What Is Bing AI? The Complete 2026 Guide (Chat, Image Generator & How to Use It)

August 13, 2026 · Team HeloAITools · 9 min read

Bing quietly turned into one of the most useful free AI tools on the internet, and a lot of people still don’t fully know what it does beyond “the search engine with the chat thing.” If you’ve searched “what is Bing AI,” “does Bing use GPT-4,” or “how to use Bing AI image generator,” this guide covers all of it — what Bing AI actually is, how the chat and image generator work, whether it’s better than ChatGPT, and practical answers on copyright, deleting images, and getting started.

📌 Quick answer: Bing AI is Microsoft’s AI layer built into Bing search — known as Copilot — that gives you direct, cited answers instead of a list of links, plus a free built-in image generator (Bing Image Creator) powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, GPT-4o, and Microsoft’s own MAI-Image-1 model.

In this guide:

What Is Bing AI?
Does Bing AI Use GPT-4?
How Does Bing AI Work?
How to Use Bing AI Chat
How to Use the Bing AI Image Generator
Is Bing AI Better Than ChatGPT?
Are Bing AI Images Copyright Free? Can You Sell Them?
How to Delete Bing AI Images
FAQ

What Is Bing AI?

Bing AI is the umbrella term most people use for Microsoft’s AI features built into Bing — officially branded as Copilot. It launched in February 2023 when Microsoft rebuilt Bing around OpenAI’s GPT-4-class models, turning the search engine from a list-of-links tool into something closer to a research assistant you can actually talk to.

Today, “Bing AI” covers two main things people search for:

Bing AI Chat (Copilot): The conversational assistant you see the moment you open bing.com — ask it a question and it gives you a direct, written answer with sources cited underneath, and you can keep asking follow-up questions in the same thread.
Bing AI Image Generator (Bing Image Creator): A free text-to-image tool at bing.com/create, now also marketed as part of Microsoft Copilot Designer, that turns a written prompt into AI-generated images.

Both are free to use with a Microsoft account, tied into the broader Microsoft ecosystem (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Windows), and positioned as Microsoft’s answer to ChatGPT.

See our full breakdown on the Bing AI tool page →

Does Bing AI Use GPT-4?

Yes — originally, and it still does today, alongside newer models. When Bing AI launched in 2023, it ran on an early version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 before the model was publicly released anywhere else. Since then, Microsoft has continued expanding what powers Bing/Copilot: it now draws on a mix of OpenAI models (including GPT-4o) and Microsoft’s own in-house models, such as MAI-Image-1 for image generation. So “does Bing use AI” and “does Bing use GPT-4” are both a clear yes — Bing just doesn’t rely on a single fixed model the way it did at launch; it’s shifted toward a multi-model system where different requests can be handled by different underlying models.

How Does Bing AI Work?

In practice, Bing AI works differently depending on whether you’re chatting or generating images:

For chat: When you ask Copilot a question, it doesn’t just search and hand you links — it searches the web in the background, reads through the results, and writes a direct answer summarizing what it found, with citations linking back to its sources underneath the response. You can then ask it to simplify the answer, expand on a specific point, or keep the conversation going, and it retains context from earlier in the thread. This is the core difference from traditional search: you get an answer, not a list of pages to click through yourself.

For images: Bing Image Creator works on diffusion-model technology — you describe an image in words, and it generates several variations based on your prompt, currently letting you pick between different underlying models (DALL-E 3, GPT-4o image generation, and Microsoft’s MAI-Image-1) depending on the style you’re after.

How to Use Bing AI Chat (Step-by-Step)

Go to bing.com and sign in with a free Microsoft account (not strictly required for basic use, but needed for full chat history and higher usage limits).
Open the Copilot/Chat panel — it’s front and center on the Bing homepage, or accessible from the sidebar.
Ask your question in plain language, the same way you’d ask a person — “compare these two laptops for video editing” works better than a string of search keywords.
Review the cited answer. Copilot gives you a written response with numbered source links underneath so you can verify anything that matters.
Ask a follow-up. Type “can you simplify that?” or “give me more detail on point three” and it continues the same conversation rather than starting over.

