Alternatives
Bing Web Search API alternatives
For a decade the default independent web search API. Retired on 11 August 2025, taking Web, Image, News, Video, Entity and Custom Search with it.
Verified 7 October 2026·Figures from vendors' own pages
Retired 11 August 2025Bing Web Search API at a glance
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Category
- Platform grounding
- Own index
- Yes — Bing index
- Price per 1,000
- Not published as a flat rate
- Free tier
- None — retired
- MCP server
- No
- Graph traversal
- No
- Coverage transparency
- No
Pricing detail. No longer sold. Microsoft stopped new Bing Search API resources in early 2025 and retired the service on 11 August 2025, directing customers to Grounding with Bing Search.
Why teams look for a Bing Web Search API alternative
There is nothing to look for an alternative to any more: it was retired on 11 August 2025, taking Web, Image, News, Video, Entity, Autosuggest, Spell Check and Custom Search with it. Anything built on it needed migrating, and this page exists because that migration is still happening in long-lived systems.
The detail worth carrying forward is the timing. New resource creation was quietly blocked in early 2025, months before Microsoft’s retirement notice of 15 May 2025, so by the time the notice landed nobody could start a migration onto a like-for-like Microsoft product. When a provider closes its signup path, that is the signal — not the announcement.
Where Bing Web Search API beats us
For a decade this was the default independent web search API, and the reason it was the default is that the index behind it was large, current and not Google. Most of this category exists because it left. The index itself has not gone; it is reachable through Azure AI Foundry and through Microsoft products, just not as the direct, simple API that made it the obvious choice.
Every page in this section names this. A comparison that cannot say where the other product wins is an advertisement.
The alternatives
unlob
$0.40/1kWe are a retrieval API rather than a platform feature, which is the whole trade. You lose the configuration-flag integration and the largest index in the world; you gain filters, corroboration thresholds, exact-term requirements, an explicit answer about absence, and a per-1,000 price you can forecast from your own traffic.
Grounding with Google Search
$14/1kGoogle's first-party grounding for Gemini. The best index in the world, billed per search query on top of tokens, and only usable from Gemini.
Grounding with Bing Search
$14/1kMicrosoft's designated successor to the retired Bing Search API, available only inside Azure AI Foundry. A platform commitment, not an API swap.
OpenAI web search tool
The built-in search tool in the Responses API. Zero integration work if you are already on OpenAI, and no control over retrieval whatsoever.
DataForSEO
$0.60/1kIndustrial SERP infrastructure built for SEO tooling rather than agents. The cheapest per query in the field, with the lowest-level API to match.
Parallel Search
$1/1kA suite of web search, extraction and research APIs on a proprietary index, from the former Twitter CEO. The closest competitor to unlob by thesis.
Serper
$1/1kThe cheapest way to get raw Google results into an agent. Fast, minimal, and entirely dependent on Google continuing to be scrapeable.
Perplexity
$1/1kRaw web search over its own index through the Search API, and search with synthesis through the Agent API, which replaced Sonar Chat Completions in September 2026.
Bright Data
$1.50/1kProxy and unblocking infrastructure with a scraping suite and an agent-facing MCP server. Built for volume collection, priced accordingly.
Sources
- Bing Search API retirementread 7 October 2026
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Bing Web Search API?
It depends what you are replacing. If you need an independent index at the lowest price, unlob is $0.40 per 1,000 searches. If you need the largest possible index, Bing Web Search API may still be the right tool — we say so on our comparison page rather than pretending otherwise.
Is Bing Web Search API still available?
No. Retired 11 August 2025. Anything built on it needed migrating, which is why this category saw so much movement in 2025 and 2026.
Does Bing Web Search API own its own web index?
Yes — Bing index. That matters because a provider without its own index inherits the deprecation and repricing risk of whoever it depends on.
How much does Bing Web Search API cost?
No longer sold. Microsoft stopped new Bing Search API resources in early 2025 and retired the service on 11 August 2025, directing customers to Grounding with Bing Search.
Try the cheapest own-index alternative
10,000 free credits a month, no card. Test coverage and latency against your own queries before you commit to anything.