# Web search for your agents with Microsoft Web IQ - URL: https://baeke.info/2026/11/07/web-search-for-your-agents-with-microsoft-web-iq/ - Author: Geert Baeke - Published: November 7, 2026 - Topics: ai, azure, web-iq, mcp, search, agents I wasn't keen on Microsoft retiring the Bing Search APIs. We used them to ground our agents in current information from the web, and they worked from any code you liked. What replaced them in Foundry, Grounding with Bing and the web search tool in Foundry Agent Service, never felt right to me. Both are tied to Foundry agents, and that leaves little room when your agent runs somewhere else or on another framework. Microsoft Web IQ looks like it will make a real difference here. It's a standalone API that you call from any stack, with any model. It has a lot of options, and it's super fast. To try it out, I built [Web IQ Explorer](https://github.com/gbaeke/webiq-explorer), a small local app with a page for each endpoint and an assistant that uses Web IQ through its MCP server. Here's the explorer after a web search. Above the results you see the call's latency (318 ms), its cost and the `traceId`: ![The Web search page of Web IQ Explorer. On the left a form with the query "Azure Container Apps dynamic sessions" and options for max results, language, region, location, content format, maximum length and SafeSearch. On the right ten results with titles, URLs, dates and grounding passages, and above them HTTP 200, a latency of 318 milliseconds and a cost of 0.7 cents.](https://baeke.info/_astro/explorer-web.3xQA1aEI_Z1DUgnX.webp) ## What is Web IQ? [Web IQ](https://learn.microsoft.com/web-iq/overview) is a set of web search and grounding APIs for language models and agents. It returns ranked content that is ready to cite, and your own model writes the answer from it. Web IQ itself contains no language model. According to Microsoft, the same platform powers Copilot and ChatGPT. You call it at `https://api.microsoft.ai/v3` with a POST request. Authentication uses an API key in the `x-apikey` header, or a Microsoft Entra token (client credentials, scope `https://api.microsoft.ai/.default`) for production. These are the endpoints: - `/search/web` returns ranked pages, up to 50 of them. You can use `site:` and `-site:` in the query and set language, region, location and SafeSearch. - `/search/news` returns up to 20 articles with publisher, thumbnail and dates. - `/search/images` has filters for aspect ratio, color, size, pixel bounds and watermark-free images. - `/search/videos` returns AI summaries, "moments" (chapters), view counts, embedding info and playlists, with filters for freshness, duration and resolution. - `/browse` returns the content of one URL. With `liveCrawl: "fallback"` it also crawls pages that aren't in the index yet. While that crawl runs, it answers 202 with a `retryAfter`, and crawl failures come back with detailed error codes. - `/auto` (beta) returns typed "evidence" (text, image, video, weather, time zone) with citations. Microsoft enables it per AppID on request; until then it answers 403. A web search with curl looks like this: ```bash curl -X POST "https://api.microsoft.ai/v3/search/web" \ -H "x-apikey: $WEBIQ_API_KEY" \ -H "content-type: application/json" \ -d '{ "query": "Azure Container Apps dynamic sessions", "maxResults": 10, "language": "en", "region": "US", "contentFormat": "passage", "maxLength": 3000 }' ``` `contentFormat: "passage"` is the default. Each result then carries passages: the parts of the page that best match your query, up to `maxLength` characters. Microsoft recommends passages for grounding, and they keep the number of tokens you send to your model down. Sometimes you want a whole page, for example to summarize it. For that you can set `contentFormat` to `text`, `html` or `markdown` and get up to 500,000 characters per page. Microsoft calls this "full document access", and you have to ask for it with a [support request](https://aka.ms/webiq-support-form). Without it, those formats return a 403 and passages stop at 3,000 characters per result. The [content formats page](https://learn.microsoft.com/web-iq/concepts/content-formats) has the details. When something goes wrong, every endpoint returns an error with the same shape: `errorCode`, `errorCategory`, `userMessage`, `retryAfter` and `traceId`. The default rate limit is 15 queries per second per AppID, shared by all its API keys. Above it you get a 429. If you need more, you can ask Microsoft for a higher limit with a [support request](https://aka.ms/webiq-support-form). ### Is it fast? Yes, very. Of all the grounding options I've tried, Web IQ is the fastest by a wide margin. From Belgium, through the local proxy in my app, web, news, images and videos answered in 160 to 430 ms, and a browse of an indexed page took about 250 ms. Search results come back before you've had time to look away from the screen. 