The Signal

Open the Topics Tab. The Counts Are Ranges.

Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools, open AI Performance, and select the Topics tab. Start where your citations already sit. The opportunity counts are ranges, not exact numbers.

PF

Pamela Flannery

Chief Marketing Officer

Open the Topics tab and start where your citations already sit. The opportunity counts are ranges.

That walkthrough is on Microsoft's page. I didn't click it in an account. I fetched Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance on 14 October 2026. I didn't sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools. The steps below are the ones that post names. If a label is missing in the account in front of you, the post already has a reason a site might not see the tab.[1]

The page dates itself. The clock stamp does not.

The visible date is October 13, 2026. Krishna Madhavan, Saral Nigam, and Vivek Jain are the named authors, Microsoft Bing. The page's structured data sets datePublished and dateModified to 2026-10-13T15:16:06. That stamp has no timezone. I'm not adding one.[1]

The announcement line is the one to keep. "Today we are announcing a new beta feature inside the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools." The feature is called Topics Portfolio. It groups the grounding queries where your site appears into broader thematic clusters, so you can see the shape of that presence instead of one query at a time. The examples on the page are "football, taxes or AI Chatbots."[1]

AI Performance already shows how your site contributes to AI-generated answers, from the grounding queries where it appears to the pages cited for each query. Topics Portfolio is the wider cut: how that presence sits across themes, how much demand a theme represents, how competitive the theme is, and where the site still has room to grow.[1]

One sentence keeps this from turning into a public topic menu. "Everything in this view is personalized to your site. The topics and the opportunity queries are surfaced from your own presence and activity in AI Search, not from a generic ecosystem list."[1]

The list is yours. A theme you care about, and never get cited for, will not show up as a topic you hold. The landing page is "a personalized list of the topics where your site has a meaningful presence." The page does not define meaningful with a number. Don't fill that blank.[1]

Sign in, then look beside Citations & Pages

The getting-started paragraph is the short path. The post links Bing Webmaster Tools to https://www.bing.com/webmasters.[1]

  • Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools.[1]
  • Open the AI Performance report for your site.[1]
  • Select the Topics tab.[1]
  • Choose a one-, two-, or three-month window.[1]
  • Start with the topics where your citations are already concentrated.[1]
  • Then work down the opportunity queries.[1]
  • If a row looks wrong, use the thumb. The page says that is what the beta label is for.[1]

An earlier paragraph uses a different label, and it adds the condition. "Login to Bing Webmaster Tools and navigate to AI Performance. If there is sufficient data for your site, you will see a new Topics Portfolio tab next to Citations & Pages."[1]

Getting started says Topics tab. The login paragraph says Topics Portfolio tab, and it places that tab next to Citations & Pages. Look for the control beside Citations & Pages. If the visible words are one of those two phrases, you are on the screen the post is describing.[1]

If the tab is missing, don't call the report broken. The post's own condition is sufficient data. Topics with insufficient site presence or insufficient ecosystem activity are not shown, so smaller sites may see a shorter list, or may not see the feature at all. A short list is still the feature. The page does not give a citation floor.[1]

Read the three measures before you open a topic

The landing page opens on your topic portfolio, with three ecosystem measures beside each topic. The column list has four labels. Topic is the cluster. The three measures sit next to it.[1]

  • Topic. A broad thematic cluster of related grounding queries where your site appears.[1]
  • Topic Size. The approximate total citations across all sites for this topic over the selected period. The page calls that a measure of how much AI Search demand the topic represents.[1]
  • Sites Cited. The approximate number of sites appearing for queries in this topic, which is how crowded the topic is. The opening also says the view shows how competitive each theme is. The page does not print a separate score.[1]
  • Queries. The approximate number of distinct grounding queries in this topic.[1]

Topic Size is not your site's citations. It is citations across all sites, for the window you picked. Your own count shows up on the detail page, as its own card. The portfolio columns the page defines do not include a share. Don't add the two numbers and call the sum one.[1]

All three measures are approximate. The beta section says that again on purpose. Topic Size, Sites Cited, and Queries are approximate, and opportunity citation volumes are deliberately shown as ranges.[1]

Topic Size is defined over the selected period. Copy the window with the number before you paste it into a plan.[1]

The list under the table is a range

Below the topic table, the page puts Top Opportunity Queries. These are the strongest queries across your whole portfolio where other sites appear and yours does not. It calls that a fast, cross-topic read on where you could grow. Citation volumes there are ranges, not exact numbers.[1]

Write the range as a range. If a planning doc needs a single integer, this list is the wrong source.[1]

Getting started says to work down the opportunity queries after the concentrated topics. It does not say that phrase means this cross-topic list, and it does not say it means the list inside one topic. Both lists exist. Keep the names apart.[1]

Open one topic. Your citations are on that page.

