Microsoft adds AI performance insights to Bing Webmaster Tools

Microsoft has introduced a new AI Performance report within Bing Webmaster Tools, adding reporting on how publisher content appears inside AI-generated experiences. According to the company, the report shows how often a site’s content is cited as a source across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. 

Microsoft says this is intended to give site owners visibility into when their content is referenced by AI systems and how that citation activity changes over time. The company describes this release as an early step toward Generative Engine Optimization tooling.

What the AI Performance report shows

Microsoft says the AI Performance dashboard presents a consolidated view of citation activity across supported AI surfaces. The report includes a total citations metric that counts how many times a site’s content is referenced as a source in AI-generated answers over a given time frame. The company notes that this does not indicate where the citation appeared within an answer or how prominently it was displayed.

The report also includes average cited pages, which represent the average number of unique pages from a site that appear as sources in AI-generated answers per day over the selected time period. Microsoft says this data is aggregated across AI experiences and does not represent ranking, authority, or the role of a page in a specific answer.

Another section surfaces grounding queries, which Microsoft describes as the phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was later cited. This data represents a sample of overall citation activity.

At the page level, the report shows citation counts for specific URLs, indicating how often individual pages are referenced across AI-generated answers during the selected date range. Microsoft says this reflects the frequency of citation rather than page importance or placement. A timeline view also shows how citation activity changes over time across supported AI experiences.

How Microsoft says the data can be used

Microsoft says publishers and site owners can review cited pages and grounding queries to understand which parts of their sites are being referenced in AI-generated answers. The company says this can be used to confirm which pages are already appearing as sources and to identify topics or pages that appear frequently.

The company also notes that site owners may use the data to find pages that are indexed but cited less often, which could indicate areas where content clarity, structure, or completeness could be adjusted.

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