😎 That matches what Microsoft claims. Their [benchmark](https://learn.microsoft.com/web-iq/concepts/benchmarks) puts the P95 latency at 164 ms, about 2.5 times faster than the next service, with the highest "grounding satisfaction" and the fewest tokens. Speed matters for agents in particular: an agent often makes several search calls before it answers, and each call adds to the time your user waits. ### What does it cost? Since 16 October 2026 these [prices](https://learn.microsoft.com/web-iq/resources/pricing) apply: - web, news, images and videos: $7 per 1,000 calls - browse: $1 per 1,000 calls - auto: free while it's in beta ⚠️ **Important:** Web IQ needs a paid Azure subscription. Azure credits don't work, so your MSDN or sponsorship subscription is out. ### Terms worth knowing The [Web IQ Terms of Use](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/webiq/webiq-legal) set a few rules that affect how you build your app: - Show citations next to the answer. - Show at most 200 characters from one source. - Don't cache or store results. The exceptions are a user's own chat history and your internal work product. - Don't use image and video files themselves for grounding. Their metadata is fine. ## What does the MCP server do? Web IQ also has an [MCP server](https://learn.microsoft.com/web-iq/integrations/mcp) at `https://api.microsoft.ai/v3/mcp`. It uses Streamable HTTP and the same `x-apikey` header. The server is stateless, so there is no session id to keep track of. Its tools are `web`, `news`, `images`, `videos` and `browse`, and they take the same parameters as the REST API. The server lists only the tools your AppID may call, so `auto` doesn't show up until Microsoft enables it for you. A tool result carries the same JSON as the REST response, twice: as text content and as `structuredContent`. One thing I noticed: the MCP `news` tool takes a `freshness` parameter that the REST reference doesn't list. To use it from VS Code, the Copilot CLI or Claude Code, a small `mcp.json` is all you need: ```json { "mcpServers": { "WebIQ-MCP": { "url": "https://api.microsoft.ai/v3/mcp", "type": "http", "headers": { "x-apikey": "" } } } } ``` The file name and location differ per client (the Copilot CLI reads `~/.copilot/mcp-config.json`, Claude Code a `.mcp.json` in your project), but the content is the same. Your coding agent then has fast web search without any extra code. ## How do you enable it in Azure? Setting it up takes three steps. 1. Create a **Microsoft Web IQ** resource in the Azure portal. Search for Microsoft Web IQ, select Create, pick a subscription and resource group, and accept the terms. With the Azure CLI, register the provider first and then create the resource: ```bash az provider register --namespace Microsoft.WebIQ --wait az resource create -g -n \ --resource-type Microsoft.WebIQ/accounts --api-version 2026-06-01-preview --is-full-object \ --properties '{"location":"global","kind":"WebIQ.Grounding","sku":{"name":"G3"},"properties":{"statisticsEnabled":false}}' ``` The resource only meters your usage. Your app never calls it: it talks to `api.microsoft.ai` directly. 2. Sign in to the [Web IQ portal](https://webiq.microsoft.ai) and connect the resource. That creates your AppID. 3. Create an API key under **Profile Management**. The portal's **Playground** lets you try requests right away. ⚠️ **Gotcha:** I first signed in to the Web IQ portal with a personal Microsoft account (hotmail). The sign-in itself worked, but the portal then failed with "We couldn't load your account". A work account in the same tenant worked fine. If the CLI tells you the feature is not enabled for your subscription, you need to ask your Microsoft contact to enable Web IQ for it. The [CLI guide](https://learn.microsoft.com/web-iq/get-started/deploy-azure-cli) has the details. ## The explorer app I wanted to see what every endpoint returns before writing an agent against it, so I built [webiq-explorer](https://github.com/gbaeke/webiq-explorer). It's a local web app with a FastAPI backend and a React frontend. The backend proxies the calls to Web IQ, so the API key never reaches the browser. The app has two parts, and each one calls Web IQ in its own way: ![Architecture of Web IQ Explorer. The browser has the explorer pages and the assistant popup. The FastAPI backend on localhost port 8837 holds the keys. Its REST proxy calls the Web IQ REST API for the explorer pages. Its Deep Agent calls the Web IQ MCP server for tools and a model endpoint such as agentgateway for the model.](https://baeke.info/_astro/explorer-diagram.C6Ikjwxi_1w0X0P.webp) ### One page per endpoint Each endpoint has its own page with every parameter from the API reference. A call shows the rendered results, the raw JSON response and the exact request body with a matching curl command. Above the results you see the HTTP status, latency, cost and `traceId`, and the