Search the web

Brave Search API

Web search API backed by Brave's own index that returns ranked results, news, images, or extracted page content for LLMs.

At a glance

Provider: Brave Software
Category: Search the web
Type: Hosted API
Pricing model: Prepaid credits, no subscription1
Free tier: $5 in free credits every month1
Authentication: API key in the X-Subscription-Token header2
Connect via: REST API, local MCP server, agent skills10
Read from the provider's pages: 2026-11-04

Pricing

Pricing model: Prepaid credits, no subscription
Free tier: $5 in free credits every month on each of the Search and Answers plans
Free tier (other page): Up to $20 in free calls every month

Pricing in full →Tools

Official MCP server: Yes, local
Address or package: @brave/brave-search-mcp-server (npm), docker.io/mcp/brave-search; source https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server

Tools in full →Authentication

Who creates the account: A person creates an account and activates a plan; agents can pay per request with x402 instead
Where to get a key: Dashboard API Keys section after activating a plan (https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/keys)
Other requirements: Payment details, postal address and billing details

Authentication in full →Setup

REST API: https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1
MCP server: Local only (STDIO default, HTTP optional on port 8080); no hosted address found
OpenAPI spec: Not published

Setup in full →Limits

Search plan: 50 queries per second
Answers plan: 2 queries per second
Window: 1-second sliding window; HTTP 429 when exceeded

Limits in full →Privacy

Data location: Provider is based in the U.S.; processing region not stated
Retention: Search query logs kept up to 90 days for billing and troubleshooting
Used for training: No; queries are not shared or trained on

Privacy in full →

Read from Brave Software’s own pages on 2026-11-04. Every number links to the page a value came from. For agents, the same facts as markdown: /tools/search-the-web/brave-search-api.md