Microsoft to let publishers block AI training without leaving Bing’s AI answers

The new preferences preserve traditional Bing rankings, but blocking use in AI answers may reduce AI visibility. Microsoft is scheduled to begin honoring them in February 2027.

By Superpower Daily Editorial DeskPublished Oct 30, 2026, 10:25 AM PDT2 min read

Microsoft to let publishers block AI training without leaving Bing’s AI answers

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Microsoft will let publishers block its AI models from training on their articles without automatically removing those articles from Bing’s AI answers. The key change is that Microsoft is separating two uses of web content: training a model, and grounding an answer—using a page to help generate a response. Publishers can choose to allow or block each one independently. They can also allow grounding for Microsoft’s own products, such as Copilot, while refusing it for third-party services. That creates a meaningful distinction. Blocking training does not, by itself, remove a publisher’s work from AI answers. But blocking grounding may reduce how often that work appears in AI experiences. Microsoft says these choices won’t affect a site’s traditional Bing search rankings, though that promise doesn’t extend to visibility in AI-generated answers. The settings will work through robots.txt, with more detailed training controls available for individual pages. Publishers already using the older NoArchive or NoCache directives will need to configure the new preferences to keep their restrictions in place. Microsoft is scheduled to begin honoring the preferences in February 2027; those publishers have until March 1, 2027, to make the change. The practical question is whether publishers will separate permission to train from permission to appear in answers—or block both, despite the potential visibility cost.

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3 key points

Microsoft’s new controls let publishers make separate choices about model training and answer grounding, with a third setting allowing grounding for Microsoft products but not third-party services. Publishers can restrict training without automatically losing citations in Bing AI answers; opting out of grounding, however, may reduce visibility in AI experiences. Microsoft says traditional Bing rankings are unaffected, and it is scheduled to honor the preferences starting in February 2027.

01
Publishers using NoArchive or NoCache must configure the new preferences by March 1, 2027, to maintain their restrictions.
02
Training preferences will be available through robots.txt and at the individual-page level, while grounding has a separate preference.
03
Temporary grounding controls are scheduled for eligible sites in Bing Webmaster Tools and will later expire.

Publishers will be able to keep their articles available for AI answers while refusing permission to use them for model training. Microsoft announced new Bing content preferences that separate those choices, with enforcement scheduled to begin in February 2027. The company says publishers will remain eligible for traditional Bing search results regardless of their AI preferences.

Three choices, not one AI opt-out

As Search Engine Roundtable reported, the announcement distinguishes training an AI model from using website content to help generate an answer. Microsoft calls the second use grounding. Site owners will have three options:

AI training: Allow or prevent content from being used to train AI models.
AI grounding: Allow or prevent content from being used to help generate AI answers.
Limited grounding: Permit content to support Microsoft’s own AI products, but exclude its third-party grounding services.

A publisher could, for example, block Microsoft from training models on its articles while still allowing Copilot to cite them.

Search rankings stay separate from AI visibility

Blocking grounding carries a different consequence. Microsoft says opting out may reduce a site’s visibility in AI experiences, while traditional Bing rankings are unaffected. That assurance covers conventional search placement, not continued visibility in AI-generated responses.

Microsoft describes the implementation as a shared AI-training preference in robots.txt, alongside more detailed training preferences at the individual-page level. Grounding gets its own separate preference. Publishers using the older NoArchive or NoCache directives face a transition schedule to maintain their restrictions.

For publishers assessing their AI presence, Bing Webmaster Tools already offers AI Performance reporting. It shows citations, cited URLs and grounding queries across supported AI experiences—a view of where content supports answers, separate from the new permissions governing its use.

Sources

seroundtable.comMicrosoft Bing Separates AI Training From AI Search Grounding With New Controls

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Microsoft to let publishers block AI training without leaving Bing’s AI answers

The audio brief

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Three choices, not one AI opt-out

Search rankings stay separate from AI visibility

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