In a significant shift that signals Microsoft’s evolving priorities, the tech giant has announced the retirement of its Bing Search APIs, including Bing Web Search and Custom Search, effective August 11, 2025. This decision, announced through notices on Microsoft’s API documentation pages, marks the end of services that developers have relied on to integrate Bing’s search capabilities into their applications.

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The Announcement and Its Implications

Microsoft has begun displaying prominent warnings on its documentation pages stating: “Product to be retired Bing Search and Bing Custom Search APIs will be retired on 11th August 2025. New deployments are not available and existing resources will be disabled.” The retirement affects all tiers of service, from free users to paid customers, including those using Search v7 and Custom Search, as reported by AIbase.

According to the retirement notice detailed by Search Engine Roundtable, “Any existing instances of Bing Search APIs will be decommissioned completely, and the product will no longer be available for usage or new customer signup.” This applies specifically to partners using the F1 and S1 through S9 resources of Bing Search, or the F0 and S1 through S4 resources of Bing Custom Search.

Strategic Pivot Toward AI-Powered Solutions

Rather than maintaining these traditional search APIs, Microsoft is steering developers toward its AI-powered alternatives. The company recommends “Grounding with Bing Search” as part of Azure AI Agents as the replacement service. This feature allows Azure AI Agents to incorporate real-time public web data when generating responses with large language models (LLMs).

The transition represents more than just a service change—it reflects Microsoft’s broader strategic shift toward integrating AI technologies across its product ecosystem. Developers will need to adapt to new service architectures, API models, and potentially different cost structures.

Developer Concerns and Compliance Considerations

The retirement raises several concerns for developers who have built services atop Bing’s search infrastructure. Beyond the technical challenges of migrating to new systems, there are also compliance considerations. Microsoft’s documentation specifically notes that search queries and resource keys will be transmitted to the Bing service, which operates outside Azure’s standard compliance boundaries.

This mea🐽ns that data processing terms differ from those of Azure AI Agent Service. Although Microsoft emphasizes that only queries and resource keys are transmitted without involving user-specific information, developers must assess whether this aligns with their compliance requirements.

Industry Reactions and Next Steps

The announcement has generated discussion across tech platforms. Simon Cox highlighted the change on Bluesky, as noted by Search Engine Roundtable. Industry observers have pointed out that this move follows a pattern of Microsoft consolidating its services and focusing resources on AI-powered solutions that align with its investment in OpenAI and the integration of AI across its product linဣes.

For affected developers, Microsoft advises immediate action: review current usage of Bing Search APIs, identify p😼otentially affect🐼ed resources through the Azure portal, and make timely migration arrangements. Support is available through email for those with specific questions about the transition.

As the August 2025 deadline approaches, this retirement underscores the rapidly evolving landscape of search and AI technologies, with traditional API-based search services giving way to more integrated, AI-enhanced information retrieval systems. Developers now face the challenge of adapting to this new paradigm within Microsoft’s ecosystem.