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You deleted the page, asked the website to take the photo down, or never posted it at all — yet the picture still appears in Bing Images. That happens because Bing keeps its own copy of the image and the page it came from, and that copy does not vanish the moment the original disappears. The fix depends on one question: is Bing the only place the image still exists, or is the original page still live?
To remove an image from Bing, delete it at the source or ask the owner to do so, then ask Bing to refresh its copy. If the source page is gone, use Bing’s Content Removal Tool and choose “Outdated Cache”. Site owners can block the URL in Webmaster Tools; harmful or stolen images go through Microsoft’s Report a Concern form.
This guide is about images only. Removing a web page, a business listing or a whole site from Bing follows different steps, and general guides that mix everything together usually skip the details that matter for photos. Below you will find the exact sequence for each situation, a worked example, realistic timelines, and what to do when Bing says no.
Why Does Bing Still Show an Image After the Page Is Gone?
Bing Images does not show you the live web. It shows you an index — a snapshot Bing built when its crawler last visited each page — plus a cached thumbnail served from Microsoft’s servers. When a page is deleted, the live page is gone, but Bing’s snapshot can linger until Bing re-crawls the address, notices the page is missing, and drops it from the index.
That lingering snapshot is what Microsoft calls “outdated cache”: a search result that still shows a page or an image that has changed or disappeared at the source. An outdated-cache request is therefore different from a takedown. A takedown says “this content breaks a rule or a law, take it down”. An outdated-cache request says “your copy is out of date — the original has already changed, please look again”. Knowing which one you need decides which form to use, and using the wrong one is the most common reason requests stall.
There are three situations, and each has its own route:
| Your situation | The right route | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|
| The image is still live on a page you do not control | Ask the website owner first, then use the outdated-cache tool | Anyone |
| The image is gone from the source, but Bing still shows it | Outdated-cache request in Bing’s Content Removal Tool | Anyone |
| You own the website the image sits on | Block URLs in Bing Webmaster Tools, or delete the page / add NOINDEX | Site owners only |
| The image is harmful, private or your copyrighted work | Report a Concern, or the copyright infringement form | Anyone affected |
Before you file anything, work out which row you are in. The worked example below follows the most common one: a photo that is already gone from its source, but still visible in Bing Images.
Step 1: Find the Exact Page Behind the Image
A removal request needs the exact address of the page the image sits on — not just the image itself. If you only have the picture, find its home page first. In Bing Images, click the image to open its detail panel, then click “Visit page” (or the page title) to open the source page. Note the full address from your browser’s address bar. If the page loads, the image is still live. If you see a 404 error or a “page not found” message, the source is already gone — and that is useful evidence for the outdated-cache request.
If the image appears in Bing Images but the detail panel gives you no usable link, run a reverse image search on the picture. Upload it or paste its address into Google Lens and check which pages use the same image; the oldest or most authoritative match is usually the source. Our guide to finding when a photo was taken also shows how to use the image’s date and context to tell the original apart from copies, which matters when the same photo has been reposted in several places.
Take a screenshot of the Bing Images result as well, including the search terms you used and the date. You may need it for the report form, and it proves the image was visible on a specific day if the listing changes while your request is being reviewed.
The worked example: Sarah’s old staff headshot
Sarah left her job in early 2025. Her employer removed the staff page that carried her headshot, and the photo no longer appears anywhere on the company website. But when Sarah searches Bing Images for her name, the headshot still appears, and clicking it opens the old staff-page address, which now returns a 404 error. The live page is gone, the image is gone from the web, and Bing’s index is now the only place the photo still shows up.
That is the “Bing is now the sole host” situation. There is no website owner left to ask, because the page no longer exists. Sarah’s route is the outdated-cache request in Step 3 — she does not need the company’s permission, and she does not need to own the site. The steps below follow her case from start to finish. Outcomes can vary: Bing reviews each request, and a request can be refused if the details do not match, so keep copies of everything you submit.
Step 2: Ask the Website Owner to Remove the Image First
If the source page is still live — the image is on a blog, a forum, a business directory or a social profile — start with the website owner, not with Bing. Bing cannot delete content from somebody else’s website. It can only stop showing its copy of it, and if the original is still live, Bing may re-index the image later and it will come straight back.
Find the site’s contact page, email address or report form. If it is a social platform, use its own reporting tool instead of email — every major platform has a report option on each post and profile. Keep your message short, specific and polite. Include the exact page address, a description of the image, and a clear request with a date. Here is a message you can adapt:
Hello, I am writing about a photo of me on this page: [paste the full page address]. The photo is [describe it briefly — for example, “a headshot of me in a blue jacket, taken at a work event”]. The page is no longer accurate / I did not give permission for this photo to be used. Please delete the image from the page. I would be grateful if you could confirm once it is removed. Thank you, [your name].
