Jina AI Search vs Bing Search API for AI agents
Jina AI Search is a search endpoint (s.jina.ai) that searches the web and returns the top results converted to clean, LLM-friendly text. Microsoft's Bing Search APIs were retired on August 11, 2025 and are no longer available.
The short answer
- Jina AI Search: Getting search results already converted to clean full-page text in one call.
- Bing Search API: Nothing for new projects: it is retired; Microsoft points customers to Grounding with Bing Search inside Azure AI Agents.
Side by side
| Jina AI Search | Bing Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | The web (the provider does not name the search engine behind it). | – |
| Returns | The top five results with URL and page content as LLM-friendly text; Markdown, HTML, JSON or text formats. | – |
| Before the first call | An API key: search is blocked without one. | – |
| Free | 10 million free tokens with every new API key; each search costs a fixed amount starting at 10,000 tokens (so roughly 1,000 searches at most). | – |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | – |
| AI in its terms | Jina says it does not use customer request data, inputs or prompts to train its models; outputs may not be used to build competing services. | – |
| MCP server | Official MCP server: mcp.jina.ai (code: https://github.com/jina-ai/MCP) | – |
Where Openpath fits
Both return web results. When the person wants a job to apply for or a local business to reach, Openpath returns listings to act on instead, free and with no key. See Openpath vs Jina AI Search and Openpath vs Bing Search API.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Jina AI Search?
An API key: search is blocked without one.
Is Jina AI Search free?
10 million free tokens with every new API key; each search costs a fixed amount starting at 10,000 tokens (so roughly 1,000 searches at most).
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Jina AI Search, read on October 15, 2026:
- jina.ai/reader: “Every new API key comes with 10M free tokens!”
- jina.ai/reader: “Every request costs a fixed number of tokens, starting from 10,000 tokens”
- jina.ai/reader: “return the top five results with their URLs and contents, each in clean, LLM-friendly text”
- jina.ai/reader: “s.jina.ai rate limit: w/o API Key: Blocked; w/ Free API Key: 100 RPM (table)”
- jina.ai/reader: “Add mcp.jina.ai as your MCP server to use our APIs in LLMs.”
- jina.ai/legal: “Jina AI does not use Customer request data, inputs, prompts, or uploaded content to train its models,”
- jina.ai/legal: “use any Output from the Services to develop applications or services that compete with the Services offered by Jina AI”
Bing Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement: “Bing Search APIs will be retired on August 11, 2025.”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement: “the product will no longer be available to be used or new customer signup.”
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement: “Customers are encouraged to migrate to Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents.”