The short answer
Microsoft Copilot finds businesses through Bing: it sends a search to Bing and answers from the results. To be recommended, claim your Bing Places listing, add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools with a sitemap and IndexNow, and don’t block bingbot. Bing is also one of ChatGPT’s sources, so the same work helps there, though ChatGPT now has its own index as well.
How does Microsoft Copilot find businesses to recommend?
Through Bing. Microsoft’s documentation says that when Copilot needs the web, it “generates a search query that it sends to the Bing search service” and writes its answer from what comes back, with the sources as citations. It also sends the person’s IP address, which Bing uses “to help localize results”: that’s how a question like “best physio near me” gets local answers.
This is true for the Microsoft Copilot app, Copilot in Microsoft 365 and Copilot Chat at work. So for Copilot, the rule is simple: if Bing can’t find and understand your business, Copilot can’t recommend it.
Why Bing matters for ChatGPT too
Bing has under 5% of traditional search worldwide (4.8% in October 2026, StatCounter), so it’s easy to ignore. But it feeds more AI answers than its share suggests:
- Copilot answers from Bing, as above.
- ChatGPT search launched in 2024 using “third-party search providers” such as Bing, and Microsoft says today that its Web IQ service, built on Bing’s index, “powers leading frontier AI assistants, including Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT.”
- But ChatGPT isn’t just Bing any more. OpenAI runs its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and its own index, and outside research (Peec AI, September 2026) found several other providers, including Google results, Yelp and Tripadvisor.
How much ChatGPT’s answers overlap with Bing depends on who measured it, and how:
| Study | Sample | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Seer Interactive (Feb 2025) | About 100 questions, 500+ citations | 87% of ChatGPT citations were in Bing’s top 20 (56% in Google’s) |
| Ahrefs (Aug 2025) | 15,000 long questions | About 8% overlap with Bing’s top 10, and about 8% with Google’s |
| Peec AI (Sep 2026) | ChatGPT’s own response data | OpenAI’s own index first, plus Google results, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Bing |
The safe conclusion: Bing is one confirmed source for ChatGPT, not the only one. Being well represented on Bing costs little and helps with Copilot for certain, and with ChatGPT some of the time. In our own AI Visibility Index, ChatGPT named the local business we asked about in only 46% of 959 answers, so most businesses have room to gain.
Bing Places for Business: the listing Copilot can read
Bing Places is Bing’s version of Google Business Profile: your name, address, phone, hours, categories and photos on Bing search and Bing Maps. In October 2025 it moved from bingplaces.com to bing.com/forbusiness, with a faster import from Google Business Profile.
When Bing launched its AI Performance report in February 2026, its advice for local businesses was exactly this: register with Bing Places for Business to keep your address, hours and contact details current. Microsoft hasn’t published how Copilot uses the listings, but Copilot answers now show Bing Maps and local results, and the listing is the cleanest source of your facts on Bing.
If you already have a verified Google Business Profile, importing it is usually the quickest route: sign in with Google, pick your locations, and check the summary for duplicates and missing details. Some businesses still have to verify by phone, email or a postcard with a PIN.
How to get recommended by Copilot: 7 steps
- Claim your Bing Places listing. At bing.com/forbusiness. Import from Google Business Profile if you have one, then check categories, hours (holidays too), services and photos.
- Add your website to Bing Webmaster Tools. It’s free. If you use Google Search Console, you can import your site from there instead of verifying again.
- Submit a sitemap with honest dates. Bing fully supports sitemaps and says lastmod should be the real last change; it ignores changefreq and priority. Bing says sitemaps help “AI-powered experiences like Copilot.”
- Turn on IndexNow. It tells Bing (and Yandex, Naver, Seznam and others) the moment a page changes, so AI answers use the current version. Many SEO plugins, hosts and Shopify support it. It doesn’t notify Google.
- Don’t shut Bing out by accident. Allow bingbot in robots.txt and your firewall. There’s one bingbot for Bing search and Copilot, so blocking it removes you from both. Avoid the NOARCHIVE and NOCACHE tags on pages you want cited (see below).
- Write pages AI can quote. Bing’s own advice: clear sections, tables and question-and-answer blocks, claims backed by evidence, and content kept fresh. Put the facts (what, where, for whom, prices, hours) near the top.
