Azure Chat Bing search

Two fields of the extension you already have

Azure Chat's Bing Search extension is a GET to an endpoint with BING_SEARCH_QUERY in the address, and a header named Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key. SpecStream answers that call at /v7.0/search with the key in that same header, so the header name, the function schema and the description stay as they are.

# Extensions, Bing Search, the function
API endpoint   https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search?q=BING_SEARCH_QUERY
           ->  https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search?q=BING_SEARCH_QUERY

# Extensions, Bing Search, the header
Key            Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key   (unchanged)
Value          YOUR API KEY HERE  ->  your SpecStream key

This is the call the extension sends after the model fills in the query:

curl "https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search?q=azure+openai+pricing" \
  -H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"

# {"_type": "SearchResponse", "queryContext": {...}, "webPages": {"value": [{"name": "...", "url": "...", "snippet": "..."}, ...]}, ...}

In our test this call returned 200 with nine results in webPages.value, each with id, name, url, displayUrl, snippet, isFamilyFriendly and isNavigational.

Why changing the key and the URL to another provider did not work

Azure Chat sends the extension's headers as they are written and hands the whole JSON reply to the model, with no field mapping in between. When the call is not OK, the chat gets the text There was an error calling the api: followed by the status. Another provider wants its own header and its own parameters: Brave reads the key from X-Subscription-Token, not from Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key.

Users in issue 519 found this. One wrote that Brave did not work by "just updating the API key and the search URL". SpecStream takes Bing's header, Bing's address shape and returns Bing's JSON, so those two values are the whole change.

The same call from Python and JavaScript

Any code that called Bing v7 moves the same way: the address changes and the key goes in the same header.

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": "azure openai pricing", "count": 10},
).json()

for page in reply["webPages"]["value"]:
    print(page["name"], page["url"], page["snippet"])

const reply = await fetch(
  "https://api.specstream.ai/v7.0/search?q=" + encodeURIComponent("azure openai pricing"),
  { headers: { "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key": process.env.SPECSTREAM_API_KEY } },
).then((r) => r.json());

for (const page of reply.webPages.value) console.log(page.name, page.url);

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

A search of up to 10 results costs $0.005, and each started block of 10 more results adds $0.006. 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.

The most accurate web search API in the world

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.

About one second a search, measured under load

The Bing v7 route runs on the fast search. On November 9, 2026 production took 1, 5, 10 and 20 fast searches a second and answered 718 of 720. The median was 0.82 s at 1 search a second and 1.07 s at 20 a second, and the 95th percentile stayed between 1.09 and 1.73 s. One account can send up to 8,800 searches a minute; a call over that is answered with Retry-After and is not charged.

You decide what is kept, on each key

Give Azure Chat a key with zero_retention and a search made with it keeps no request text and no answer after the reply. The charge keeps the account, the key, the request ID, the price and the time. 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}'

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 takes a request in plain words and returns every match on the live web as structured rows, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, with a source URL on every value. The most a run can cost is quoted before it starts.

Grounding with Bing Search

Microsoft's replacement: a tool inside Azure AI Agents at $14 per 1,000 transactions, with a limit of 150 transactions a second. It returns a model's answer with citations, and developers don't get the raw results, so it does not plug into Azure Chat's extension. SpecStream answers the extension in Bing's JSON at $5 per 1,000.

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 50 queries per second. It takes its key in X-Subscription-Token and answers in Brave's shape, so the extension's header and parameters change. SpecStream keeps the extension as it is.

Tavily

A search API billed in credits at $0.008 each on pay as you go, with 1,000 free credits a month. It is a POST with a JSON body, so the extension is rebuilt for it. SpecStream answers the Bing GET the extension already sends, at $0.005 a search.

Google Custom Search JSON API

Closed to new customers, and existing customers have until January 1, 2027. It costs $5 per 1,000 queries and stops at 10,000 a day. SpecStream costs the same $5 per 1,000 with no daily limit and takes a new account today.