# Microsoft Copilot: Chat, Bing Search and Citations > Microsoft Copilot answers web questions with Bing results and cites pages. How to get cited, opt out with noarchive or nocache, and track citations. Microsoft Copilot answers many questions with results from the Bing search service and links to the pages it used. Microsoft does not document a separate crawler for Copilot. If you want Copilot to cite your site, make sure that Bing can crawl and index it. If you want to keep a page out of Copilot answers, use the Bing `noarchive` or `nocache` robots meta tags. ## How Copilot finds web pages The [Copilot transparency note](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/microsoft-copilot/transparency-note) says that Copilot decides for each request if it needs data from the web. For information questions, Copilot grounds its answer in web search results. Grounding means that the model bases its answer on pages it retrieved. Copilot then writes a summary from the top results. Microsoft gives more detail for the work versions. [Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/manage-public-web-access) says that Copilot and Copilot Chat turn the prompt into a short search query and send it to the Bing search service. The query has a few words, not the full prompt. Copilot then uses the Bing results to write the response. The same page says that Microsoft 365 Copilot is now named Microsoft Copilot. Copilot gets its web results from Bing. A page that is not in the Bing index cannot appear in those results. Bingbot builds the Bing index. The [Bingbot guide](/ai-crawler-bot/bingbot/) lists its user agents and how to identify real Bingbot requests. ## How Copilot shows sources When an answer uses web data, Copilot lists hyperlinked citations below the text. In voice mode, the citations appear in the conversation transcript. In Copilot Chat for work, the citation section also shows the exact queries that Copilot sent to Bing. These queries stay visible in the chat for 24 hours. The Copilot pane in Word or PowerPoint does not show them. ## The Copilot chatbot, formerly Bing Chat Microsoft renamed Bing Chat to Copilot on November 15, 2023 ([Bing blog](https://blogs.bing.com/search/november-2023/our-vision-to-bring-microsoft-copilot-to-everyone-and-more)). Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is now named Microsoft Copilot Chat. Web search in the chat is optional. In work accounts, an admin can turn it off with the "Allow web search in Copilot" policy. A user can also turn off the Web content toggle ([Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/manage-public-web-access)). Copilot Chat in Microsoft Edge can also summarize the page that the user has open. In that case, Copilot uses the text of the open page and sends no search query ([Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/privacy-and-protections)). ## Get cited in Copilot answers 1. Make sure that your robots.txt file does not block Bingbot. 2. Add your site to [Bing Webmaster Tools](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/) and prove that you own it. 3. Submit your sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools. 4. Do not add `noarchive` or `nocache` to pages that you want Copilot to cite. In February 2026, Bing rewrote its [Webmaster Guidelines](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a) to cover Copilot and grounding results, not only Bing search ([Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/bing-adds-geo-to-official-guidelines-expands-ai-abuse-definitions/568442/)). The guidelines also say that this work does not guarantee citations. ## Keep pages out of Copilot answers Bing supports two robots meta tags for this. The [Bing robots meta tags reference](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/robots-meta-tags-and-attributes-that-bing-supports-5198d240) describes them: | Tag | Effect in Copilot | Effect on AI training | |---|---|---| | `noarchive` | Copilot does not link to the page. | Microsoft does not use the content to train its generative AI foundation models. | | `nocache` | Copilot shows only the URL, title and snippet. | Microsoft uses only the URL, title and snippet. | If a page has both tags, Bing applies `nocache`. Pages with either tag still appear in Bing search results ([Bing blog, September 2023](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/september-2023/Announcing-new-options-for-webmasters-to-control-usage-of-their-content-in-Bing-Chat)). Add the tag to the ` ` of the page: ```html ``` For PDF files and other files that are not HTML, send the same value in an HTTP header: ``` X-Robots-Tag: noarchive ``` A `Disallow` rule for Bingbot in robots.txt stops Bing from crawling the page for Bing search too. If you want to remove a page that Bing or Copilot already shows, follow the [Bing removal guide](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/how-to-permanently-remove-a-url-or-page-from-bing-or-copilot-37c07477). ## Track Copilot citations In February 2026, Bing added an AI Performance report to Bing Webmaster Tools as a public preview ([Bing Webmaster blog](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/February-2026/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview)). It shows how often pages from your site are cited in Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and some partner integrations. Bing says that the data is a sample of all citation activity, and the report has no click data. In June 2026, Bing added intents, topics, citation share and a compare view ([Bing blog](https://blogs.bing.com/search/June-2026/New-AI-Visibility-Insights-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Intents-Topics-Citation-Share-Compare)). --- [View the canonical page](https://aichatwatch.com/ai-search-engine/microsoft-copilot/) ยท [Browse llms.txt](https://aichatwatch.com/llms.txt)