Nostimates

Microsoft Copilot citations tracking

copilotcitationsAnonymous

Copilot cites with numbered footnotes under the answer and leans on Bing's index, so its citation set tracks Bing organic visibility more closely than any other engine tracks its underlying index.

How it renders

Numbered footnote links rendered beneath the answer body.

Sampling

Citation sets are the least stable field we return. The same prompt run n times will produce overlapping but non-identical URL sets, which is why we report frequency across samples rather than a list from one run.

Gotcha

Do not report Copilot citation movement as an AI-search trend. The user base behind it is small, and a swing here says little about the direction of the wider market.

What the API returns

A single collection call against Microsoft Copilot for the citations field, sampled n times and returned as one object per prompt.

{
  "engine": "copilot",
  "field": "citations",
  "prompt": "best ai visibility tracking tool",
  "country": "GB",
  "language": "en",
  "n": 30,
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://nostimates.com/engines",
      "domain": "nostimates.com",
      "position": 1,
      "sample_frequency": 0.63
    },
    {
      "url": "https://example.org/guide",
      "domain": "example.org",
      "position": 3,
      "sample_frequency": 0.4
    }
  ]
}
GET /v1/collect?engine=copilot&field=citations

Response fields

KeyTypeNotes
urlstringAbsolute URL as the engine rendered it, redirects resolved.
domainstringRegistrable domain, normalised for grouping.
positionintegerOrder within the citation set for that sample.
sample_frequencyfloatShare of the n samples in which this URL appeared.
anchor_textstring | nullVisible anchor or chip label, when the engine renders one.
first_seendateFirst run in which this URL appeared for this prompt.

What it costs

1 credit per prompt per sample. Citations are included in the base collection — no surcharge.

See credit pricing →

Microsoft Copilot citations FAQ

Do Copilot citations follow Bing rankings?
More closely than any other engine follows its index. Strong Bing organic performance is the most reliable route into Copilot citations.
Is Copilot worth tracking?
As coverage, yes — a complete picture is more trustworthy than a partial one. As a trend signal, weight it lightly.

Add Copilot to your coverage list cheaply

Detection is soft here and cost per call is low. We'll add it to your engine set without moving the price much.

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Across every engine

Compare how citations behaves on every engine we track.

Citations across all engines →