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Microsoft’s 2023 Bing story combined two unrelated mechanisms: a reported increase in Bing API licensing prices for developers, and a ring-based deployment option for Bing Chat Enterprise administrators. The lowest Bing API tier reported in May 2023 was $25 per 1,000 transactions, but that is a historical figure—not verified 2026 pricing.
Two different meanings of “push rings”
The price change affected organizations that license Bing data and search capabilities through APIs. Deployment rings affected how an employer enabled Bing Chat Enterprise for its own staff. One is a developer-commercial issue; the other is an IT rollout control.
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| Issue | Who it affected | Purpose | What the 2023 sources establish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bing API price increase | Developers and search providers using Microsoft’s APIs | License search-related data and features | Computer Weekly reported a limited free tier and an S1 rate of $25 per 1,000 transactions in May 2023. |
| Ring-based deployment | Microsoft 365 and Bing Chat Enterprise administrators | Release a feature to a smaller user group before wider enablement | Microsoft said administrators requested staged deployment so they could collect feedback. |
What changed in Bing API pricing in May 2023?
Computer Weekly reported on May 5, 2023 that Microsoft’s Bing API products had a limited free tier and that the S1 tier started at $25 per 1,000 transactions. The report listed search, images, news, videos, visual search, entity search, spell check and autosuggest APIs. S1 was described as the lowest-priced paid tier in that report.
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Why developers paid attention
API customers often build search products, browsers and research tools around a provider’s response format, limits and commercial terms. A large unit-price change can therefore affect operating costs and the feasibility of continuing a service, even when the underlying search index is unchanged.
Computer Weekly quoted Mojeek CEO Colin Hayhurst saying: “By increasing the API prices to such a degree, Microsoft has decided to pick a fight with Google through changing the form of their search duopoly,” he said. That is Mojeek’s interpretation, not Microsoft’s explanation.
The report also quoted a Brave statement: “We feared for the continuity of the Bing service, which turned out to be a prescient concern, as Microsoft recently announced an unprecedented increase in its API pricing,” it stated. This records Brave’s concern about continuity and supplier dependence; it does not establish Microsoft’s motive or present-day service status.
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How should a developer interpret the $25 figure?
- Unit: $25 for 1,000 transactions, or five cents per transaction at that tier if every request is counted equally.
- Date: The figure comes from Computer Weekly’s May 5, 2023 reporting.
- Scope: It was associated with Microsoft’s S1 Bing API tier and the listed search-related products.
- Limits: The report also mentioned a limited free tier, but the available material does not establish its quota, overage rules, regional applicability or contract terms.
- Currency: No current 2026 price or availability has been verified here, so do not use $25 as a procurement quote.
What are deployment rings for Bing Chat Enterprise?
A deployment ring is a controlled release group. Instead of enabling a new capability for every employee at once, an administrator assigns it to a subset, observes feedback and operational issues, then expands the rollout.
Microsoft described the reason for adding the control this way: “As organizations adopted Bing Chat Enterprise, we received feedback that admins wanted the option for ring-based deployment, a common IT practice that enables you to deploy features to a smaller subset of users and get feedback.”
Ring-based deployment versus tenant-wide enablement
| Approach | Blast radius | Administrator control | Feedback cycle | Rollout time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ring-based | Limited initially | Choose a pilot subset before expansion | Direct feedback from early users | Longer, because stages are evaluated |
| Tenant-wide | All eligible users at once | Less opportunity to isolate issues | Feedback arrives from the whole organization | Faster enablement, with greater exposure to problems |
The ring mechanism concerns access management and change control. It does not explain, determine or justify the Bing API licensing price.
How Bing Chat Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Copilot were packaged in 2023
In Microsoft’s July 18, 2023 announcement, Bing Chat Enterprise was described as work-focused AI chat with commercial data protection. Microsoft said chat data was not saved and was not used to train models; those are Microsoft’s announcement claims, not an independent audit conclusion.
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|---|---|---|
| Bing Chat Enterprise | Included during preview at no additional cost for customers with Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard or Business Premium | Microsoft announced a planned standalone price of $5 per user per month. |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | $30 per user per month when broadly available for specified Microsoft 365 plans | This was the 2023 announcement price and eligibility scope, not confirmation of current terms. |
Microsoft said more than 160 million people already had access through the Bing Chat Enterprise preview at announcement time. That is an access figure, not a count of paying customers or proof of active use. The same post cited a Work Trend Index result that 70 percent said they would delegate as much work as possible to AI; this is a Microsoft-reported survey statistic, not an independent adoption measurement.
Why the product name can be confusing
Microsoft’s post states that, as of November 15, 2023, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise became Microsoft Copilot. Contemporary reports may therefore use “Bing Chat Enterprise” for the 2023 product while current Microsoft material uses “Copilot.” The naming change does not turn the historical API price into a current Copilot or Bing API price.
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What is known—and not known—about current Bing API pricing?
The documented evidence establishes the May 2023 S1 report only. It does not establish a 2026 rate card, whether the named API products remain available, current free quotas, regional pricing, transaction definitions, service-level commitments or restrictions on using results to train AI systems.
Before budgeting a production integration, obtain a current Microsoft commercial quote and documentation for the exact API, region, volume, authentication method and permitted use. Treat any page that repeats $25 per 1,000 transactions without a May 2023 date as potentially misleading.
What the price episode means for choosing a search-data provider
The 2023 reaction highlights the questions an API buyer should resolve with every provider:
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- What is the current unit price, and how are transactions counted?
- Which search, news, image, video, entity, spelling and suggestion features are actually included?
- What notice period and continuity commitments apply if prices, quotas or endpoints change?
- What data rights and contractual restrictions govern storage, display, redistribution and AI training?
- Are regional availability, rate limits and support terms suitable for the intended workload?
The reported concerns from Mojeek and Brave show why continuity and predictable terms matter, but they do not supply current alternatives’ prices or contractual guarantees.
Bottom line
“Bing AI push rings in price change” describes two stories that should not be conflated. In May 2023, Computer Weekly reported Bing API S1 pricing of $25 per 1,000 transactions, prompting concerns from other search companies. Separately, Microsoft added ring-based deployment so organizations could pilot Bing Chat Enterprise with a subset of users. Microsoft later renamed Bing Chat Enterprise as Microsoft Copilot. None of these historical announcements verifies what Bing APIs cost or which products are available in 2026.
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