How to Use the Bing AI Image Generator

Go to bing.com/create (or open Image Creator from within Copilot chat).
Type a detailed prompt describing the image you want — subject, style, setting, and mood all help.
Pick a model if given the option — DALL-E 3, GPT-4o image generation, or MAI-Image-1 — since each renders text, faces, and photorealism slightly differently.
Generate. You’ll typically get four image variations per prompt.
Review, refine, or regenerate. Tweak the wording of your prompt if the result isn’t close enough, rather than generating the same prompt repeatedly.
Download the image(s) you want to keep directly from the results page.

A practical note on limits: fast, high-priority generations are capped (commonly referred to as “boosts”) — a set number per day or week — after which new images still generate but more slowly. Standard-speed generation itself is unlimited and free, no subscription required.

Is Bing AI Better Than ChatGPT?

There isn’t a single winner — they’re strong in different areas:

	Bing AI (Copilot)	ChatGPT
Cost	Free, GPT-4-class quality, no subscription needed	Free tier is limited; GPT-5.5-class quality requires ChatGPT Plus (~$20/month)
Real-time web search	Built in by default on every answer	Available, but not as tightly woven into every response
Source citations	Shown automatically under every answer	Only when explicitly using browsing/research features
Image generation	Free, built in (DALL-E 3, GPT-4o, MAI-Image-1)	Available, generally on paid plans for full access
Ecosystem	Deep integration with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook	Deep integration with custom GPTs and third-party apps
Commercial image use	Free tier is largely non-commercial; unlocked on paid Microsoft 365 Copilot plans	Generally allowed on paid plans

Bottom line: if you want free, cited, GPT-4-class answers with no subscription and you’re already inside the Microsoft ecosystem, Bing AI is genuinely one of the best free options available. If you want the most capable model, the deepest customization, and a bigger app ecosystem, ChatGPT still generally has the edge for power users. For a full head-to-head on model capability specifically, see our Grok vs ChatGPT comparison — much of that reasoning applies to Bing AI vs ChatGPT too.

Are Bing AI Images Copyright Free? Can You Sell Them?

This is genuinely one of the murkier questions in AI right now, so here’s the straight answer rather than a comforting one:

Copyright status is legally unsettled in many places. Whether AI-generated images can be copyrighted at all — and by whom — is still an evolving legal question in several jurisdictions, including the U.S. Treat “copyright free” claims about any AI image generator with some caution.
Commercial use depends on your plan. Microsoft’s free-tier terms are generally geared toward personal, non-commercial use. Selling or using free-tier Bing AI images in commercial work sits in a legal and terms-of-service gray area — paid Microsoft 365 Copilot commercial plans are what explicitly unlock commercial usage rights.
Generated images carry visible content credentials. Bing tags AI-generated images with C2PA content credentials, marking them as AI-created — useful for transparency, but also something to be aware of if you’re trying to pass off an image as traditionally created artwork.

This isn’t legal advice — if selling AI-generated images is central to your business, read Microsoft’s current Bing Image Creator and Copilot terms of service directly, or talk to a lawyer, since these terms shift as the legal landscape around AI-generated content develops.

How to Delete Bing AI Images

Open Bing Image Creator at bing.com/create and sign in.
Go to your creation history / “My creations” section.
Find the image you want removed and select the delete/trash icon on it.
Confirm the deletion.

Deleting an image from your history removes it from your account, but keep in mind that if you already downloaded, shared, or posted the image elsewhere, deleting it from Bing doesn’t remove those external copies.

Bing AI FAQ

What is Bing AI used for?

Getting direct, cited answers to questions instead of a list of search links (via Copilot chat), and generating free AI images from text prompts (via Bing Image Creator).

Does Bing have AI?

Yes — Bing has been built around AI, branded as Copilot, since February 2023.

Is Bing AI free?

Yes, both chat and standard-speed image generation are free with a Microsoft account, no subscription required for baseline use.

Is Bing AI good?

For free, cited, GPT-4-class answers and free image generation, yes — it’s genuinely one of the strongest free AI options available, particularly for anyone already using Microsoft products.

How do I get Bing AI?

Just go to bing.com — Copilot chat is built in by default. No separate download or sign-up is strictly required for basic use, though signing in with a Microsoft account unlocks full chat history and higher usage limits.

Can I use Bing AI images commercially?

Generally not on the free tier — Microsoft’s free-tier terms lean toward personal use. Commercial use is unlocked through paid Microsoft 365 Copilot plans. Check Microsoft’s current terms before using any Bing AI image in commercial work.