Bingbot
Microsoft •
Since 2009
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Bingbot?
Bingbot is Microsoft's web crawler that powers Bing search engine, the second-largest search engine globally. Like Googlebot, Bingbot discovers and indexes web content, but it operates independently with its own crawling algorithms and ranking systems. The bot respects robots.txt, supports the same directives as other major crawlers, and can be verified through reverse DNS lookups to bing.com. Bingbot has evolved to support JavaScript rendering and modern web technologies. With Bing powering various Microsoft services including Cortana and Microsoft 365 search features, Bingbot's importance extends beyond just web search. The crawler also feeds data to Microsoft's AI initiatives and helps power Bing Chat (now Microsoft Copilot).
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm)
How to Control Bingbot
Block Completely
To prevent Bingbot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Bingbot
User-agent: bingbot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: bingbot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: bingbot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Bingbot
Verification Method:
Reverse DNS lookup to search.msn.com
Reverse DNS lookup to search.msn.com
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Bingbot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Bingbot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; bingbot/2\.0; \+http\://www\.bing\.com/bingbot\.htm\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Bingbot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Microsoft.*Bingbot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Bingbot
function detect_bingbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Bingbot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Bingbot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Bingbot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_bingbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Bingbot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class BingbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Bingbot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Bingbot
function detectBingbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Bingbot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Bingbot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Bingbot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectBingbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Bingbot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Bingbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Bingbot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Bingbot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Bingbot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Bingbot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_bingbot {
default 0;
~*Bingbot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_bingbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_bingbot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_bingbot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: bingbot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: bingbot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: bingbot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Bingbot
Robots.txt Name
bingbot
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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