Web category checker (beta) can't find web category for newly registered domains

Question

Web category checker (beta) can't find web category for newly registered domains

Falko Müller 0

We do use MS graph API to check web categories for specific sites and noticed that for sites (mostly located in France) there is no web category found.

meilleures-alarmes.fr

bookvibe.fr

troviio.com

shopmind.fr

alfredostudio.co.uk

Defender categorizes those as "Newly registered domains", which would be the expected output.

Here an example call and the results I get:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/networkaccess/connectivity/microsoft.graph.networkaccess.getWebCategoriesByUrl(url='@url')?@``meilleures-alarmes.fr

{
    "error": {
        "code": "NotFound",
        "message": "No web category found for URL: alfredostudio.co.uk.",
        "innerError": {
            "date": "2026-05-08T11:48:56",
            "request-id": "74b5ae3e-a961-4c8f-a9dc-cabced3590fe",
            "client-request-id": "69e622d6-0b8b-7a9c-2d03-978f52e65fb3"
        }
    }
}

I know it's in beta/preview only, but can be please investigated?

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1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

The behavior is consistent with the current preview implementation of the Global Secure Access web category checker API and its webCategory model, not a documented bug.

The getWebCategoryByUrl / getWebCategoriesByUrl function validates the web categorization of a URL in Global Secure Access web content filtering and returns a webCategory resource when a category is available:

GET /networkAccess/connectivity/getWebCategoryByUrl(url='@url')?@url=url

If successful, it returns HTTP 200 and a webCategory object with the following properties:

name – unique name of the web category
displayName – display name of the web category
group – group or parent category

Example response:

{
  "@odata.context": "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/$metadata#microsoft.graph.networkaccess.webCategory",
  "name": "Sports",
  "displayName": "Sports",
  "group": "GeneralSurfing"
}

If no web category is found for the supplied URL, the API returns a NotFound error, as in the sample error payload. This is the documented behavior for cases where the service does not have a webCategory classification to return.

In Defender web content filtering, “Newly registered domains” is a child category under the “Uncategorized” parent category. However, the documentation does not state that every Defender web content filtering category (including “Newly registered domains”) is guaranteed to be exposed via the Global Secure Access web category checker API. The API only returns a webCategory when a corresponding classification exists in the Global Secure Access web categorization service.

Given the current documentation:

A NotFound response for some newly registered domains is expected behavior when the Global Secure Access web categorization service has no webCategory entry for those URLs.
The API is in /beta, and its behavior (including coverage of categories such as “Newly registered domains”) is explicitly subject to change and not supported for production use.

To proceed:

Continue to treat NotFound as “no webCategory currently available in Global Secure Access for this URL,” even if Defender separately shows “Newly registered domains.”
For investigation or product feedback (for example, to request alignment with Defender’s “Newly registered domains” category), open a support ticket or provide feedback through the standard Microsoft support channels for Global Secure Access / Microsoft Graph beta APIs.

References: