> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://serpapi.com/blog/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Move from Bing Image Search API to SerpApi's Bing Images API - URL: https://serpapi.com/blog/move-from-bing-image-search-api-to-serpapis-bing-images-api/ - Published: 2025-12-31T01:30:38.000Z - Updated: 2025-12-31T01:33:33.000Z - Description: Learn how to transition to SerpApi's Bing Images API from the retired official Bing Image Search API. - Author: David Sojevic - Tags: Bing Images, Bing ## Introduction This is the third post in our series about the [retired](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates?id=492574) Bing Search APIs and you may be searching for a suitable replacement. The first post covered how to [transition to our Bing Search API](https://serpapi.com/blog/bing-search-api-replacement-web-search/) web search, while this post will cover how to transition to our [Bing Images API](https://serpapi.com/bing-images-api). Many of the initial steps will be the same as in the post on web search, so you will be directed to reference portions of the earlier post from time to time. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a5/00/a5004977-0dd2-4bcd-9292-dd0e05d4c59e/content/images/2025/12/bing-images-hero-1.jpg) ## Step 1: SerpApi Account If you don't already have an account with us, your first step is going to be [signing up for an account](https://serpapi.com/pricing) *(we offer a free account with 250 free searches per month)*. Once you have signed up and verified your account, you will need to take note of your SerpApi API key found on [your dashboard](https://serpapi.com/dashboard) so that you can use it in the following steps. ## Step 2: Endpoint and Authentication You can follow the entirety of the [Bing Web Search: Endpoint and Authentication](https://serpapi.com/blog/bing-search-api-replacement-web-search/#step-2-endpoint-and-authentication) step, but instead of setting `'engine': 'bing'` you will need to set `'engine': 'bing_images'` to ensure you're using the Bing Images API. The following is an overly simplified example of the changes you would need to make: ```python # environment - subscription_key = 'AZURE-SUBSCRIPTION-KEY' + subscription_key = 'SERPAPI-API-KEY' - endpoint = 'https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/images/search' + endpoint = 'https://serpapi.com/search.json' # search params query = 'Mt Rainier' mkt = 'en-US' - headers = { 'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key': subscription_key } - params = { 'q': query, 'mkt': mkt } + params = { 'engine': 'bing_images', 'q': query, 'mkt': mkt, 'api_key': subscription_key } # request response = requests.get(endpoint, headers=headers, params=params) response.raise_for_status() print("\nJSON Response:\n") pprint(response.json()) ``` ## Step 3: Header Functionality The official Bing Image Search API uses the same headers that the official Bing Search API (web) does, so you can follow the [Bing Web Search: Header Functionality](https://serpapi.com/blog/bing-search-api-replacement-web-search/#step-3-header-functionality) step in its entirety. ## Step 4: Query Parameters Much like the [Bing Search API](https://serpapi.com/bing-search-api), the following query parameters behave the same in both the official API and our API, so you don't need to adjust these when transitioning from the Bing Images API: - `q` \- The search query term - `mkt` \- The market for the search results - `cc` \- The country for the search results - `count` \- The number of results to return - `safeSearch` \- The mode to use for safe search The following query parameter behaves the same, but has a different name in our API: - `offset` \- The number of results to skip before returning search results. This is called `first` in our API The following query parameters have the same name in our API, but use slightly different values: - `aspect` \- Filters images by named aspect ratios. - Value `Square` becomes `square` - Value `Wide` becomes `wide` - Value `Tall` becomes `tall` - Value `All` in the official API is the same as not providing the `aspect` parameter at all in our API - `license` \- Filters images by license type. - Value `Any` becomes `Type-Any` - Value `Public` becomes `L1` - Value `Share` becomes `L2_L3_L4_L5_L6_L7` - Value `ShareCommercially` becomes `L2_L3_L4` - Value `Modify` becomes `L2_L3_L5_L6` - Value `ModifyCommercially` becomes `L2_L3` - Value `All` in the official API is the same as not providing the `license` parameter at all in our API The following query parameters can be supported through alternate means in our API: - `color` \- Filters images by colors used. This can be used with the `color2` parameter in our API with the following values: - Value `ColorOnly` becomes `color` - Value `Monochrome` becomes `bw` - Value `Black` becomes `FGcls_BLACK` - Value `Blue` becomes `FGcls_BLUE` - Value `Brown` becomes `FGcls_BROWN` - Value `Gray` becomes `FGcls_GRAY` - Value `Green` becomes `FGcls_GREEN` - Value `Orange` becomes `FGcls_ORANGE` - Value `Pink` becomes `FGcls_PINK` - Value `Purple` becomes `FGcls_PURPLE` - Value `Red` becomes `FGcls_RED` - Value `Teal` becomes `FGcls_TEAL` - Value `White` becomes `FGcls_WHITE` - Value `Yellow` becomes `FGcls_YELLOW` - `size` \- Filters images by named sizes. This can be used with the `imagesize` parameter in our API with the following values: - Value `Small` becomes `small` - Value `Medium` becomes `medium` - Value `Large` becomes `large` - Value `Wallpaper` becomes `wallpaper` - Value `All` in the official API is the same as not providing the `imagesize` parameter at all in our API - `imageType` \- Filters images by named types. This can be used with the `photo` parameter in our API with the following values: - Value `AnimatedGif` becomes `animatedgif` - Value `AnimatedGifHttps` becomes `animatedgifhttps` - Value `Clipart` becomes `clipart` - Value `Line` becomes `linedrawing` - Value `Photo` becomes `photo` - Value `Shopping` becomes `shopping` - Value `Transparent` becomes `transparent` - `imageContent` \- Filters images by their content. This can be used with the `face` parameter in our API with the following values: - Value `Face` becomes `face` - Value `Portrait` becomes `portrait` - `freshness` \- Filters images by their age (how long since Bing has discovered them). This can be used with the `age` parameter in our API with the following values: - Value `Day` becomes `lt1440` *(past 24 hours)* - Value `Week` becomes `lt10080` *(past 7 days)* - Value `Month` becomes `lt43200` *(past month)* - Year (unsupported by official API) becomes `lt525600` *(past year)* The following image size related query parameters are unsupported in our API but you can achieve a similar result programmatically by filtering on the `size` property (e.g. `"1000x300"`) found on all items within the `images_results` response array: - `height` \- Exact height of image results. You will need to filter by matching the right side of the `x` in the `size` value exactly - `minHeight` \- Minimum height of image results. You will need to filter by ensuring the right side of the `x` in the `size` value is equal to or greater than your desired minimum height - `maxHeight` \- Maximum height of image results. You will need to filter by ensuring the right side of the `x` in the `size` value is lesser than or equal to your desired maximum height - `width`\- Exact width of image results. You will need to filter by matching the left side of the `x` in the `size` value exactly - `minWidth`\- Minimum width of image results. You will need to filter by ensuring the left side of the `x` in the `size` value is equal to or greater than your desired minimum width - `maxWidth`\- Maximum width of image results. You will need to filter by ensuring the left side of the `x` in the `size` value is lesser than or equal to your desired maximum width The following query parameter is unsupported in our API but you can achieve a similar result using another supported parameter: - `setLang` \- Language to use for the interface returned. You can not directly set this in our API, instead we infer it from the `mkt` code provided The remaining query parameters relate to the file size of images in the results and are unsupported in our API: - `minFileSize` \- Minimum file size for image results - `maxFileSize` \- Maximum file size for image results If filtering on file size is a requirement for you, then you will need to programmatically fetch each image file using the `original` property found on all items within the `image_results` response array and use a `HEAD` request to examine the `Content-Length` header value or download each file in its entirety to filter; neither of which will be