Marketers love to say “no one uses Bing.” And in the old world of SEO, they were probably right – for most brands, Google was the only search engine to think about. After all, Google has consistently had about a 90% share of the search engine market, whilst Bing has had less than 4%.
But if you care about visibility in ChatGPT, especially GPT-4o and later models with browsing enabled – you’re going to want to pay attention to Bing. There’s lots of evidence showing AI tools rising in usage and potentially overtaking Google.
Why is Bing important for being more visible in ChatGPT? Because when ChatGPT doesn’t know something: it asks Bing.
The OpenAI, Microsoft, Bing Partnership
Microsoft has invested around $13 billion in OpenAI. In return, OpenAI’s technology now powers Microsoft’s Copilot experiences across Bing, Edge, Windows, and Office. But the partnership works both ways and one of the most important consequences is that when ChatGPT browses the web, it does it through Bing.
- ChatGPT’s web browsing plugin is powered by Bing’s API
- Bing’s index is what’s used when ChatGPT browses the web
- Microsoft’s infrastructure underpins OpenAI’s deployment at scale
- Bing and Edge are increasingly integrated into how and where GPT-4o retrieves real time data
What triggers ChatGPT to do a web search?
ChatGPT doesn’t always search the web, sometimes instead relying on its own knowledge acquired through its training data, but here are common scenarios where it does:
- Questions about recent updates or that rely on new information
- “Best tools for X” where the model is uncertain
- Certain pricing, availability, or comparison requests
- Some region specific queries
- Niche or lesser known areas where training data is sparse
It is also possible for users to explicitly request ChatGPT to do a web search, which they may want to do if they want ChatGPT to look beyond its own training data in order to give a better answer.
In these cases, ChatGPT uses Bing’s index to fetch results – and so if you’re not indexed in Bing, you’re not making it into the answer.
Bing is a hidden GEO lever
Bing’s search index and ranking algorithms are leveraged to ground ChatGPT’s responses and provide citations, enhancing the reliability and transparency of the information provided.
So Bing’s index is now the backbone of ChatGPT’s real time search. From product data to pricing, news to reviews, Bing gives ChatGPT access to a broad and constantly updated slice of the web. While it’s long been seen as Google’s second act, the OpenAI–Microsoft partnership has pushed Bing back into strategic relevance, especially for brands that want to be visible inside generative answers.
What kind of prompts might trigger a ChatGPT web search?
Whilst B2B software brands may not be as worried about real time information as other types of product or service provider, there are certain prompts relating to the B2B buyer journey that may leverage a Bing search.
Recent Information
For example ChatGPT’s training data has a cut off. So if the prompt asks about anything updated recently, it’ll often go to the web.
Examples:
- “What are the newest features in HubSpot’s Service Hub as of Q2 2025?”
- “Did Salesforce just announce new AI functionality for Slack integration?”
- “Latest comparison between Gong and Chorus for 2025?”
Comparisons
Another example is product comparisons, especially less mainstream or niche areas.
Examples:
- “What’s the difference between Mutiny and Intellimize for website personalisation?”
- “Compare ContractPodAi vs Malbek vs LinkSquares for CLM features and integrations.”
- “How does Paddle stack up against Stripe for SaaS billing in Europe?”
Reviews & case studies
When a prompt calls for third party opinion, LLMs often browse forums, review sites, and user-generated content. Some of this information might be in the LLMs training data already, but some prompts might trigger a web search.
Examples:
- “What do G2 reviews say about Chili Piper’s onboarding experience?”
- “Are there any customer case studies for using Apollo.io with HubSpot?”
- “What are the pros and cons of using Notion as a company knowledge base?”
Pricing, Licensing, and Packaging
LLMs typically do not retain accurate or up-to-date pricing info in training data, so often they’ll try to fetch it live.
Examples:
- “What’s the latest pricing model for Contentful in 2025?”
- “Is WorkRamp priced per seat or per module?”
- “How much does an enterprise plan for Heap Analytics cost?”
Regional or Industry-Specific Queries
If the user adds context like geography or industry niche, ChatGPT may need to pull in more specific info.
Examples:
- “Best CRM platforms for government contractors in the UK”
- “CLM tools suitable for fintech companies with data residency in Europe”
- “Local implementation partners for NetSuite in Dubai”
Security, Compliance & Technical Specs
When users ask detailed technical or compliance related questions, ChatGPT may decide to try and find the most current documentation.
Examples:
- “Is AirTable SOC 2 compliant in 2025?”
- “What kind of role-based access controls does Amplitude support?”
- “Does Klaviyo store data in AWS or GCP?”
Event-Driven Prompts
These might relate to product launches, announcements, or market changes.
Examples:
- “Which B2B software vendors announced funding rounds in June 2025?”
- “Was Vanta featured in the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant?”
- “Who’s sponsoring SaaStr 2025?”
What can you do to ensure visibility in Bing?
There are a number of steps you can take to think about your website’s relationship with Bing, including first and foremost, making sure you submit your site to Bing Webmaster Tools.
Doing so will allow you to build a full picture of how Bing currently understands and indexes your content, and along with prompt visibility analytics enables you to start planning the steps to make sure Bing has the best chance possible to index your content. And most importantly, increase your chances of being included in an answer by ChatGPT.