Microsoft splits Bing AI controls into training and grounding settings
Microsoft has introduced separate Bing controls that let site owners decide independently whether their content trains AI models and whether it is used to generate AI answers. The settings replace the older, blunter directives with three choices: allow or block AI training, allow or block AI grounding, and a limited grounding option that permits use in Microsoft's own AI products but not in third-party grounding services.
The split means a publisher can refuse model training while still letting Copilot cite its articles, or block AI answers entirely at the cost of visibility in those experiences. Traditional Bing rankings are not affected by either setting.
The rollout runs on a fixed timetable. Temporary grounding controls arrive in Bing Webmaster Tools on 15 December 2026 for eligible sites still using NoArchive or NoCache. Microsoft starts honouring the new preferences as it crawls from 1 February 2027, and publishers relying on the old directives have until 1 March 2027 to configure the new ones if they want their restrictions to hold. The temporary grounding preferences expire on 30 September 2027.
Microsoft is also adopting the shared AI training preference in robots.txt used by other major AI companies, and adds page-level training controls on top of it. Bing Webmaster Tools already reports citations, cited URLs and grounding queries across supported AI experiences, so the new settings give brands a way to stay citable while opting out of training.
Reported by Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Topics: Copilot, Citations, Search policy