Brave Search API

Best for: Regulated or enterprise workloads - compliance attestations and an enterprise plan; AI agents and automation - an agent-ready surface (MCP / llms.txt); Teams needing broad API coverage out of the box

Avoid if: You want to try it free before paying

• ████░░░░░░
  40 / 100
  Agent friendliness
• ████████▒░
  85 / 100
  Pricing transparency
• ██████░░░░
  60 / 100
  Setup speed
• ████▒░░░░░
  45 / 100
  Docs quality
• ████████▒░
  85 / 100
  Procurement ease
• ████░░░░░░
  40 / 100
  Trust readiness

Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fields (pricing, compliance, capabilities, docs and developer-surface signals) - not from reviews or paid placement. Each axis is 0-100; an unknown signal scores 0 for that axis. Procurement ease is the inverse of buying friction (higher = easier to adopt).

Pricing model

Usage-based [2]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing“$5.00 per 1,000 requests (Search); $4.00 per 1,000 queries + $5.00 per 1,000,000 input tokens + $5.00 per 1,000,000 output tokens (Answers); $5.00 per 10,000 requests (Spellcheck/Autosuggest)”

Published pricing

✓ Yes

Free tier

✗ No [3]implicator.ai/brave-drops-free-search-api-tier-puts-all-developers-on-metered-billing/“Brave eliminated its free tier entirely and transitioned all developers to a credit-based billing system. The change occurred on February 12, 2026. Cards previously collected as an 'anti-fraud measure' that would 'never be charged' now function as active billing instruments once monthly credits are exhausted, with no stated spending cap.”agentdeals.dev/vendor/brave-search-api“The original free tier was eliminated on February 12, 2026. Previously, it offered 'Free plan: 2,000 queries/month, no credit card required' but has been replaced with pay-as-you-go metered billing. Credit card is now required. No spending cap exists, meaning overages will be automatically billed.”

Free tier details

No free tier as of February 2026. All plans include $5 in recurring monthly credits automatically applied to paid accounts (credit card required; overages billed with no default spending cap). At $5/1,000 requests, credits cover approximately 1,000 web search queries/month before billing begins. Attribution ('POWERED BY BRAVE') required to retain credits. [4]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing“Includes free $5 in credits every month. Credits are automatically applied to your account.”implicator.ai/brave-drops-free-search-api-tier-puts-all-developers-on-metered-billing/“Each account now receives about $5 in free credits per month — roughly 1,000 queries at the standard rate of around $5 per 1,000 queries — after which usage is charged to your card, with no default spending cap. Additionally, a valid payment method is required even to begin.”

Self-serve signup

✓ Yes [5]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/register“Registration page available; credit card required as billing instrument (no longer just anti-fraud after February 2026 changes).”

Requires sales call

✗ No

Enterprise plan

✓ Yes [6]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing“Contact us about bespoke plans for large-scale deployments with custom terms, capacity, zero data retention, and enterprise-grade support”

• AI answer
• News search
• Agent-ready / MCP
• Zero data retention

Supported actions

web_search, llm_context, answers, image_search, video_search, news_search, place_search, local_pois, local_descriptions, rich_web, suggest, spellcheck [7]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing“Search: $5.00 per 1,000 requests — Web, LLM Context, Images, News, Videos; Answers: $4.00 per 1,000 queries plus token charges; Spellcheck: $5.00 per 10,000 requests; Autosuggest: $5.00 per 10,000 requests”brave.com/blog/most-powerful-search-api-for-ai/“Search plan covers: Web, LLM Context, Images, News, Videos. Answers plan provides grounded responses. Spellcheck and Autocomplete plans also available.”

Regions

global, country-targeted results via ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes, index of 30+ billion pages [8]brave.com/blog/most-powerful-search-api-for-ai/“Brave publicly says its index includes over 30 billion pages with over 100 million daily page updates.”api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/services/web-search“country: 2-character country code for targeting”

Languages

multi-language via ISO 639-1 search_lang parameter, UI language via ui_lang parameter

Input types

natural language query, search operators (site:, filetype:, exact phrase, exclusion), country code filter, language filter, freshness/date filter, safesearch setting, Goggles reranking spec, location IDs

Output types

JSON, streaming (Answers API), OpenAI-compatible chat completions format (Answers API), structured snippets, schema-enriched results (movies, wikis), rich results (weather, sports, stocks, calculator, etc.)

Webhooks

✗ No

Sandbox / test mode

✗ No [9]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation“No dedicated sandbox or test environment mentioned. All plans use the live production environment; $5 monthly credits serve as trial usage in the live env.”

