Free Bing API completely Dead

If by "completely" you mean "not at all" then yes.

First 5,000 requests are still free, and the prices are very inexpensive at the low-end, and I'll bet at the high-end you are either generating revenue and/or could negotiate with them.

The web search API remains free. Additionally, the other API features are free up to 5,000 transactions per month (images, maps, retail search, etc.)

I wouldn't say it's completely dead.

This should not have been unexpected, given Microsoft's investment in Bing vs the cost of keeping a web index fresh and humming, it was inevitable. On the plus side, unlike other services, if you built your app on top of it you can pay for it and your app can continue running. This is, I expect, preferable to having the API be simply discontinued.