The role Bing plays
- Copilot: according to Microsoft, answers that use the web are grounded in Bing search results and link to the pages used.
- ChatGPT: in 2023 Microsoft announced Bing as the search experience in ChatGPT. Today OpenAI states in general terms that ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers and its own crawler (OAI-SearchBot). Which providers, with what share, OpenAI does not disclose. An analysis by the analytics vendor Peec AI (September 2026) describes several sources, including Microsoft services and Google results – this is not an official statement.
In practice this means: Bing is one of several routes by which AI assistants find your pages. Because registering takes little effort, we include it in every launch.
Our own observation: on 25 October 2026, ChatGPT did not find our own new website pickedfirst.ai, even though it was reachable for all AI crawlers. It simply had not been picked up yet. Since then we also register every new website with Bing and via IndexNow.
What Bing Webmaster Tools offer
Bing Webmaster Tools is the free counterpart to Google Search Console. There you confirm that the website is yours, submit your sitemap and see whether Bing has picked up your pages. If you already use Search Console, Bing lets you import your website from there.
IndexNow: report new pages immediately
IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a website tell search engines directly that pages are new, changed or deleted. Participants include Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep; a submission is shared with all participating search engines. Google does not take part – there, Search Console and your sitemap are enough.
The benefit: new and changed pages do not have to wait until a crawler happens to come by. Worth knowing: according to IndexNow, a successful submission only means “received”, not “indexed”.
Stay realistic
Even after registration, search engines decide for themselves when and whether to include pages. Expect days to weeks. And even an indexed page is not yet a mention in an AI answer – and a mention is not yet an enquiry. Only a follow-up measurement shows whether it works.
For local businesses, a maintained profile on Bing Places and in Google Business Profile belongs alongside the website – with the same contact details as on the website.
Which of this applies to your business is what we check concretely in the AI Visibility Check: on your website, with your clients’ questions and compared with your competitors.