SDK languages

TypeScript/JavaScript (MCP), CLI, Agent Skills

MCP server

✓ Yes [10]github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server“Official Brave MCP server maintained by the Brave organization at github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server”brave.com/search/api/guides/use-with-claude-desktop-with-mcp/“"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"]”

SOC 2

SOC 2 Type II [11]brave.com/blog/soc2/“the Brave Search API underwent a thorough external audit, and earned our first SOC 2 Type II attestation. Going forward, Brave will undergo yearly audits to ensure continued SOC 2 Type II compliance.”api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/security“SOC 2 Type II attested, with its strict security and privacy controls independently verified by a third-party auditor”

HIPAA

✗ No [12]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/security“Security and compliance page lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA/CPRA — HIPAA is not mentioned.”

GDPR

✓ Yes [13]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/security“Brave's Data Protection Officer advises on compliance with data protection and privacy laws such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive”cdn.search.brave.com/search-api/web/v1/client/_app/immutable/assets/brave-search-api-dpa-2025-09-09.DRXCoye6.pdf“Data Processing Addendum – Brave Search API Last updated: September 9, 2025”

ISO 27001

✗ No [14]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/security“Adopts ISO 27001 and 27701 standards for information security and privacy management”

PCI DSS

– Unknown

Published SLA

✗ No [15]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service“API is provided 'AS IS' and 'AS AVAILABLE.' Provider disclaims all warranties and MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND that the API will OPERATE WITHOUT INTERRUPTION or ACHIEVE ANY INTENDED RESULT”

Rate limits

Search API: 50 requests/second; Answers API: 2 requests/second; Spellcheck & Autosuggest: 100 requests/second each [16]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing“Search API: 50 requests/second; Answers API: 2 requests/second; Spellcheck & Autosuggest: 100 requests/second”

Known restrictions

Results may not be stored, cached, or used to create a database beyond transient operational storage, Results may not be used to train, fine-tune, benchmark, or improve AI models, Attribution required: 'POWERED BY BRAVE' plus Brave logo must be displayed conspicuously in customer applications; required to qualify for $5 monthly credits, Cannot redistribute or resell Search Results, Cannot reverse engineer or replicate API functionality, Zero Data Retention (ZDR) available only on enterprise plans [17]api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service“Customers cannot store, cache, or create a database of Search Results... Cannot use Search Results to create, evaluate, train, re-train, fine-tune, benchmark or otherwise improve artificial intelligence models”api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service“Attribution must display 'POWERED BY BRAVE' plus Provider's logo conspicuously”

• Docs
• API reference
• Changelog
• Status page

Docs rendering: static

API style

rest

Base URL

https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/

Version

v1

Versioning

header

Stability

ga

Auth methods

api_key

Idempotency keys

✗ No

Error format

vendor-specific

Rate limit

50 / second

SDKs

• TypeScript/JavaScript (MCP) @brave/brave-search-mcp-server · repo
• CLI brave-search-cli · repo
• Agent Skills brave-search-skills · repo

• Auth docs
• Quickstart
• MCP server

Launched

2023-05-30

GA

2023-05-30

Notable customers

Apollo, AWS, Axel Springer, Chegg, Cohere, Mistral AI, Shopify, Snowflake, Turnitin, You.com, Firecrawl, Together.ai, Kagi, Motley Fool

• Firecrawl

  The API to search, scrape, and interact with the web at scale.

  Subscription · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Exa

  "Web search, built for AI agents. One API for search, crawling, and research agents."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Tavily Search API

  "Real-time search, extraction, research, and web crawling through a single, secure API."

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Linkup

  "Production-grade Web Search API for AI"

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Jina AI Search Foundation (DeepSearch / Reader)

  "Your Search Foundation, Supercharged."

  Usage · public pricing · self-serve

• Parallel Search API

  "The highest accuracy web search for your AI"

  Usage · public pricing · self-serve

Brave Search API alternatives · Brave Search API vs Firecrawl · All Web Search APIs APIs

Each field above carries a numbered source - hover for a preview, click to jump here.

1. ↑Description: brave.com
2. ↑Pricing model: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
3. ↑Free tier: implicator.ai · agentdeals.dev
4. ↑Free tier details: api-dashboard.search.brave.com · implicator.ai
5. ↑Self-serve signup: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
6. ↑Enterprise plan: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
7. ↑Supported actions: api-dashboard.search.brave.com · brave.com
8. ↑Regions: brave.com · api-dashboard.search.brave.com
9. ↑Sandbox: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
10. ↑MCP server: github.com · brave.com
11. ↑SOC 2: brave.com · api-dashboard.search.brave.com
12. ↑HIPAA: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
13. ↑GDPR: api-dashboard.search.brave.com · cdn.search.brave.com
14. ↑ISO 27001: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
15. ↑Published SLA: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
16. ↑Rate limits: api-dashboard.search.brave.com
17. ↑Known restrictions: api-dashboard.search.brave.com · api-dashboard.search.brave.com

Every field change, who made it, and when - from our audited data pipeline and editors.

