In short. BingPreview generates page snapshots for Bing, with desktop and mobile variants whose published user-agent strings contain bingbot/2.0.

Definition: BingPreview is the crawler that generates page snapshots for Bing. As of 17 October 2026, Bing documents desktop and mobile variants for this purpose.

Key facts

Bing's crawler overview lists BingPreview separately from its standard crawler, Bingbot, and publishes user-agent examples for both variants.
Bing's verification instructions require a reverse DNS lookup followed by a forward lookup that returns the original IP address.
Bing's robots.txt guidance places the file in the site's root directory and warns that a specific Bingbot group replaces the generic group's instructions.

What purpose does Bing document for snapshot requests?

The crawler overview assigns BingPreview the task of generating page snapshots for Bing. In the same table, Bingbot handles most of Bing's daily crawling needs. The table therefore distinguishes the snapshot role from the standard crawling role.

The same documentation assigns MicrosoftPreview a broader product scope: page snapshots for Microsoft products. BingVideoPreview has a separate role covering video previews in Bing. These names identify different documented purposes within Microsoft's crawler list. The overview does not specify which current Bing interfaces display BingPreview's snapshots.

What does a BingPreview user agent look like?

A user agent is the identification string a client sends with a request. Bing's published desktop example for BingPreview is:

Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36

The mobile example includes Android and Mobile markers. Both examples carry bingbot/2.0, so checking only for the literal text BingPreview misses the signatures currently published in that row. The overview also uses W.X.Y.Z as a version placeholder and says Bing regularly updates its page rendering engine to a stable Microsoft Edge version.

How can a website check requests and crawl rules?

Bing's verification documentation starts with the source IP address recorded in server logs. A reverse DNS lookup must return a hostname ending in search.msn.com. A forward lookup of that hostname must then return the same IP address. Bing also offers the Verify Bingbot tool. The crawler overview warns that user-agent strings are easy to spoof.

For crawl configuration, Bing's robots.txt instructions use User-agent to identify the bot and Disallow to name blocked paths. When a specific Bingbot group exists, general restrictions must be repeated in that group. The instructions recommend validating the file with the robots.txt tester before uploading it to the site root.

FAQ

Can I authenticate BingPreview from its user agent alone?

Bing's crawler overview warns that user-agent strings can be faked. You can use Bing's verification methods to check the source address.

Which robots.txt detail should I check for Bingbot signatures?

Bing's robots.txt guide says a specific Bingbot group takes precedence over the generic group. If you use a specific group, repeat any general restrictions that should apply to it.

Sources

Check how a page reads to answer engines. Open the GEO score analyzer