MM-REACT after the Bing Search API
One setting to change.
MM-REACT gives ChatGPT web search through BingSearchAPIWrapper, which calls the Bing Web Search API v7. Microsoft retired it on August 11, 2025 and decommissioned every instance and new sign-ups, so MM-REACT's web search fails for anyone who sets it up today.
MM-REACT reads its Bing address from BING_SEARCH_URL. Set it to https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search and put your SpecStream key in BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY. Its BingSearchAPIWrapper then sends its usual call to SpecStream.
SpecStream answers Bing's v7 call in Bing's own JSON, scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and costs $5 per 1,000 searches, with no daily limit. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card.
New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. It covers 2,000 searches.
MM-REACT web search and what replaces Bing, from each company's own pages on Nov 10, 2026
| SpecStream | Bing Web Search API | Grounding with Bing Search | Google Custom Search | Brave Search API | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setting in MM-REACT | BING_SEARCH_URL=https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search, with a SpecStream key in BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY | README value: https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search | Not a v7 address. Microsoft places it in Azure AI Agents | No setting for it in MM-REACT's README | No setting for it in MM-REACT's README |
| Open to a new account | Yes. Create a key and start with $10 of credit, no card | No. Retired on August 11, 2025, with every instance decommissioned and no new sign-up | Yes, with a Grounding with Bing Search resource in the Azure portal | No. Closed to new customers, and existing customers have until January 1, 2027 | Yes, with $5 in free credits every month |
| Price per 1,000 searches | $5, with up to 10 results a search | None. Microsoft decommissioned the product | $14 per 1,000 transactions | $5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free queries a day, for existing customers only | $5 per 1,000 requests |
| Limit | No limit per key and no daily limit. A busy call gets a 429 and is not charged | None. The API is retired | 150 transactions a second and 1 million a day | 10,000 queries a day | Up to 50 queries per second |
| What comes back | Bing's webPages.value[] with the snippet of each page, which run() joins into its text | webPages.value[], with the name, URL and snippet of each page | No raw results: developers and end users get no access to the content returned | The URL, title and text snippets of each result, in Google's own format | Up to 20 results a request, in Brave's own format |
| What answers the search | The whole live web, read at the moment of the call. 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions | Nothing since August 11, 2025 | An answer from the model. Not all models support it | The Programmable Search Engine you configured | Brave's index. Its own page reports 85.3% on FreshQA |
Why MM-REACT developers point Bing search at SpecStream
Two environment variables
MM-REACT's README lists Bing as resource 4 with two variables, and its BingSearchAPIWrapper reads BING_SEARCH_URL and BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY from the environment. Before and after:
export BING_SEARCH_URL="https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search"
export BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY=<your Bing key>export BING_SEARCH_URL="https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search"
export BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY="$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"
unset BING_VIS_SEARCH_URLLeave BING_VIS_SEARCH_URL unset. The wrapper calls Bing's visual search only when that variable holds an address, and otherwise runs the web search alone.
The same request and the same JSON
The wrapper sends GET with q, count, textDecorations and textFormat, the key in Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key, and reads webPages.value. Its k is 10, so each search returns 10 results at $0.005. SpecStream answers in Bing's shape.
The same call from plain Python:
import os, requests
reply = requests.get(
"https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search",
headers={"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key": os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"]},
params={"q": "who painted the girl with a pearl earring", "count": 10},
).json()
for page in reply["webPages"]["value"]:
print(page["name"], page["url"], page["snippet"])Every parameter and field of the route is in the Bing Web Search v7 guide, and what Microsoft ended, and when, is on the Bing Search API retirement page.
$5 per 1,000 searches, with no daily limit
A search of up to 10 results costs $0.005. There is no monthly plan and no daily limit. Credit you buy never expires, and a new account starts with $10 of credit, which covers 2,000 searches. A busy call gets a 429 with Retry-After and charges nothing.
The most accurate web search API, in about one second
On SimpleQA Verified the SpecStream Search API scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official questions, 978 of them correct. On WideSearch it scores 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.
Every Bing call runs the fast search. Measured on production on November 9, 2026, its median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s, and it answered 718 of 720. There is no limit per key and no daily limit.
