timing alone does not show that the update caused the change.

Read grounding queries with care. Their grouped wording can suggest what a cited page relates to, but it does not reveal the exact question, whether the answer was accurate, or whether the answer recommended the business. Citation Share compares the site’s reported citations for a query. It does not show which other sites received the remaining citations or how many people saw them.

How to check your site

First, add and verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. Microsoft’s setup documentation says analytics can take about 48 hours to appear after you add a site. This general setup estimate does not say when AI citation data will appear. (Bing’s site verification instructions)

Next, open AI Performance and choose a date range. If the report has few results, check a longer available period before drawing conclusions. Compare the cited-page and grounding-query views. Export the filtered data to examine which pages are linked to which queries outside the dashboard.

If the report shows no citation for an important URL, use URL Inspection to check whether Bing crawled and indexed it. The tool reports index status and crawling issues. Its live URL test shows what Bingbot sees during the test. A successful test, or a page that loads in a browser, does not prove that Bing can keep crawling the page, that Bing has indexed or cited it, or that it ranks or affects your business. (Bing’s URL Inspection documentation)

Use other reports to answer questions AI Performance cannot. Bing Search Performance reports search impressions and clicks, and breaks performance down by query or page. Your site analytics can help you assess visits and later outcomes, such as conversions. These measures describe different stages, so a citation count cannot replace search or business data. (Bing’s Search Performance documentation)

What to do when citations are missing or change

A blank or sparse report alone does not show that Bing penalized or excluded your site. Check that you selected the right site property and date range, then look for crawl or index issues on important URLs. Microsoft says low or infrequent citations may not appear in the report.

When the report lists a page, compare it with the associated topic. Check that the information is current, the page answers the topic clearly, and sources support its factual claims. These are useful editorial checks, but the report does not show that any particular change will increase citations.

When reviewing trends, use the same date ranges and compare the same pages or queries. If the numbers change, record what changed and check for other possible causes before linking the change to a page update. To assess business impact, check visits and conversions in your analytics instead of drawing conclusions from citation counts.

What I'm building

Delegate tasks. Get software.

Give Vroni a GitHub issue, bug report, spec, or rough idea. It reads the repo, plans the change, writes code, runs checks, and works toward a review-ready pull request.

Take a look at vroni.com