Safe Official docs Search Engines

Bing Video Preview

Operated by Microsoft

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
BingVideoPreview
Category:
Search Engines
Operator:
Microsoft
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
www.bing.com

Confirmed by the operator

Microsoft names BingVideoPreview on its own documentation page, linked above. The token, purpose and robots.txt behaviour on this profile come from that page, re-checked on September 22, 2026.

What is Bing Video Preview?

Bing Video Preview is an AI search-index crawler operated by Microsoft. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside Microsoft's AI search experience. Allowing Bing Video Preview can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.

Bing Video Preview is an AI search-index crawler operated by Microsoft. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside Microsoft's AI search experience. Allowing Bing Video Preview can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.
Bing Video Preview uses the user-agent token BingVideoPreview. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block Bing Video Preview?

🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Bing Video Preview will not hurt Google or Bing rankings, but it can remove your content from AI search answers and assistant citations powered by this crawler. Block only if you have a deliberate reason.
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block Bing Video Preview with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: BingVideoPreview</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: BingVideoPreview Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: BingVideoPreview Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: BingVideoPreview Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Bing Video Preview if ($http_user_agent ~* "BingVideoPreview") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Bing Video Preview SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "BingVideoPreview" bad_bot Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot
Meta robots tag
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
X-Robots-Tag header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Bing Video Preview safe to allow?

Yes, Bing Video Preview is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Microsoft. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Bing Video Preview requests resolve to Microsoft's domain.

What does Bing Video Preview do?

Understanding Bing Video Preview's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

  • Indexes web pages for AI-powered search answers
  • Surfaces your content as citations inside AI search results
  • Builds a knowledge index used to answer user questions
  • Allowing it can increase visibility in AI search
  • Respects robots.txt directives

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Bing Video Preview?
The official user-agent string for Bing Video Preview is: BingVideoPreview. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Bing Video Preview by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.
Is Bing Video Preview safe?
Yes, Bing Video Preview is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Microsoft. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Will blocking Bing Video Preview hurt my SEO?
🔶 AI Visibility Trade-off - Blocking Bing Video Preview will not hurt Google or Bing rankings, but it can remove your content from AI search answers and assistant citations powered by this crawler. Block only if you have a deliberate reason.
How do I block Bing Video Preview in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: BingVideoPreview
Disallow: /

This instructs Bing Video Preview not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Bing Video Preview respect robots.txt?
Bing Video Preview is operated by Microsoft and is expected to fetch and parse /robots.txt before crawling, following RFC 9309. For hard enforcement, combine robots.txt with server-level IP or user-agent blocking.
How do I verify if Bing Video Preview is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string BingVideoPreview (case-insensitive: grep -i "BingVideoPreview" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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