Google Search Console vs Bing Webmaster Tools: Which Should You Use? (Both)

If you only have time to set up one search engine's dashboard, conventional wisdom says pick Google Search Console and move on. Google handles the overwhelming majority of search traffic worldwide, so its data is where the action is. That advice isn't wrong, but it's incomplete, and it's getting more incomplete every year.

The reason is AI search. Bing doesn't just power Bing.com; it provides the web index and search results behind Microsoft Copilot, and it has long been part of the retrieval picture for ChatGPT's web browsing. As more people get answers from AI assistants instead of typing into a search box, the data Bing Webmaster Tools exposes about how your site is discovered and cited is becoming genuinely useful rather than a rounding error.

This guide compares Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) honestly. Both are free, both come straight from the engine that controls your visibility, and they overlap on the fundamentals while differing in ways that actually matter. The short version: use GSC as your primary tool, then add Bing for the extra keyword and backlink data it surfaces and for visibility into the AI-driven discovery that GSC simply can't show you.

What Google Search Console Is

Google Search Console is Google's free reporting and diagnostic platform for site owners. It tells you which queries brought people to your site from Google, how your pages rank, how Google crawls and indexes your content, and whether technical or structured-data issues are holding you back.

Because Google dominates search, GSC is the closest thing most sites have to ground truth about their organic performance. The Performance report shows clicks, impressions, average position, and click-through rate, sliced by query, page, country, device, and search appearance. The URL Inspection tool lets you check exactly how Google sees a specific page and request indexing. Coverage, Core Web Vitals, sitemaps, and manual-action reports round out the diagnostic side.

A few things make GSC indispensable. First, the data comes directly from Google, so there's no third-party estimation or modeling involved; you're seeing the engine's own record of how you appeared. Second, it's free with no usage caps on the reports themselves. Third, it integrates with other Google products and exports cleanly, which matters when you build dashboards or pull data into spreadsheets and BI tools. The main limitations are a 16-month data retention window, a row cap on what the interface displays, and the fact that GSC tells you what is happening but rarely why.

If you want a full orientation, our Google Search Console guide walks through every report, and our deep dive on the Search Console performance report covers how to read the metrics without drawing the wrong conclusions.

What Bing Webmaster Tools Is

Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's equivalent: a free dashboard for understanding how Bing crawls, indexes, and ranks your site. It mirrors a lot of GSC's core functionality (search performance, URL inspection, sitemap submission, robots testing) but bundles in several extras that Google keeps separate or doesn't offer at all.

The headline differences are a built-in keyword research tool, a site scan that audits on-page SEO issues, more generous backlink reporting, and support for IndexNow, an instant-indexing protocol. For a tool covering a smaller share of search, BWT is surprisingly feature-rich, and onboarding is fast because it can import your verified sites directly from GSC.

That import step is worth highlighting because it removes the usual friction of setting up a second platform. Instead of re-verifying ownership through DNS records or HTML tags, you sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools, choose to import from Google Search Console, and your properties carry over along with their verification. For most site owners, the entire setup is a few clicks, which undercuts the most common excuse for ignoring Bing: that it's extra work for marginal traffic.

Feature Comparison: GSC vs Bing Webmaster Tools

| Feature | Google Search Console | Bing Webmaster Tools | | --- | --- | --- | | Search/performance report | Yes, deep and granular | Yes, fewer dimensions | | Query & click data | Largest dataset (Google's share) | Smaller volume; reflects Bing/Copilot | | URL inspection | Yes (live test + indexed view) | Yes (URL inspection) | | Request indexing | Yes (manual, quota-limited) | Yes, plus IndexNow for instant submission | | IndexNow support | No | Yes (native) | | Built-in keyword research | No | Yes (Keyword Research tool) | | On-page SEO audit | No (only diagnostics) | Yes (Site Scan) | | Backlink data | Limited (top links, sampled) | More extensive backlink reports | | Core Web Vitals / page experience | Yes (field data via CrUX) | Limited | | Structured data / rich results | Yes (rich results reports) | Markup validator | | Crawl stats | Yes (Crawl Stats report) | Yes (Crawl information) | | AI search relevance | Indirect (Google AI features) | Powers Copilot; relevant to ChatGPT browsing | | Cost | Free | Free |

The table makes the pattern clear: GSC wins on depth, data volume, and page-experience signals, while Bing wins on bundled extras (keyword research, site audit, backlinks) and instant indexing. Neither is strictly better; they're optimized for different things.