- Check the AI Performance report every month. It shows how often Copilot and Bing’s AI answers cite your pages, and which searches they cite them for.
How to see if Copilot cites your website
Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report (public preview since 10 February 2026). It tracks citations in Microsoft Copilot, AI-written summaries on Bing and some partner services. It shows:
- Total citations and the average number of your pages cited
- A sample of the grounding queries: the searches Copilot ran when it cited you
- Citations per page, and how they change over time
- Since October 2026, a Topics Portfolio that groups those searches into topics and shows the questions where other sites are cited and yours isn’t
It doesn’t show who Copilot recommends instead of you for a question. For that, ask Copilot your customers’ questions yourself, or run a check that does it for you. How to run a manual check, step by step.
Which tags keep you out of Copilot?
Bing has controls for how much of a page its AI answers may use. They don’t remove the page from normal Bing results:
| Tag | In AI answers | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
NOARCHIVE | Not used or linked at all | You never want the page in AI answers |
NOCACHE | Only the address, title and snippet | Rarely: it makes the page much less useful to cite |
data-nosnippet | Marked parts aren’t shown | Hide one section (since October 2025) |
If a page has both NOARCHIVE and NOCACHE, Bing treats it as NOCACHE. For a local business that wants to be recommended, the usual answer is to use none of them on your service and contact pages.
Common myths about Copilot and Bing
- “ChatGPT is just Bing.” No. Bing is one confirmed source, but OpenAI has its own index and uses other providers too.
- “Bing doesn’t matter, it’s 4% of search.” Copilot answers entirely from Bing, and part of ChatGPT draws on it.
- “Schema markup guarantees Copilot citations.” Nothing guarantees them; Bing says so itself. Structured data helps machines read your facts. A copy-paste LocalBusiness schema guide.
- “IndexNow also tells Google.” Google doesn’t use IndexNow. Keep your sitemap in Google Search Console too.
- “Allowing GPTBot gets me into ChatGPT.” Wrong bot: ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot; GPTBot is for training. Which AI crawlers to allow.
Questions
Does Microsoft Copilot use Google?
No. Microsoft's documentation says Copilot sends its web searches to the Bing search service. Your Google rankings only help Copilot indirectly, through what other sites write about you.
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
Partly. ChatGPT search launched in 2024 using third-party providers such as Bing, and Microsoft says its Bing-based Web IQ service powers ChatGPT. OpenAI also runs its own crawler and index, and research in 2026 found other providers as well, including Google results, Yelp and Tripadvisor.
Is Bing Places free?
Yes. Listing your business on Bing Places for Business (bing.com/forbusiness) is free, and you can import your details from a verified Google Business Profile.
How do I know if Copilot cites my website?
Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools and open the AI Performance report. It shows how many times Copilot and Bing's AI answers cited your pages and the searches behind them. It doesn't show clicks.
Will blocking Bingbot remove me from Copilot?
Yes, in practice. There's one Bingbot for Bing search and Copilot, and Copilot answers from Bing, so a site Bing can't crawl can't be cited. To stay in Bing search but out of AI answers, use the NOARCHIVE tag instead.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn: Web search in Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat (updated Oct 2026)
- Microsoft Web IQ, “powers … Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT”
- Bing Webmaster blog: Introducing AI Performance (Feb 2026)
- Bing Webmaster blog: Topics Portfolio in AI Performance (Oct 2026)
- Bing Webmaster blog: Sitemaps in AI-powered search (Jul 2025)
- Bing Webmaster blog: Controls for content in Bing Chat (Sep 2023), NOCACHE and NOARCHIVE
- Bing Webmaster blog: data-nosnippet support (Oct 2025)
- Bing Search blog: The new Bing Places for Business (Oct 2025)
- IndexNow FAQ
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- StatCounter: Search engine market share (Oct 2026)
- Seer Interactive: ChatGPT citations and Bing’s top results (Feb 2025)
- Ahrefs: AI search overlap (Aug 2025)
- Peec AI: ChatGPT built its own search index (Sep 2026), vendor research, partly inferred
- stuckUP: AI Visibility Index, October 2026, our data on ChatGPT
Narek Nikoghosyan · Founder and CEO
Narek Nikoghosyan is the founder and CEO of stuckUP, the AI visibility checker for local businesses.