In the tech world, even big players sometimes change course abruptly — and this has a serious impact on the entire ecosystem. That’s exactly what happened to Microsoft, which suddenly announced that it was shutting down Bing Search API. For many developers, this is a serious blow, especially since Google doesn’t offer a similar tool.
The Bing Search API allowed developers to get ad-free, geolocated search results from billions of web pages. This tool was used not only by independent developers but also by large services. For example, even the competing search service DuckDuckGo partially relied on the Bing API to provide an alternative search experience without tracking.
And now, rather unexpectedly, Microsoft has announced: The Bing Search API will be permanently disabled on August 11, 2025. All existing API instances will be completely decommissioned and the API will no longer be available for use. No replacement will be provided. This decision will affect anyone using resources F1 and S1-S9 in Bing Search, or F0 and S1-S4 in Bing Custom Search.
⚠️Microsoft is depreciating Bing Search API. And there is no replacement available. Grounding with Bing Search is suggested as alternative, but…
“Developers and end users don't have access to raw content returned from Grounding with Bing Search”
Means that I can’t build full… pic.twitter.com/DfsAesHZIA
— Dmitry Katson (@DmitryKatson) May 13, 2025
The developer community was surprised by this sudden announcement from Microsoft. The tight schedule for ending support is also a concern.
Microsoft recommends using publicly available real-time web data when building answers with large language models. However, Grounding with Bing Search is not a real alternative to the Bing Search API. The big problem is that developers and users don’t have access to «raw» search results. This means that it is — impossible to create a full-fledged search functionality. This means that many projects will be left without a key data source.
Fortunately, all is not lost. As an alternative to the Bing Search API, developers can use the Brave Search API. This service is already used by startups such as Cohere, Perplexity, and Mistral. Brave Search API is considered more affordable, especially for small teams and projects. It is offered free of charge for up to 2000 queries per month, and if you need more, there are several flexible plans.
This decision by Microsoft may change the search market: large companies are forced to look for new data sources, and smaller ones may lose functionality. At the same time, it’s a chance for independent projects like Brave to express themselves and offer new approaches to the open web.
Source: neowin
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