A replacement for the Bing Search API
Bing Search API: Retired on August 11, 2025. Serpex is a search API: real-time web search results as structured JSON, plus page content extraction. It lists $0.50 – $0.65 per 1,000 searches and is open to new customers today.
Microsoft’s notice checked on 2026-09-28. Source.
What Microsoft announced
“Bing Search APIs will be retired on August 11, 2025. Any existing instances of Bing Search APIs will be decommissioned completely, and the product will no longer be available to be used or new customer signup.”
Quoted from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement, checked on 2026-09-28.
What Microsoft recommends instead
Microsoft points customers to Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents. It is a tool inside Azure AI Agents, not a standalone search endpoint that returns raw results to your own code. If your application reads a list of results and decides what to do with them, it needs a search API, not an agent tool.
Side by side
| Serpex | Bing Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Open to new customers | Retired — decommissioned August 11, 2025 |
| Search, per 1,000 | $0.50 – $0.65 | No longer available |
| Search + page content, 10 results, per 1,000 | $2.00 – $2.60 | — |
| Free tier | Free credits on signup, no card required | No longer available |
Before and after
The Bing Search API request you are replacing:
curl "https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search?q=best+practices+for+REST+API+design" \
-H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $BING_SEARCH_KEY"The Serpex request — results, plus the top result pages as markdown:
curl -X POST https://api.serpex.dev/api/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SERPEX_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"q": "best practices for REST API design",
"include_content": true,
"content_results": 5
}'What changes in your code
- Create a Serpex API key (free credits on signup, no card required).
- Point the request at https://api.serpex.dev/api/search. POST with a JSON body is recommended; GET with query parameters also works.
- Replace the Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key header with Authorization: Bearer <your key>.
- Keep the query in q — the parameter name is the same.
- Read results from the results array: each item has title, url, snippet and position.
- Optionally set include_content to get the top 5 or 10 result pages back as markdown on the same request.
Full parameter and response reference in the Search API docs.
Stay with Microsoft’s option if your application is already an Azure AI agent and all you need is for that agent to ground its answers in web results. Microsoft's grounding tool fits inside that stack without adding another vendor.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Bing Search API still available?
No. Microsoft's lifecycle notice says: "Bing Search APIs will be retired on August 11, 2025. Any existing instances of Bing Search APIs will be decommissioned completely, and the product will no longer be available to be used or new customer signup."
What does Microsoft recommend instead?
Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents. It is a tool an Azure AI agent calls, not a standalone search endpoint that returns raw results to your own code — so an application that reads result lists directly needs a different search API.
What does Serpex return?
Serpex is a search API: real-time web search results as structured JSON, plus page content extraction. Each result has a title, URL, snippet and position. Set include_content on the same search call and the top 5 or 10 result pages come back as markdown.
Will I get the same results I got from Bing?
No, and no search API can promise that now. Result sets will differ, so run the queries your product actually depends on before moving production traffic.
How much does Serpex cost?
Serpex lists $0.50 – $0.65 per 1,000 searches. Search plus page content for 10 results is $2.00 – $2.60 per 1,000 requests. Free credits on signup, no card required.
Test it on your own queries
Free credits on signup, no card required. Run the queries your product depends on before you move production traffic.