TL;DR
- Microsoft Bing announced Topics Portfolio, a beta tab in the Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report, on 13 October 2026.
- It groups the grounding queries where a site is cited in AI answers into topics and shows Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries for each, all approximate.
- Top Opportunity Queries lists queries where other sites are cited and yours is not, with citation volumes shown as ranges.
- Bing warns topic labels are AI-generated, small sites may see no tab, and competitor brand queries can appear as opportunities.
- Date windows are one, two or three months; Bing gave no date for the feature to leave beta and said nothing about Thai-language data.
Microsoft Bing added a beta feature called Topics Portfolio to the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools on 13 October 2026. It groups the grounding queries where a site is cited in AI-generated answers into topic clusters, shows how big and how crowded each topic is across all sites, and lists "opportunity queries" where other sites are cited and yours is not. Bing calls the numbers approximate and says to treat them "as directional signals for planning, not as a precise ledger." For anyone working on AI search visibility, the report now lists gaps as well as existing citations.
What Bing announced
The announcement, "Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance", was published on the Bing Webmaster Blog on 13 October 2026 by Krishna Madhavan, Saral Nigam and Vivek Jain of Microsoft Bing. Bing describes it as a view that shows "the thematic shape" of a site's presence in AI Search. Its examples of topic clusters are football, taxes and AI chatbots.
Bing says everything in the view is personalised. The topics and the opportunity queries are drawn from the site's own presence and activity in AI Search, "not from a generic ecosystem list".
Search Engine Journal, reporting on 14 October 2026, describes grounding queries as the search terms Bing's AI uses to find content it then cites in its answers, across Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and select partner integrations.
Where to find Topics Portfolio and what it shows
Bing says to sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools and open the AI Performance report. If Bing has enough data for the site, a new Topics Portfolio tab appears next to Citations & Pages. If it does not, the tab will not show. The landing page lists the topics where the site has "a meaningful presence", each with three ecosystem measures beside it. Bing defines the columns as follows.
| Column | What Bing says it measures |
|---|---|
| Topic | A broad thematic cluster of related grounding queries where your site appears |
| Topic Size | Approximate total citations across all sites for the topic in the selected period, a measure of AI Search demand |
| Sites Cited | Approximate number of sites appearing for queries in the topic, which shows how crowded it is |
| Queries | Approximate number of distinct grounding queries in the topic |
Below the topic table sits a list called Top Opportunity Queries. Bing describes these as the strongest queries across the whole portfolio "where other sites appear and yours does not". Citation volumes in this list are shown as ranges, not exact numbers.
The topic detail page
Clicking a topic opens a detail page with three KPI cards at the top: Topic Size, the site's own citations within the topic, and the number of queries in it. Below the cards are two tables. Your Grounding Queries lists the top queries in the topic where the site already appears, and Bing says this lines up with the data already shown in Citations & Pages. Opportunity Queries lists the top queries in the same topic where other sites appear and the site does not, again with citation volumes as ranges. Bing sums it up as "what you already own, and what is still open."
Date ranges and feedback
Bing tells users to choose a one-, two- or three-month window, start with topics where their citations are already concentrated, then work down the opportunity queries. Every topic row and every opportunity query has a thumbs up and thumbs down control. Bing says those ratings go straight to the team working on classification and opportunity selection and "shape what we fix first."
What is new compared with earlier AI Performance updates
AI Performance itself is not new. Bing opened it as a public preview in February 2026, and a June 2026 update added Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare, according to Search Engine Journal. Those June topics were groupings of grounding queries where a site was already cited. Search Engine Journal also notes that Citation Share shows a site's percentage of all citations for a grounding query, and that Bing's help page says Citation Share does not reveal competitor domain names.
Bing says Topics Portfolio adds three things the report could not show before:
- A portfolio view: the thematic shape of the site's AI Search footprint at a glance.
- Ecosystem context: how big each topic is and how crowded it is with other sites.
- Actionable opportunity: specific queries inside specific topics where the site could grow, drawn from grounding activity on Bing.
The second and third points are the real change. Until now, the report described where a site already appeared. Topics Portfolio adds totals across all sites at the topic level and lists queries where the site is missing. Relevant Audience has not previously covered the AI Performance report; its last Bing Webmaster Tools story was the retirement of the SOAP and POX APIs in August 2026.
