What is AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools? A practical guide to citations, limits and workflow

AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools is a public-preview dashboard that shows how often content from your site is cited as a source in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. It reports citation activity for your pages and sampled grounding queries over time, but it does not measure ranking, placement, or visits (source).

What the AI Performance report measures

According to Microsoft’s announcement, the dashboard surfaces several distinct views of your site’s participation in AI answers (source):

• Total Citations: The total number of times your site is displayed as a source in AI-generated answers for the selected timeframe. This highlights reference frequency and does not indicate placement or how your citation appears within an answer (source).
• Average Cited Pages: The average number of unique pages from your site shown as sources per day over the selected range. Because data is aggregated across supported AI surfaces, this does not convey ranking, authority, or a page’s role in any individual answer (source).
• Grounding queries: Key phrases the AI used when retrieving your content. This is a sample of activity and the metric will be refined over time (source).
• Page-level citation activity: Counts of how often specific URLs from your site were cited across AI-generated answers in the selected period. This reflects citation frequency, not importance, ranking, or placement (source).
• Visibility trends over time: A timeline that shows how citation activity changes across supported AI experiences, helping you spot patterns at a glance (source).

Who can use it and what it does not show

AI Performance lives inside Bing Webmaster Tools and extends its familiar site insights to AI-generated answers. It focuses on whether and how your site is referenced, recognizing that visibility now includes being cited in AI answers as well as appearing as a blue link (source). Microsoft notes Bing respects content-owner preferences set via robots.txt and other supported controls (source).

Equally important are the limits:

• Citations are not rankings, positions, or authority signals; they are counts of references displayed in AI answers (source).
• The report does not show traffic, click-through, or engagement. Do not infer visits from citation counts.
• Grounding queries are sampled and evolving; treat them as directional rather than exhaustive (source).
• It’s a public preview and coverage may expand as Microsoft evolves GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tooling (source).

How to use the insights

The announcement suggests practical ways to act on what you see (source):

• Validate which pages are already used as references in AI answers.
• Identify topics and pages that surface frequently.
• Spot opportunities where indexed pages are less often cited and may benefit from clearer structure or fuller coverage.

For improvements, Microsoft highlights:

• Depth and expertise: Deepen coverage around clearly focused topics.
• Structure and clarity: Use clear headings, tables, and FAQs to make key information easier to reference accurately.
• Support with evidence: Use examples and cited sources to build trust.
• Keep content fresh: Update important pages. Microsoft also notes IndexNow can help keep content fresh across search and AI experiences by notifying participating engines of adds, updates, or removals (source).
• Reduce ambiguity: Align text, images, and video around the same entities, products, or concepts (source).

For local businesses, ensuring accurate business details and using Bing Places for Business can support inclusion in location-focused AI answers (source).

Practical 30‑minute review workflow

1. Open Bing Webmaster Tools and navigate to AI Performance for your site.
2. Select a 28–90 day range to reduce short-term noise and note the Total Citations and Average Cited Pages.
3. Record the top cited URLs and their counts; skim the sampled grounding queries.
4. Map each top URL to a topic cluster; assess whether headings, summaries, and FAQs make the core answer easy to extract.
5. Choose 3–5 pages with lower citation counts for quick structural improvements (clarify the intro, tighten headings, add a short Q&A).
6. Schedule updates for pages tied to time-sensitive facts.
7. Recheck the timeline after your next update cycle to observe directional changes, without assuming causation.

Copy‑paste worksheet (CSV)

Copy this header into your sheet or notes app and paste rows as you review:

date_range,total_citations,avg_cited_pages_per_day,top_url,url_citations,page_title,topic_cluster,grounding_query_sample,notes,action_owner,due_date,follow_up_date

Limitations and safe interpretation

• Sampled grounding queries: Treat them as clues, not a complete query list (source).
• No ranking or placement: Citation counts do not convey where or how you appear in an answer (source).
• No traffic inference: Use your analytics to evaluate visits; do not assume citations cause clicks.
• Robots and controls: Bing respects robots.txt and supported mechanisms; blocking relevant paths can reduce eligibility for inclusion (source).
• Public preview: Features and coverage may evolve as Microsoft expands GEO tooling (source).

Related guides from My AI Search Report

• AI citations, brand mentions and visits: how to read the evidence
• How to measure AI search visibility with a ten-question audit
• How to verify search and AI crawler access without exposing private pages
• How to see AI referral traffic in GA4?

Action checklist

• Review Total Citations, Average Cited Pages, and the timeline for your chosen date range.
• List top cited URLs and sample grounding queries; save them to your worksheet.
• For 3–5 target pages, tighten headings, add short summaries and FAQs, and cite your sources.
• Update time-sensitive pages; consider mechanisms that help keep content fresh as Microsoft suggests.
• Revisit the report after updates and compare trends without assuming causal effects.

FAQs

Does AI Performance show my ranking in Copilot?
No. It reports citation activity, not ranking, authority, or placement (source).

Can I attribute traffic directly from these citations?
No. The report does not include traffic or clicks. Use your analytics to segment and evaluate visit patterns, and interpret carefully.

Will blocking Bing in robots.txt affect this report?
Bing states it respects robots.txt and supported controls, so blocking relevant paths can limit inclusion and therefore citations (source).

Related guides

• How to structure content for AI search?
• Is Google AI reducing website traffic?