Microsoft · Search indexes
Bingbot
Microsoft’s Search crawler. Copilot and Bing AI features depend on Bing’s index — if Bingbot cannot crawl you, Copilot has a thinner source set.
- Operator
- Microsoft
- Traffic type
- Search indexes
- Verification
- User-agent + IP range
- robots.txt
- Honors robots.txt
Usually means: Crawlers that build the indexes ChatGPT search, Claude search, Perplexity, Google, and Bing draw from. Blocking them is how brands disappear from AI answers without noticing.
User-agent
robots.txt and most WAF rules match the token, not the full Mozilla string. Operators often wrap Bingbot in extra product or version text.
Bingbot
Example full string: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm)
What Bingbot does
Bingbot indexes the web for Bing. Microsoft’s AI answer products reuse that index. Treating Bingbot as “just SEO” misses the Copilot citation path.
How to get discovered
Allow Bingbot, submit a sitemap in Bing Webmaster, and keep HTML content complete. Do not cloak a thinner page to Bing than you show Chrome.
Why Bingbot might skip you
robots Disallow, crawl-delay abuse, or WAF rules that only allow Googlebot’s verified IPs and drop Bing.
robots.txt rule
Allow this token on public pages you want retrieved or cited. A CDN “Block AI bots” toggle can still 403 it after robots.txt says Allow.
# Keep Bingbot eligible to fetch this site
User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /Allowlist so Bingbot can reach you
A user-agent is spoofable. Microsoft publishes current CIDR ranges as JSON — fetch that file for WAF/CDN allowlists instead of copying ranges from a blog. Ranges rotate; a screenshot of ten prefixes will go stale. If Cloudflare “Block AI bots” is on, this is the list that gets the real crawler through.
https://www.bing.com/toolbox/bingbot.json ↗
Sources
JavaScript: can render JS (often a second pass).
Other Microsoft bots
Training, search, and user-fetch tokens from the same operator are not interchangeable. Allow the discovery path even when you opt out of training.
Bingbot FAQ
What is Bingbot?
Bingbot indexes the web for Bing. Microsoft’s AI answer products reuse that index. Treating Bingbot as “just SEO” misses the Copilot citation path.
Should I allow Bingbot in robots.txt?
Yes if you want Microsoft to be able to fetch and cite this site. Blocking Bingbot is how pages stay invisible to that product even when Googlebot still crawls them.
How do I know a request is really Bingbot?
A user-agent is a claim anyone can send. Match the Bingbot token, then check the source IP against Microsoft’s published ranges. Use those ranges as a WAF allowlist so a “Block AI bots” rule does not 403 the real crawler.
Letting Bingbot in is the start. Getting cited is the job.
Rankealo checks whether AI crawlers can reach you, then publishes pages built to be retrieved and quoted in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
