Microsoft to Retire Bing Search APIs by August 11, Recommends AI Integration
New Microsoft Policy Lets Low Performers Exit With 16-Week Pay
Microsoft has announced that it will permanently shut down its Bing Search APIs for third-party developers on August 11, 2025. The company quietly shared the update earlier this week, confirming that “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.”
The decision is expected to affect third-party apps and search engines that rely on Microsoft’s Bing data to power their services. As a replacement, Microsoft is urging developers to shift to “grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents”, a feature that enables chatbots to access and interact with Bing's web data using AI.
While the change will affect most developers, some larger API customers will reportedly retain access even after the cutoff. DuckDuckGo, which partially depends on Bing to support its privacy-first search engine, has confirmed that it will continue to access Bing search results.
This move follows years of rising API costs and arrives just days before Microsoft’s Build developer conference, where AI is expected to dominate the agenda. It also comes on the heels of a major antitrust development in the U.S., where the Department of Justice is seeking to break up Google’s ad tech business.
Microsoft’s strategy signals a stronger pivot toward AI-powered solutions, reinforcing its push to integrate Bing with next-gen tools like Azure AI Agents.