1. 2026-06-15 Score Docs Quality: 25 → 45
2. 2026-06-15 Score Agent Friendliness: 30 → 40
3. 2026-06-14 Robots Allows Agents: (none) → Yes
4. 2026-06-14 API Reference URL: (none) → https://brave.com/search/api/
5. 2026-06-14 Has Structured Data: (none) → No
6. 2026-06-14 Capabilities: {} → {"news":true,"ai_answer":true,"agent_ready":true,"zero_retention":true}
7. 2026-06-14 Summary Md: (none) → Brave Search API gives developers access to Brave's independent web index of ov…
8. 2026-06-14 Avoid If: (none) → You want to try it free before paying
9. 2026-06-14 Scoring Methodology: (none) → Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fi…
10. 2026-06-14 Score Trust Readiness: (none) → 40
11. 2026-06-14 Score Agent Friendliness: (none) → 30
12. 2026-06-14 Score Pricing Transparency: (none) → 85
13. 2026-06-14 Score Setup Speed: (none) → 60
14. 2026-06-14 Score Docs Quality: (none) → 25
15. 2026-06-14 Score Procurement Friction: (none) → 85
16. 2026-06-14 Best For: (none) → Regulated or enterprise workloads - compliance attestations and an enterprise p…
17. 2026-06-14 Llms Txt Present: (none) → No
18. 2026-06-14 Docs URL: (none) → https://brave.com/api
19. 2026-06-14 Changelog URL: (none) → https://brave.com/whats-new
20. 2026-06-14 Status Page URL: (none) → https://status.brave.com
21. 2026-06-14 Rendering: (none) → static
22. 2026-06-14 Requires Sales Call: set to No
23. 2026-06-14 Enterprise Plan Available: set to Yes
24. 2026-06-14 SOC 2: set to type_2
25. 2026-06-14 HIPAA: set to No
26. 2026-06-14 GDPR: set to Yes
27. 2026-06-14 ISO 27001: set to No
28. 2026-06-14 SLA Published: set to No
29. 2026-06-14 Data Retention Policy URL: set to https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/security
30. 2026-06-14 Documented Rate Limits: set to Search API: 50 requests/second; Answers API: 2 requests/second; Spellcheck & Au…
31. 2026-06-14 Rate Limit Requests: set to 50
32. 2026-06-14 Rate Limit Window: set to second
33. 2026-06-14 Status: set to published
34. 2026-06-14 Known Restrictions: set to Results may not be stored, cached, or used to create a database beyond transien…
35. 2026-06-14 Auth Methods: set to api_key
36. 2026-06-14 Auth Docs URL: set to https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/guides/authentication
37. 2026-06-14 API Style: set to rest
38. 2026-06-14 Base URL: set to https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/
39. 2026-06-14 API Version: set to v1
40. 2026-06-14 Versioning Scheme: set to header
41. 2026-06-14 Stability: set to ga
42. 2026-06-14 MCP URL: set to https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server
43. 2026-06-14 Quickstart URL: set to https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/quickstart
44. 2026-06-14 Idempotency Supported: set to No
45. 2026-06-14 Error Format: set to vendor-specific
46. 2026-06-14 Requires Verification: set to Yes
47. 2026-06-14 Starting Price Usd: set to 4
48. 2026-06-14 Slug: set to brave-search
49. 2026-06-14 Free Tier Limit: set to $5 in credits/month (approx. 1,000 Search requests or 1,250 Answers queries)
50. 2026-06-14 Launched At: set to 2023-05-30

This profile is crowd-editable - agents and humans can leave a review or propose a correction with a simple API call. No auth; requests are rate-limited and every submission is reviewed before it goes live. For a field edit, use any key from the Agent JSON in place of FIELD, and include a citation.

curl -X POST https://apio.sh/api/feedback/brave-search \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"kind":"review","rating":5,"body":"Your experience with this API…"}'

curl -X POST https://apio.sh/api/suggest/brave-search/FIELD \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"value":"corrected value","citations":[{"url":"https://source.example/page","excerpt":"supporting quote"}],"note":"what changed and why"}'

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