Microsoft has quietly revealed plans to shut down its long-running Bing Search APIs, a move that could reshape the competitive landscape for independent search engines and developers relying on access to indexed web content. Starting August 11, the company will begin decommissioning access to these APIs for most customers—signaling a strategic shift toward tightly integrated AI offerings and away from open web infrastructure.
The Bing Search APIs were once critical tools for smaller search engine companies and developers, offering raw access to Bing’s indexed search results. These APIs allowed alternatives like Brave, You.com, and DuckDuckGo to deliver search results without having to build their own crawlers or infrastructure. But the tool lost popularity after Microsoft dramatically raised prices in the wake of ChatGPT’s launch in 2022 and began limiting how the APIs could be used.
Developers received notice of the shutdown this week through a Microsoft email and a support page update. The company encouraged users to migrate to Grounding with Bing Search, a more restrictive service that augments chatbot responses with web data via Azure AI Agents. Many developers, however, argue the AI-powered alternative lacks the flexibility and transparency they relied on.
Microsoft spokesperson Donny Turnbaugh said the API phaseout reflects market demand for “AI solutions,” not traditional search feeds. While Microsoft says a “support plan” is in place for affected users, the company hasn’t shared specifics. According to a person familiar with the matter, larger enterprise customers with private long-term deals—including DuckDuckGo—will retain access for now. But many smaller developers will be cut off, with no direct replacement.
Developers Sound the Alarm: AI Tools Don’t Fill the Gap
The move has sparked frustration among developers and industry insiders who say the Bing APIs filled a vital gap in the search ecosystem. Privacy researcher Tim Libert, for instance, used the APIs to quickly map hospital websites across the country. Replacing that process with manual searches or newer AI summary tools, he says, is far more cumbersome and less precise. “The AI monstrosity Microsoft is pushing now is more complicated than it needs to be,” Libert said.
Others say the shift is a warning to anyone relying on big tech providers for foundational infrastructure. Brian Brown, chief business officer at Brave, noted that Microsoft is “sending a clear signal” by pulling support for smaller customers while securing its largest partners. Some developers believe the move reflects a cost-cutting agenda, especially following Microsoft’s recent layoffs of 6,000 employees, though the company declined to comment on any connection.
Since Microsoft hiked API prices up to 10x in 2023, many companies began building their own indexes of the web. While startups like You.com, Mojeek, Exa, and Brave have made progress in building search infrastructure, some developers argue that none yet match the depth or feature set of Bing’s APIs—backed by hundreds of engineers.
You.com CEO Richard Socher said his company’s own API has become a strong revenue driver, while Mojeek CEO Colin Hayhurst welcomed the disruption. “Anything that shakes up the search market is good,” he said.
Still, others see the loss of Bing APIs as a major blow to innovation and competition. Google’s search API remains limited and tightly controlled, leaving few robust options. But that may soon change. After losing a high-profile antitrust case, Google could be forced to open up more of its search data to competitors. If that happens, Microsoft—whose own executives testified that Bing’s limited reach is due in part to data scarcity—may be first in line to benefit.
