Bing API for Rankings: What It Is & How to Use

Bing does not offer a public API that directly returns your website’s search rankings for specific keywords. Instead, the Bing Web Search API returns a list of web pages for a query, and you can find your site’s position in that list. This article explains how that works, how to use the API for rank tracking, and what its limitations are.

Background: Why Bing Doesn’t Offer a Direct Rank API

Search engines treat ranking data as proprietary and sensitive. They do not expose a simple “give me my rank for this keyword” endpoint because that would make it trivial to scrape and manipulate rankings, and it would put a heavy load on their infrastructure. Instead, they provide search APIs that return the same organic results you would see in a browser, which you can then parse. Bing’s Web Search API is part of the Azure Cognitive Services suite, and it is designed for applications that need to display search results, not for rank tracking per se. However, many SEO tools and developers use it for exactly that purpose.

How the Bing Web Search API Works

To use the API, you need an Azure account and a Bing Search resource. Once you create a resource, you get two keys. You then make an HTTP GET request to:

https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search?q=your+query&count=50

with the header Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: your_key_here. The response is JSON with a webPages array containing up to 50 results (or fewer if you set count lower). Each result has fields like name, url, snippet, and displayUrl. To find your rank, you loop through the array and compare the domain of each url to your own.

Choosing Between Bing API and Other Rank-Tracking Methods

You have several options for tracking Bing rankings:

• Bing Web Search API – accurate, but requires coding and is limited to 1,000 transactions per month on the free tier (as of this writing). Paid tiers cost per 1,000 transactions.
• Manual search in a browser – free but slow and affected by personalization and location.
• Third-party rank trackers – many SEO tools (e.g., SEMrush, Ahrefs) offer Bing tracking, but they use their own methods and may not be perfectly accurate.
• Bing Webmaster Tools – provides some search performance data, but not real-time keyword rankings.

If you need a quick, one-off check, manual search is fine. If you need to monitor many keywords daily, the API is more reliable than manual but requires development effort.

Common Problems and How to Solve Them

When using the Bing API for rankings, you may encounter these issues:

• Rate limits – the free tier is limited to 3 requests per second and 1,000 transactions per month. If you exceed this, you get HTTP 429 errors. Solution: use a paid tier or space out your requests.
• Location bias – Bing results vary by country and region. The API allows you to set the mkt parameter (e.g., mkt=en-US) to get results for a specific market. Without it, you get results based on the data center’s location.
• Personalization – the API does not personalize results (it doesn’t know your search history), which is actually an advantage for rank tracking because it gives a neutral view.
• Domain matching – your site might appear with a trailing slash, a www prefix, or a different subdomain. Make sure your matching logic accounts for variations like example.com, www.example.com, and https://example.com/.

Costs and Limits of the Bing API

As of this writing, the Bing Web Search API offers a free tier with 1,000 transactions per month. Beyond that, you pay per 1,000 transactions, with prices varying by tier. For rank tracking, each keyword you check counts as one transaction. If you track 50 keywords daily, that is 1,500 transactions per month, which would exceed the free tier. You can reduce costs by checking less frequently (e.g., weekly) or by using a smaller count value (e.g., 10 instead of 50) if you only care about top-10 rankings. Note that the API is not free for commercial use beyond the free tier, and you must adhere to Microsoft’s terms of service.

Privacy and Safety Considerations

Using the Bing API requires an Azure account and a subscription key. Keep your key secret – if someone else gets it, they can use your quota. Do not store keys in client-side code. Also, be aware that the API returns public web data, so there are no privacy concerns for the queries themselves, but the results may include sites that are not safe for all audiences. If you are building a tool that displays results to users, you should filter or moderate them as needed. Microsoft’s terms prohibit using the API to create a search engine that competes with Bing, so do not use it to build a general-purpose search interface.

Alternatives to the Bing API for Rank Tracking

If the Bing API seems too limited or costly, consider these alternatives:

• Bing Webmaster Tools – free, provides search performance data including impressions and clicks for your site, but not keyword rankings.
• Google Search Console – similar, but for Google, not Bing.
• Open-source rank trackers – some projects use the Bing API or scraping, but scraping may violate Bing’s terms of service.
• Manual checking with a VPN – if you only need a few keywords, you can use a VPN to simulate different locations, but this is time-consuming.

For most site owners, Bing Webmaster Tools is a good starting point because it is free and gives you real data from Bing’s index, even if it does not show exact positions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a free Bing API for rankings?

Yes, the Bing Web Search API has a free tier with 1,000 transactions per month. That is enough to check a few keywords daily, but not for large-scale tracking.

Can I get my exact rank for a keyword using the API?

Yes, but only if your site appears in the first 100 results (the maximum you can request in one call). If it appears beyond that, you would need to make multiple requests with different offsets, which is inefficient.

Why does my rank differ between the API and a regular browser search?

Browser searches are personalized based on your location, history, and device. The API returns neutral results, so your rank may be different. Also, Bing may serve different results to different data centers.

How often should I check rankings with the API?

It depends on your needs. For most small sites, checking weekly is enough. Daily checks are useful if you are running a campaign and need to react quickly. Remember that each check uses a transaction.

Can I use the Bing API to track rankings for my competitors?

Yes, you can search for any keyword and see where any domain ranks. You just need to match the domain in the results. This is a common use case for SEO tools.

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