header keeps a running total of what the calls from your tab cost. The Request tab shows what the backend sent, ready to paste in a terminal: ![The Request tab of the Web search page: the JSON request body with query, maxResults, language, region, contentFormat, maxLength and safeSearch, and below it the same request as a curl command that reads the key from the WEBIQ_API_KEY environment variable.](https://baeke.info/_astro/explorer-request.qUIU6lXC_1Ph9K3.webp) The videos page shows more than the other endpoints. Look at the AI summary on the third result, and the channel, views, resolution and embedding info on each card: ![The Video search page with the query "Model Context Protocol explained". Each result shows a thumbnail with its duration, the title, the YouTube URL, the channel, view count, resolution, update date and whether it can be embedded, plus a description. The third result has an AI summary.](https://baeke.info/_astro/explorer-videos.BL6vNO-1_ZIMk80.webp) ### An assistant that uses MCP The "Ask the assistant" button opens a chat popup. Behind it runs a LangChain [Deep Agent](https://github.com/langchain-ai/deepagents) that uses Web IQ only through the MCP server, via `langchain-mcp-adapters`. The tools come straight from the server: ```python client = MultiServerMCPClient( { "webiq": { "transport": "streamable_http", "url": "https://api.microsoft.ai/v3/mcp", "headers": {"x-apikey": settings.webiq_api_key}, } } ) tools = await client.get_tools() agent = create_deep_agent( model=model, tools=tools, middleware=[OnlyTheseTools({t.name for t in tools}, _prompt)], checkpointer=InMemorySaver(), ) # ... ``` Deep Agents always add file tools, a todo list and a subagent tool. This assistant only searches, so a small middleware offers the model just the Web IQ tools and the app's own prompt. The prompt maps requests to tools: "find a video about…" goes to `videos`, "find news about…" to `news`, and so on. Conversations live in an `InMemorySaver`, so they last until you clear them or restart the app, and nothing is written to disk. The model is gpt-6-luna, a cheap one, which I reach through [agentgateway](https://agentgateway.dev) on my machine. That's plenty: the agent mostly picks one tool and summarizes what comes back. In the next screenshot I first asked for a video about Azure Container Apps dynamic sessions and then typed "And find news about that". The agent knew what "that" meant from the conversation and called the `news` tool. Video results show as the same cards the explorer pages use, and each turn shows its tokens and time: ![The Web IQ assistant popup, running on azure-gpt-6-luna over MCP. Video cards about Azure Container Apps dynamic sessions sit above a short answer with a link. Below that the follow-up question "And find news about that", a collapsed news tool call that cost 0.7 cents, and an answer citing an InfoQ report about Azure Container Apps Sandboxes.](https://baeke.info/_astro/assistant.CB1ilLMC_xqRsC.webp) ## Use it with your own Web IQ resource and model To run the explorer yourself, you need [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/), Node.js 24 or later, your own Web IQ resource and API key (see above), and a model endpoint for the assistant. Clone the repo and copy `.env.example` to `.env`. Only `WEBIQ_API_KEY` is required; the explorer pages work without a model. For the assistant, point three settings at any endpoint that supports the OpenAI Responses API with function calling. That can be Azure AI Foundry, OpenAI, or a gateway such as agentgateway: ```bash WEBIQ_API_KEY= # Azure AI Foundry (Azure OpenAI v1 endpoint) AGENT_BASE_URL=https://.openai.azure.com/openai/v1/ AGENT_MODEL= AGENT_API_KEY= # or a local agentgateway, which holds the real provider keys # AGENT_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4000/v1 # AGENT_MODEL= # AGENT_API_KEY=not-needed ``` Then run the app: ```bash scripts/run-local.sh ``` The script builds the frontend and serves everything on http://localhost:8837. Every search costs real money, so keep an eye on the running total in the header. At $7 per 1,000 calls you can explore for a long time before it hurts, though. 😊 ## What you don't get - There is no SLA. - `/auto` is in beta and needs a request to Microsoft before your AppID can use it. - Whole pages: out of the box you only get passages, at most 3,000 characters per result. Full pages as text, HTML or markdown need a support request to Microsoft first. - You can't cache or store results, and you must show citations and stay under 200 characters per source. ## Wrapping up I think Microsoft finally got web grounding right with Web IQ. It's fast, and as a plain API and an MCP server it works with whatever agent framework and model you already have. If your agents need web grounding, Web IQ is probably the best option out there. If you spot any errors or have questions, feel free to reach out!