You decide what is kept, on each key
Create the key with zero_retention and a search made with it keeps no request text and no answer after the reply. spend_cap_cents is the most the key can spend, so a long MM-REACT run stops at the cap you set.
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/v1/account/keys \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"name": "production", "scopes": ["account:read", "finds:spend"], "spend_cap_cents": 500000, "zero_retention": true}'Search, pages and rows on one key
The same key reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and a page with no text is not charged. Deep Search returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with a source URL on every value. The most a run can cost is approved before it starts.
Other web search options for MM-REACT
Grounding with Bing Search
Microsoft's named replacement for the Bing Search APIs, at $14 per 1,000 transactions, inside Azure AI Agents. It returns an answer with citations, and developers get no access to the raw results, so MM-REACT's BingSearchRun tool has no webPages.value to read. SpecStream returns Bing's webPages.value[] at $5 per 1,000.
Google Custom Search JSON API
$5 per 1,000 queries after 100 free a day, up to 10,000 a day, for existing customers only: Google closed it to new customers and ends it on January 1, 2027. It answers a different request with a different reply. SpecStream keeps MM-REACT's Bing call and costs the same $5 per 1,000, with no daily limit.
Brave Search API
A search API on Brave's own index at $5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 in free credits every month and up to 50 queries a second. MM-REACT has no Brave setting, so moving there means new code. SpecStream answers the Bing call MM-REACT already makes, at the same $5 per 1,000.
How SpecStream scores
The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers.
How to move MM-REACT web search to SpecStream
1. Create a key under Agents & API in the SpecStream workspace. A new account gets $10 of credit, no card, which covers 2,000 searches.
2. Check the key with the call Bing's v7 API takes. A 200 with webPages.value means the key works.
curl -H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
"https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search?q=test&count=3"3. Set the two variables in the shell that starts sample.py, and leave the visual search address empty:
export BING_SEARCH_URL="https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search"
export BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY="$SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"
unset BING_VIS_SEARCH_URL4. Run python sample.py as before. Each search shows in your SpecStream request log with its price.
Frequently asked questions
Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human
Why is MM-REACT Bing search not working?
BING_SEARCH_URL to https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search with a SpecStream key in BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY.Where do I get an MM-REACT Bing API key now?
BING_SUBSCRIPTION_KEY.What does BING_SEARCH_URL take?
https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search. The wrapper adds q and count itself.What is the best MM-REACT Bing alternative?
Which MM-REACT Bing variable do I leave empty?
BING_VIS_SEARCH_URL. With it unset the wrapper skips Bing's visual search and runs the web search, which SpecStream answers at $0.005 a call of 10 results.How much does MM-REACT web search cost with SpecStream?
k. The first $10 of credit covers 2,000 searches, and credit you buy never expires.Sources
SpecStream wrote this page. MM-REACT's settings come from its source on GitHub, and each provider's figure from that company's own page.
- MM-REACT READMEraw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/MM-REACT/main/README.md, read Nov 10, 2026
- MM-REACT bing_search.pyraw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/MM-REACT/main/langchain/utilities/bing_search.py, read Nov 10, 2026
- MM-REACT sample.pyraw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/MM-REACT/main/sample.py, read Nov 10, 2026
- Bing Search API retirementlearn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/bing-search-api-retirement, read Nov 10, 2026
- Google Custom Search JSON API overviewdevelopers.google.com/custom-search/v1/overview, read Nov 10, 2026
- Grounding with Bing Search pricingmicrosoft.com/en-us/bing/apis/grounding-pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- Bing APIsmicrosoft.com/en-us/bing/apis, read Nov 10, 2026
- Grounding with Bing Search toolslearn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/tools/bing-tools, read Nov 10, 2026
- Bing Web Search response objectslearn.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/search-apis/bing-web-search/reference/response-objects, read Nov 10, 2026
- Brave Search APIbrave.com/search/api/, read Nov 10, 2026
- Brave Search API documentationapi-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/documentation/web-search/get-started, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream benchmarksspecstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 10, 2026
- SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 10, 2026