The Data Difference That Matters Most

The single biggest reason to treat GSC as primary is sample size. Google's search market share means its Performance report reflects far more real queries and clicks than Bing's. When you're deciding which pages to optimize or which keywords are worth pursuing, GSC's data is statistically richer and more representative of total search demand.

Bing's data volume is smaller, sometimes dramatically so depending on your audience and geography. For many sites, Bing-sourced traffic is a single-digit percentage of organic visits. That's exactly why people skip it. But "smaller" is not the same as "useless," and the composition of Bing's data is changing in a way that makes it more valuable than the raw traffic number suggests.

It's also worth distinguishing GSC from analytics tools entirely. GSC reports on how you appear in search; it doesn't track on-site behavior. If you're untangling the two, our comparison of Google Search Console vs Google Analytics explains where each fits.

Why AI Search Makes Bing Data More Valuable Now

Here's the shift. Microsoft Copilot is built on Bing's index and ranking, and OpenAI's ChatGPT has used Bing as part of how it retrieves and grounds web answers. When an AI assistant pulls in a fact, summarizes a page, or cites a source, the underlying discovery often runs through Bing's infrastructure rather than Google's.

That means Bing Webmaster Tools gives you a window, however partial, into how your content surfaces in AI-assisted search. As users increasingly ask Copilot or ChatGPT instead of running a traditional search, the impressions and crawl activity Bing reports become a leading indicator for a channel that GSC doesn't cover. Google has its own AI features, but it does not expose AI-citation data the way you might hope, so Bing is currently the more transparent vantage point for this trend.

This doesn't mean Bing traffic will rival Google's any time soon. It means the strategic value of Bing data has decoupled from its click count. You're no longer just tracking a small search engine; you're tracking the index behind a fast-growing class of AI products.

A practical implication: the technical hygiene that helps you in Bing, clean crawlability, accurate sitemaps, fast indexing of fresh content, and clear on-page structure, is the same hygiene that helps AI systems retrieve and quote your pages accurately. Optimizing for Bing is no longer a niche activity for a small slice of desktop searchers; it increasingly overlaps with making your content legible to the assistants people are starting to ask first. Keeping Bing Webmaster Tools connected lets you watch crawl activity and impressions move in response to that work, even before any of it shows up as conventional clicks.

Features Bing Has That GSC Lacks

Built-in keyword research

GSC shows you the queries you already rank for, but it has no keyword research tool for discovering new opportunities. Bing Webmaster Tools includes one. It surfaces search volume trends and related terms directly inside the dashboard, which is genuinely useful for ideation when you don't have a paid subscription to a dedicated SEO suite. If you're weighing free options against paid platforms, our Google Search Console vs Semrush comparison is a good companion read.

Site Scan on-page audit

Bing's Site Scan crawls your site and flags on-page SEO issues such as missing titles, duplicate meta descriptions, broken links, and other common problems. GSC reports technical and indexing issues but doesn't run this kind of proactive on-page audit, so Site Scan fills a real gap for site owners who want a free crawler-style report.

More backlink data

Both tools show backlinks, but Bing is more forthcoming. GSC's Links report gives you top linking sites and pages, but it's sampled and conservative. Bing tends to expose a larger, more detailed view of inbound links, which makes it a handy free supplement when you're auditing your link profile and don't want to pay for a backlink tool.

How IndexNow Speeds Up Indexing

IndexNow is an open protocol, championed by Microsoft and adopted by Bing (and several other engines), that lets you ping participating search engines the moment you publish, update, or delete a URL. Instead of waiting for a crawler to rediscover the change on its own schedule, you push a notification and the engine prioritizes crawling that URL.

Bing Webmaster Tools supports IndexNow natively, and many CMS platforms and SEO plugins can submit IndexNow pings automatically. The practical benefit is faster indexing of new and changed content on IndexNow-participating engines. Google has not adopted IndexNow, so this is a Bing-side advantage rather than a universal one; for Google you still rely on sitemaps, normal crawling, and the quota-limited "Request indexing" button in GSC.

If your publishing cadence is high (news, frequently updated product pages, large content libraries), IndexNow is a low-effort win on the Bing side, and it costs you nothing to enable. It's especially valuable for time-sensitive content where the gap between publishing and getting crawled directly affects whether you capture early traffic. Setting it up usually means installing or enabling a plugin, or generating an API key and dropping a verification file on your server, after which submissions happen automatically whenever your CMS detects a change.