Click a topic and you get a detail page. Three cards sit at the top: Topic Size, your own citations within the topic, and the number of queries in it.[1]

That middle card is the count the portfolio table doesn't give you. Topic Size on the card is still the ecosystem total. The page's words for the third card are "the number of queries in it." The portfolio column is the one that says the query count is approximate, and that the queries are distinct. Don't upgrade the card to match the column.[1]

Under the cards, the queries split into two tables.[1]

  • Your Grounding Queries lists the top queries in this topic where your site already appears. The page says that list is aligned with the data you already know from Citations & Pages.[1]
  • Opportunity Queries lists the top queries in the same topic where other sites appear and yours does not. Citation volumes there are ranges.[1]

Together they are the two halves of a topic: what you already own, and what is still open.[1]

If you need the cited page for a query you already appear on, open Citations & Pages. The post says the grounding list lines up with that report. It does not walk those clicks. I didn't open that report, so I'm not walking them either. Check that list before you assign a new URL to a query you already appear for.[1]

Use the numbers as a plan, then mark the bad row

The page says publishers doing content strategy, editorial planning, and competitive positioning will get the most from it. The three new reads it names are the shape of your footprint, how crowded each topic is, and the queries where you can grow. Those are its claims. I didn't open an older screen.[1]

Then it puts a beta label on the whole view. "Treat the numbers as directional signals for planning, not as a precise ledger." The view is built on AI-generated classification and on ecosystem aggregates. Use the limits as a check, then keep the plan.[1]

  • Classification can miss. A query may land in a topic you would have labelled differently. That spelling is the page's.[1]
  • Topics with insufficient site presence, or insufficient ecosystem activity, are not shown.[1]
  • A branded query can show up as an opportunity. The page's example is a Running Shoes topic, where contososhoes.com may see Air Shoes listed as an opportunity even though it is a "Compete-branded" query. The page uses that phrase. It does not define it. I'm not swapping in a synonym.[1]
  • Topic Size, Sites Cited, and Queries are approximate. Opportunity volumes are ranges on purpose.[1]

Read that line before you assign a page to an opportunity. A name in the list can belong to another brand. The cleanup the page offers is the thumb.[1]

If a topic doesn't describe your content, or an opportunity query is off for your site, mark it down. If a cluster matches the way you already plan coverage, mark it up. Every topic row and every opportunity query carries a thumbs up and a thumbs down. The page says you can see those controls in both screenshots above that section. I didn't open the image.[1]

Those marks go to the team working on the classification and the opportunity selection. If a thumb is too small, the page points at the usual Bing Webmaster Tools feedback channels. It doesn't name a form URL in the paragraph I saved. Use the channel the product already gives you.[1]

What to hand the person who plans the next pages

Don't paste the whole portfolio into a deck and call it a calendar. Hand them four things from this screen.[1]

  • The window. One, two, or three months. Topic Size follows that period. Write the window next to the number.[1]
  • The topics where your citations are already concentrated. Those are the start, not the gaps.[1]
  • One topic opened. Your citations on the middle card. The grounding queries you already appear for. The opportunity queries in that topic, written as ranges. If you also copied Top Opportunity Queries from under the portfolio table, label that list as the cross-topic one.[1]
  • Any row you thumbed down, including a branded query the page's example says can land in an opportunity list.[1]

If the tab isn't there, hand them that too. Insufficient data is the page's condition. It is not a failed login, and it is not a number I can fill in.[1]

The post is a beta dated October 13, 2026. The counts were ranges on the page I fetched on 14 October 2026. Plan from the themes you already cite. Write the gaps as ranges. Mark the row when the cluster is wrong.

Sources

[1] https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2026/10/introducing-topics-portfolio-beta-in-ai-performance — Krishna Madhavan, Saral Nigam, and Vivek Jain, "Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance," Bing Webmaster Blog, October 13, 2026. Fetched 14 October 2026.