particularly difficult, however, they may introduce undesirable complexity to your system. ### Example Query Parameter Changes Here is an example to help illustrate where a variety of query parameters have been used with the official API: ```python params = { 'q': 'Bing Image API', 'mkt': 'en-US', 'offset': 10, 'count': 5, 'freshness': 'Month', 'color': 'Blue', 'maxWidth': 800, 'maxHeight': 600, } ``` All of the above query parameters, with the exception of `maxWidth` and `maxHeight` can be used as-is or ported to use with our API. Here are the changes that would need to be made to the example to achieve this: ```diff params = { 'q': 'Bing Image API', 'mkt': 'en-US', - 'offset': 10, + 'first': 10, 'count': 5, - 'freshness': 'Month', +. 'age': 'lt43200', - 'color': 'Blue', +. 'color2': 'FGcls_BLUE', - 'maxWidth': 800, - 'maxHeight': 600, } ``` ## Step 5: Response Format The responses from the official Bing Image Search API did have the potential for significantly more complexity in them when compared to our Bing Images API and, as such, the changes to the response format handling can involve a bit of effort depending on what you were using from the official APIs when they were available. I'm going to cover the primary use case example in this section for the sake of brevity; if you were relying on portions of the response not directly related to the image results such as suggested searches, refined searches, or related searches, you can browse through our [Bing Images API documentation](https://serpapi.com/bing-images-api) to see how it differs. ### Image Results Returned in the `value` key (an array of image results) in the official API, our API returns the equivalent in the top level `image_results` key (an array of image results). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a5/00/a5004977-0dd2-4bcd-9292-dd0e05d4c59e/content/images/2025/12/CleanShot-2025-12-31-at-12.27.30.png) The Bing Images search URL that would be found under `webSearchUrl` in the official API can be found under `search_metadata.bing_images_url` in our API. #### Image Result Mapping The following attributes on the web page result objects can be mapped and used without change: - `webSearchUrl` \- URL for the Bing Images search. Becomes `link` on our API - `name` \- Name of the web page. Becomes `title` on our API - `thumbnailUrl` \- URL to the image thubmnail. Becomes `thumbnail` on our API - `contentUrl` \- URL to the full image. Becomes `original` on our API - `hostPageUrl` \- URL to the page the image was found on. Becomes `source` on our API The following attributes can be extracted using other properties available in our API: - `width` \- Width of the full image. Can be extracted by selecting the left side of the `x` from the `size` property in our API (e.g. `"800x600"` would be `width` of `800`) - `height` \- Height of the full image. Can be extracted by selecting the right side of the `x` from the `size` property in our API (e.g. `"800x600"` would be `height` of `600`) The following attributes are not available in our API and have no equivalent: - `datePublished` \- ISO 8601 timestamp of when the image was published - `isFamilyFriendly` \- Boolean flag to indicate if the image is family friendly or not - `contentSize` \- File size of the full image (e.g. `"125000 B"`) - `encodingFormat` \- The file type of the image (e.g. `"jpeg"`). *May* be possible to infer via the file extension in the image URL found in the `original` property - `hostPageDisplayUrl` \- Pretty URL (no scheme, truncated URL) used for display - `thumbnail` \- Object containing `width` and `height` of thumbnail - `imageInsightsToken` \- Token used for calls in the official Bing Visual Search API - `insightsMetadata` \- Counts for insight related metadata - `imageId` \- Unique ID for the image - `accentColor` \- Hex code (without a leading `#`) to indicate primary color ## What's Next Most users of the official Bing Image Search API shouldn't have any (or at least *many*) next steps from here in terms of making the move. If you can count yourself in that, congratulations! If you still have more to go, please head over to our [Bing Images API documentation](https://serpapi.com/bing-images-api) to fill in the rest of the puzzle. You can also head over to our [Bing Images Playground](https://serpapi.com/playground?engine=bing%5Fimages) to see our API in action.