One honest caveat: faster crawling is not the same as better ranking. IndexNow gets your URL discovered sooner, but it doesn't guarantee the page will rank, and it won't rescue thin or low-quality content. Think of it as removing the discovery delay, not as a ranking lever.

Where GSC Stays Ahead

Bing's extras are nice, but don't let them distract from the fundamentals. GSC's Performance data is deeper and more representative, its Core Web Vitals and page-experience reporting (powered by real-world Chrome field data) has no real BWT equivalent, and its rich-results and structured-data reporting is more mature. For the search engine that drives most of your traffic, GSC remains the authoritative source.

GSC is also where your highest-leverage optimization decisions come from. Mining your own query and page data to find pages that rank on the edge of page one, then improving them, is the bread and butter of organic growth. Our walkthrough on how to use Google Search Console to improve SEO covers that workflow in detail.

There's also a credibility dimension. When you're explaining performance to a client or a stakeholder, GSC is the dataset they recognize and trust, because it reflects the engine that sends them most of their visitors. Bing's reports are a valuable complement, but they support the story rather than anchor it. Lead with GSC, and bring in Bing where it adds something Google can't, namely keyword ideas, backlink breadth, on-page audits, and early signals from AI-assisted discovery.

The Recommendation: Use Both

You don't have to choose. Both tools are free, and Bing can import your verified sites from Google, so adding it takes minutes.

Use Google Search Console as your primary tool. It's where the majority of your search visibility lives, where your richest query and page data sits, and where your page-experience signals come from. Build your reporting and your optimization process around it.

Add Bing Webmaster Tools as a free supplement for three things GSC doesn't give you: built-in keyword research for new content ideas, a more generous backlink view, and a Site Scan audit. On top of that, treat Bing's data as your best available proxy for AI-search visibility through Copilot and ChatGPT-style assistants, and enable IndexNow so new content gets discovered faster on participating engines.

The cost of running both is negligible; the upside is a more complete picture of how you're discovered across both traditional and AI-driven search. For a wider survey of the ecosystem, see our roundup of the best Google Search Console tools for 2026.

Turn your GSC data into content briefs

Whichever dashboards you run, the data only helps if you act on it. Search Console Tools is free, connects securely with Google OAuth, and turns your Google Search Console performance data into prioritized content briefs, so you spend less time exporting spreadsheets and more time shipping the optimizations that move rankings. Try it free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Search Console better than Bing Webmaster Tools?

For most sites, Google Search Console is the more important tool because Google drives the majority of search traffic, so its data is larger and more representative. Bing Webmaster Tools is not "worse" so much as different; it offers extras GSC lacks, like built-in keyword research and broader backlink data. The best approach is to use GSC as your primary tool and Bing as a free supplement.

Should I use both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools?

Yes, for almost every site. Both are completely free, and Bing can import your verified properties from Google, so setup takes only a few minutes. Running both gives you GSC's deep, high-volume data plus Bing's keyword research, backlink reports, Site Scan, and a view into AI-driven discovery you can't get from Google.

Does Bing Webmaster Tools show AI search data?

Not as a labeled "AI search" report, but Bing powers Microsoft Copilot and has been part of how ChatGPT retrieves web results, so Bing's crawl and impression data is currently the most transparent proxy for how your content surfaces in AI assistants. Google does not expose comparable AI-citation data, which is a growing reason to keep Bing connected even if its direct traffic is small.

What is IndexNow and does Google support it?

IndexNow is an open protocol that lets you instantly notify participating search engines when you publish, update, or delete a URL, so they can crawl the change sooner instead of waiting to rediscover it. Bing supports IndexNow natively, and many CMSs and SEO plugins can submit pings automatically. Google has not adopted IndexNow, so for Google you still rely on sitemaps, normal crawling, and the Request Indexing button in Search Console.

Does Bing Webmaster Tools have a keyword research tool?

Yes. Bing Webmaster Tools includes a built-in Keyword Research tool that surfaces search volume trends and related terms directly in the dashboard. Google Search Console has no equivalent; it only shows queries you already rank for, which makes Bing's tool a useful free option for discovering new content ideas.

Is Bing traffic worth optimizing for if it's only a small percentage of visits?

It depends on your audience, but the value of Bing data is no longer just its click count. Because Bing's index sits behind Copilot and contributes to AI assistants like ChatGPT, optimizing for Bing increasingly means optimizing for AI-driven discovery. Combined with the free keyword and backlink data, that makes Bing worth connecting even when its direct traffic share is modest.