# GitHub Copilot: Bing Web Search and Site Access

> GitHub Copilot Chat uses Bing or model web search. GitHub documents no Copilot crawler or user agent. What site owners can control.

GitHub Copilot is the AI coding assistant from GitHub. Copilot Chat can answer with Bing web search results, and some models on github.com use their own web search. GitHub documents no Copilot crawler, user agent or robots.txt token, so the controls that apply are those of the search engine behind each answer.

## Bing search in Copilot Chat

GitHub explains web search in its [responsible use article for Copilot Chat in the IDE](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/responsible-use/chat-in-your-ide). Copilot Chat can use a Bing search to help answer a question. Copilot uses the prompt and more context to make a Bing search query for the user. Microsoft's privacy statement covers that query.

An enterprise administrator can turn Bing search on or off for an organization. Bing builds its index with [Bingbot](/ai-crawler-bot/bingbot/), so your pages appear in these answers only if Bing has them.

## Model search on github.com

On February 25, 2026, GitHub announced [improved web search in Copilot on github.com](https://github.blog/changelog/2026-02-25-improved-web-search-in-copilot-on-github-com). These models now use their own native web search:

- GPT-5.1
- GPT-5.1-Codex
- GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini (public preview)
- GPT-5.1-Codex-Max
- GPT-5.2-Codex

Other models continue to use Bing. Organizations turn this on with the "Opt in to preview features" setting. Users can turn it off with the setting "Copilot can search the web using model native search". The changelog does not say which crawler or index the native search uses.

## Page fetches from the editor and the cloud agent

In VS Code, the Copilot chat agent has a `#web/fetch` tool that fetches a web page. The [VS Code tools reference](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents/reference/tools-reference) lists it under tools that access the web. It does not give a user agent for these requests.

Copilot cloud agent works in a temporary cloud development environment, not in the IDE of the user. According to the [firewall article](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/coding-agent/customize-the-agent-firewall), a firewall limits its internet access by default. A recommended allowlist lets the agent download dependencies, for example from package registries. Organization owners can change these settings, and repository admins can change them when the organization allows it.

## Allow or block Copilot

GitHub publishes no user agent string, IP list or robots.txt token for Copilot web access. So no documented rule targets Copilot alone.

For answers from Bing search, the controls of Bing apply. The [Bingbot guide](/ai-crawler-bot/bingbot/) explains them.

For page fetches from an editor or an agent, GitHub gives no way to identify the requests. If you see unwanted traffic, block it in your web server or firewall. Use the user agent and the IP addresses that your logs show.

GitHub says that Copilot Chat can give links to the context that the model used, such as source code files, issues or documentation. It does not describe a separate citation format for web results.

---

[View the canonical page](https://aichatwatch.com/ai-chat-bot/github-copilot/) · [Browse llms.txt](https://aichatwatch.com/llms.txt)