The beta limits Bing spelled out
Bing was unusually direct about what the feature cannot do yet. It listed four limitations:
- Classification can be wrong. Topics are AI-generated, so a query may land in a topic you would have labelled differently.
- Small sites may see little or nothing. Topics with insufficient site presence or insufficient ecosystem activity are hidden, so smaller sites may see a shorter list or not see the feature at all.
- Branded queries can show up as opportunities. Bing's example is a shoe site, contososhoes.com, seeing a rival brand's query listed as an opportunity under a Running Shoes topic.
- The figures are approximate. Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are estimates, and opportunity citation volumes are deliberately shown as ranges.
Search Engine Journal added two points of its own: Bing's AI Performance help page did not yet document Topics Portfolio when it reported, and the announcement gives no date for the feature to leave beta.
How to use it (analysis)
The following is practical reading of Bing's description, not something Bing itself prescribes beyond its own short workflow.
Use Topic Size and Sites Cited together. A large topic with few cited sites is a different planning case from a large topic where many sites already compete for citations. Because both numbers are approximate, they are better for ranking topics against each other than for forecasting anything.
Filter the opportunity list before acting on it. Bing has already warned that competitor brand queries can appear. Remove those, and remove anything outside what the business actually sells or knows. What remains is a list of questions where Bing's AI found an answer elsewhere.
Look at who is being cited. Bing's post does not say whether the opportunity tables name the sites that are cited. Earlier Citation Share data did not reveal competitor domains. Running the queries yourself in Copilot or Bing is the simplest way to see which pages are being cited and what format they use.
Compare against your own analytics. The post says nothing about clicks or referral traffic from these citations. A topic with a large citation count is a demand signal for AI answers, not a traffic estimate, so it should sit alongside analytics data rather than replace it.
Use the thumbs. Bing has said the feedback shapes what it fixes first. If a cluster mislabels your content, Bing asks you to mark it down, and its usual Bing Webmaster Tools feedback channels take more detailed reports.
What this means for Thai marketers
Bing Webmaster Tools is free, and Bing's post does not restrict Topics Portfolio by country or language. Bing also did not say anything about Thai-language data. The feature only appears when there is "sufficient data", and topics with low ecosystem activity are hidden, so a smaller Thai-language site may see a short list or no tab at all. Bing gave no threshold figure.
For Thai businesses, the useful steps are modest:
- Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools if it is not already, because the AI Performance report sits there.
- Open AI Performance and check whether the Topics Portfolio tab appears. If it does, export or note the opportunity queries for each topic that matters commercially.
- Treat the opportunity list as input for content planning and for a broader generative engine optimization (GEO) programme, alongside Google data and your own analytics.
- Pair content work with technical basics: an AI SEO review and standard SEO hygiene cover the groundwork.
What Bing did not say
- When Topics Portfolio will leave beta.
- What counts as "sufficient data" to unlock the tab.
- Whether opportunity queries name the sites that are cited instead of yours.
- Whether languages other than English are classified with the same quality.
- Anything about clicks or traffic from AI citations.
FAQ
What is Topics Portfolio in Bing Webmaster Tools?
Topics Portfolio is a beta tab in the AI Performance report that groups the grounding queries where your site is cited in Bing's AI answers into topics. Bing announced it on 13 October 2026, and it shows each topic's approximate size, how many sites are cited and how many queries it contains.
What are opportunity queries?
Opportunity queries are grounding queries in your topics where other sites are cited in AI answers and your site is not. Bing shows their citation volumes as ranges, and warns that competitor brand queries can appear in the list.
Why can't I see the Topics Portfolio tab?
The tab only appears if Bing has sufficient data for your site. Bing says topics with too little site presence or ecosystem activity are hidden, so smaller sites may see a short list or no tab at all.
Can Thai websites use Topics Portfolio?
Bing did not restrict it by country, so any verified site can check for the tab. Bing said nothing about Thai-language data, and smaller Thai-language sites may not meet the data threshold.
How accurate are the numbers?
They are approximate by design. Bing says Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are estimates, opportunity volumes are ranges, and the numbers should be treated as directional signals for planning rather than a precise ledger.
The short version
Topics Portfolio turns Bing's AI Performance report from a record of where a site is cited into a planning tool that shows where it is not. The data is approximate and the classification is still in beta, but a list of AI-answer queries where rivals are cited is useful input for content planning. If you would like help reading the report and turning it into a GEO plan, Relevant Audience's search team can walk through it with you.
