Brave Search API

Active

api.search.brave.com

Country: United States (US)
Founded: 2021
Developer: Brave Software, Inc.
Pricing: Freemium ($5 per 1,000 requests)
Open source: No
Platforms: Web

Indexes

APIs & MCP Servers

Overview

The Brave Search API provides access to Brave's independent web index for web, news, image, video, and local search results. It processes queries through proprietary crawling and ranking algorithms without relying on third-party engines like Google or Bing. Targeted at developers building search-enabled applications, chatbots, and AI agents, it emphasizes privacy with zero data retention policies across all plans.

Key Features

Independent Web Index - Access to over 35 billion webpages with daily updates from Brave's proprietary crawler.
Multiple Search Types - Supports web, news, images, videos, local results, and AI-generated summaries.
Goggles - Custom re-ranking of results using predefined or hosted goggle definitions.
Safesearch Filtering - Options for off, moderate, or strict filtering of adult content.
Country and Date Filters - Results localized by country code and filtered by freshness (pd, pw, pm, py) or custom date ranges.
Extra Snippets - Up to 5 additional excerpts per result for enhanced context.
High Throughput - Supports 50 queries per second with 99.9% uptime and low latencies.
Zero Data Retention - No logging or retention of user queries regardless of plan.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Includes
Free Tier	Free	2,000–5,000 queries/month depending on use case.
Pay-as-you-go	$5 per 1,000 requests	Web search, news, images, videos, AI summaries; scales to thousands of requests/second.

Platforms & Requirements

Operates as a RESTful web API accessible via HTTPS from any platform with internet connectivity. No client-side software installation required. Rate limits apply based on subscription tier.

Integrations & Ecosystem

Apify Brave Search Scraper
Brave Search Skills for AI agents (Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot)
Autocomplete and spellcheck endpoints
Goggles for custom result re-ranking
AI summary generation
Localized search by country
Custom date range filtering

Alternatives

App	Difference
Google Custom Search JSON API	Relies on Google's index with potential data retention; higher costs for large-scale use.
Bing Web Search API	Powered by Microsoft's ecosystem; less emphasis on independent indexing or zero data retention.
SerpAPI	Third-party scraper aggregating multiple engines; incurs markup fees on top of provider costs.
Tavily Search API	AI-optimized for LLMs but lacks independent index; focuses on aggregated results.

Reputation

Brave Search API is recognized for its privacy focus, particularly zero data retention, appealing to developers prioritizing user data control. Its independent index avoids Big Tech dependencies, earning praise for unbiased results. Some users note it's newer with a smaller index than giants like Google, potentially affecting result comprehensiveness in niche queries.

Sources (8)