Bing Image Search API v7 compatible

The call, before and after

# Before
curl -G https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/images/search \
  -H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $BING_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=autumn leaves" -d count=10

# After
curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/images/search \
  -H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $SPECSTREAM_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=autumn leaves" -d count=10

The path, the header, the parameters and the parser stay. The address changes, and the key. Your code reads value[].contentUrl, hostPageUrl and name as it did on Bing.

The parameters the route reads

Read and used: q, count (1 to 100), offset (from 0), mkt, setLang, cc, safeSearch and freshness (Day, Week or Month). setLang and cc win over the language and country in mkt.

A call with no q gets 400 with Bing's ErrorResponse: code InvalidRequest, subCode ParameterMissing, parameter q.

Every field that comes back

The reply has _type Images, readLink (the call's own address, without the key), queryContext with originalQuery, totalEstimatedMatches, currentOffset (the offset you sent), nextOffset (that offset plus the images returned) and value.

Each image in value has name, contentUrl (the image), hostPageUrl and hostPageDisplayUrl (the page it is on). thumbnailUrl, thumbnail with width and height, encodingFormat, width and height are there when the search engines give them, and a reply never makes one up.

Left out, because no engine gives them: contentSize, datePublished, imageId, imageInsightsToken, insightsMetadata, accentColor, webSearchUrl, pivotSuggestions and queryExpansions. The route answers /images/search; /images/trending is not answered. One field is added: specstream on the reply, with the call's price_usd and request_id.

$5 per 1,000 image searches, with no daily limit

An image search of up to 10 results is one search at $0.005, the same price as a web search. Bing's default was 35 images a call; on SpecStream a call that names no count gets 10, so send count when you want more: 30 images cost $0.017. There is no plan to buy and no daily limit. A busy call answers 429 in Bing's error form with Retry-After and is not charged. Credit you buy never expires.

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.

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}'

Images, web, news and pages on one key

SpecStream is the live web data engine. The key that answers Bing's image call also answers Bing's web call: the Bing Web Search v7 migration guide covers it parameter by parameter. Web search scores 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 SimpleQA Verified questions and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 WideSearch tasks; the method is on the benchmarks page.

The same key reads pages with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and Deep Search returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. Code written for Google's image call moves the same way: see Google Custom Search image search, and every image API SpecStream answers is on the image search API page.

Grounding with Bing Search

Microsoft's named replacement, a tool for Azure AI Agents at $14 per 1,000 transactions, up to 150 transactions a second. Microsoft says developers and end users don't have access to the raw content it returns, so there is no list of images to read. SpecStream returns the value[] your code reads, at $5 per 1,000.

Google Custom Search JSON API

Its searchType=image call returns image results at $5 per 1,000 queries, but the API is closed to new customers and Google discontinues it on January 1, 2027. SpecStream answers that call too, on the same key.

Brave Search API

Brave sells complete search results, images included, at $5 per 1,000 requests with $5 in free credits every month, in Brave's own reply shape. SpecStream answers in Bing's shape, so the parser you wrote for v7 keeps working.