Give the owner a reasonable time to act — a week is fair for a small site, a few working days for a large platform. While you wait, do not file a removal request with Bing for the same image, because Bing checks the live page: if the image is still there, the request will be refused. Once the owner confirms the image is gone, or you can see for yourself that the page returns a 404 or the image has been removed, move to Step 3.
If the owner refuses or never replies, you still have options. If the image is your copyrighted work, the copyright route in Step 5 applies. If it is harmful or shows sensitive personal information, the Report a Concern route in Step 5 also applies. And if the page is already gone but Bing still shows the image, Step 3 is your route — no owner’s cooperation is needed.
Remove Image from Bing: Using the Outdated-Cache Tool
The Content Removal Tool is the route for non-owners whose image has already been deleted or changed at the source. According to Microsoft’s help pages, this is the tool to use when the content in Bing’s results is outdated — the page has been removed, the image has been replaced, or the information has changed. Here is the exact sequence:
- Open Bing’s Content Removal Tool at the address given in Microsoft’s removal guide and sign in with a Microsoft account. Signing in is not strictly required for every request type, but it lets you track the request afterwards, so it is worth doing.
- Choose the “Outdated Cache” option. This tells Bing you are not reporting a rule-break or a copyright problem — you are telling Bing its copy is out of date.
- Paste the Bing search-result address — the address of the result as it appears in Bing, not the image file itself. This is the URL Bing shows when you click through from the search results.
- Provide the updated page or image address — the live page where the image used to sit (which now returns a 404, or no longer shows the image). This is how Bing checks your claim: it compares its cached copy with what is live now.
- Submit the request and keep the confirmation. Microsoft’s help pages say Bing reviews outdated-cache requests within 24 hours.
Read Microsoft’s own guide to removing content from Bing and Copilot before you submit, because it lists the current options and what each one needs. It also states plainly that Bing can only update its own results — it cannot remove the content from the internet itself. That is why the source must be gone or changed first.
In Sarah’s case, the submission is straightforward. Her Bing result address is the old staff-page URL as it appears in Bing Images. Her updated-page address is the same URL — which now returns a 404. Bing’s reviewer can check that the page is gone and clear the cached image. If Bing instead finds the image still live somewhere, the request will be refused, and the refusal will usually mean the source was not actually removed. Check the source again before re-submitting, and wait for the 24-hour review window to pass before assuming something has gone wrong.
One warning: an outdated-cache request only refreshes the specific result you submit. If the same image appears in Bing Images under several different page addresses, each address needs its own request. Run a reverse image search first and list every address that hosts the image, so you do not clear one copy and miss three more.
Step 4: If You Own the Website — Block the URL or Remove It Permanently
Site owners have faster and stronger tools than the public outdated-cache route, because they control the source. Microsoft’s help pages set out two options: a temporary block, and a permanent removal.
The fastest option is the Block URLs tool in Bing Webmaster Tools. Sign in with a Microsoft account, verify the site, then go to Configuration, then Block URLs. Enter the address of the page carrying the image — one address per line — and choose the block type. “Page” hides that page from results; “Page and Cached” hides the page and its cached copy, which is the option you want for an image; “Directory” hides a whole folder of pages. Most blocks are processed in under 12 hours, according to Microsoft, and a temporary block lasts up to 90 days.
A temporary block is only a pause. It hides the result from Bing and Copilot search results, but it does not remove the content from Bing’s index, from the web, or from other search engines. For a permanent removal, delete the page so it returns a 404 or 410 status, or add a NOINDEX tag to the page so search engines are told not to index it. Bing will drop the page once it re-crawls the address and sees the change, which can take several days. You can speed up detection by updating your XML sitemap or using IndexNow to tell Bing about the change.
If a page has already been deleted and still appears in Bing’s results, Microsoft points site owners to the same Content Removal Tool described in Step 3 — use the outdated-cache option for that lingering copy.
What If the Image Is Harmful, Private or Stolen?
Some images need more than a cache refresh. If the photo shows sensitive personal information, was posted without consent, is defamatory, or is being used in a scam, Microsoft’s Report a Concern form is the right route. The form, at Microsoft’s Report a Concern page, covers Bing Search and other Microsoft products. Choose “Bing Search” as the service, paste the link to the content, then choose a concern type. The form lists ten types, including Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Defamation, Fraud and Scams, Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery, and Exposure of Sensitive Personal Information. You will be asked for a description, the search terms that surface the image, and your country or region, and you can attach a screenshot or a court order as evidence.
