Google still does not tell you how often its AI features cite your site. Microsoft does. The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows when your pages are used as sources in Copilot and Bing’s AI answers, and in October 2026 it gained a new view, Topics Portfolio, that groups that data by theme. For the first time, a search engine is telling site owners not only where they are cited, but also which AI topics they are missing.
What the AI Performance report shows
The report is built around citations: the times your pages are referenced as a source in an AI-generated answer. It also shows the grounding queries behind them. When someone asks Copilot a question, the system rewrites it into one or more search queries to find documents to build the answer on. Those internal queries, not the user’s original prompt, are what you see in the report.
It does not include clicks. Like Google’s AI reports in Search Console, it measures visibility in AI answers, not traffic.
What Topics Portfolio adds
Microsoft announced Topics Portfolio, in beta, on the Bing Webmaster blog. It groups the grounding queries where your site appears into broader themes, such as taxes, football or AI chatbots. For each topic it shows:
- Topic Size: the approximate number of citations across all sites for that topic. It is a measure of how much AI search demand the topic has.
- Sites Cited: the approximate number of sites that appear for the topic’s queries. A high number means a crowded topic.
- Queries: the approximate number of distinct grounding queries in the topic.
Two more views make it actionable. Top Opportunity Queries lists strong queries in your topics where other sites are cited and yours is not, with citation volumes shown as ranges. The topic drill-down compares the size of a topic with your own citations in it. Microsoft says the feature only appears when there is enough data for your site.
How to use it
- Find your AI footprint. The topics list tells you what AI assistants consider you a source for. It may not match the topics you think you own, and that gap is useful information.
- Prioritize by demand and competition. A large topic with few sites cited is the best opportunity. A large topic with hundreds of sites cited needs much stronger content to break into.
- Work through the opportunity queries. Each one is a question AI answers on a topic you already cover, using someone else’s page. Check whether you have a page that answers it directly. If not, create or improve one.
- Write for grounding queries. Grounding queries tend to be short, factual and specific. Pages that answer one clear question near the top, with definitions, numbers and steps, are easier for AI systems to cite.
- Apply the insights to Google too. Microsoft’s data covers its own AI products, but the topics and questions are usually similar across assistants. It is the closest thing to keyword research for AI search that a search engine offers today.
Make sure Bing can reach you
None of this works if Bing cannot crawl your site. Check that robots.txt does not block Bingbot: in our study of robots.txt in the top websites, some sites block it completely, often by accident. Our AI Bot Checker shows how your robots.txt treats Bingbot and the main AI crawlers. Submitting your sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools and enabling IndexNow also help Bing find new pages quickly.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
What is the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools?
A report that shows how often your pages are cited as sources in Microsoft’s AI answers, such as Copilot, and the grounding queries behind those citations.
What is a grounding query?
A search query that an AI system creates from a user’s prompt to find documents to base its answer on. One prompt can produce several grounding queries.
Does Bing show clicks from AI answers?
No. The AI Performance report shows citations and queries, not clicks.
Is Topics Portfolio available for every site?
No. Microsoft says it appears in the AI Performance report only when there is enough data for the site. It is currently in beta.