There is one exception on that form: if you choose “IP Infringement”, the form does not continue. Instead it directs you to Bing’s separate copyright form, because copyright complaints follow the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) process. The copyright form covers Bing’s web, image and video search indexes, and it asks for the type of work — “Photograph” is one of the listed types — plus the infringing address and a statement made in good faith. Only the copyright owner or an authorised agent can submit it, and it has no outdated-cache option, so do not use it for a simple stale result.
If the photo is yours and somebody else is using it without permission, our guide to sending a DMCA takedown for stolen photos walks through the full copyright route, including how to find every copy of the image first so your notice covers all of them. If the image is an intimate photo shared without your consent, act quickly and keep evidence before you report — take screenshots of the Bing result and the source page, save the addresses, and note the date and time. Services that hash intimate images so they can be blocked across partner platforms exist for this situation; the key point is to report through the official form, not through a third-party “removal” service that charges a fee for something you can file yourself for free.
How Long Does Removal Take — and What to Do If the Image Comes Back?
Timelines depend on the route, and they are worth knowing before you file, so you can tell the difference between “still being processed” and “refused”. Microsoft’s help pages give these figures:
| Route | Typical timing (per Microsoft) | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Outdated-cache request (Content Removal Tool) | Reviewed within 24 hours | Permanent, once Bing refreshes its copy |
| Temporary Block URLs (site owners) | Most blocks processed in under 12 hours | Up to 90 days |
| Permanent removal (delete page / NOINDEX) | Takes effect after re-crawling, which may take several days | Permanent |
| Report a Concern (harmful content) | Reviewed case by case; no fixed window published | Permanent if upheld |
Check the result after the stated window has passed. Search Bing Images again using the same search terms, and also search the exact image address. If the image is gone from Bing Images but still appears in a general web search, you may need to submit a separate request for the web result — image results and web results are refreshed separately.
If the image comes back, something at the source has changed. The usual causes are: the website owner restored the page, the image was re-uploaded under a new address, or another site copied it and Bing indexed the new copy. Run a reverse image search again to find the new address, deal with the source first, then file a fresh outdated-cache request for the new result. If you keep clearing copies while the source stays live, the image will keep returning — that is why Step 2 comes before Step 3.
If none of the tools fit your case — for example, the result is wrong but not harmful, not copyrighted and not outdated — use the Feedback link at the bottom of the Bing results page to tell Microsoft the result is wrong or out of date. It is a slower route than the removal tools, but it reaches the team that handles result quality, and it is the right fallback when no formal request type applies.
Finally, prevention is cheaper than removal. Once the image is gone from Bing, stop it from spreading again: check where else the photo is published, ask those sites to remove it too, and tighten who can download or repost your pictures. Our complete guide to protecting your photos online covers the settings and habits that keep a removed photo from reappearing. And if the same photo is still showing in Google’s results, the process is separate — see our guide to removing your photos from Google, because clearing Bing does not clear Google, and clearing Google does not clear Bing.
FAQs
How long does it take to remove an image from Bing?
It depends on the route. Microsoft says outdated-cache requests are reviewed within 24 hours, and most temporary URL blocks are processed in under 12 hours. Deleting the page or adding a NOINDEX tag takes effect after Bing re-crawls the address, which may take several days. Harmful-content reports are reviewed case by case, with no fixed window published.
Can I remove an image from Bing if I do not own the website?
Yes, if the image is gone or changed at the source. Use Bing’s Content Removal Tool, choose “Outdated Cache”, and give the Bing result address and the live page address. If the image is still live on another site, ask the owner to delete it first. Harmful, private or copyrighted images go through the Report a Concern or copyright form.
Why does Bing still show an image after the page was deleted?
Bing Images shows an index and a cached thumbnail built when Bing’s crawler last visited the page, not the live web. When a page is deleted, the live page is gone, but Bing’s snapshot remains until Bing re-crawls the address and notices it is missing. An outdated-cache request asks Bing to check the live page again and refresh its copy.
What should I do if Bing refuses my removal request?
First, check the source again: a refusal usually means Bing found the image still live, or the addresses you gave did not match. Fix the source problem, then file a request with the correct addresses. If the image is harmful, private or stolen, use the Report a Concern or copyright form, and keep screenshots and copies of everything you submitted.
