Brave Search — An independent, privacy-respecting search engine from Brave Software, free for consumer search and priced from $5 per 1,000 requests via API.
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Brave Search in 20 seconds
Best for: developers building AI or LLM applications who want search results from an independent index priced per request
Pricing: Free for consumer search; API from $5/1,000 requests (Search) or $4/1,000 requests plus token costs (Answers); Enterprise custom.
- Brave Search's consumer product is free with no account required.
- The Brave Search API Search plan costs $5 per 1,000 requests with 50 queries/second capacity.
- The Brave Search API Answers plan costs $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million tokens.
- Brave Search runs on an independently crawled index rather than reselling Google or Bing results.
- Brave Search is the default search engine in the Brave browser but is accessible from any browser.
Limitations: Smaller index than Google, with less comprehensive long-tail and local coverage.; Brave Search Premium's ad-free consumer price isn't published in Brave's own help documentation.; Answers API capacity is limited to 2 queries/second.
Top alternatives: Google Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Kagi, Mojeek — full list
What is Brave Search?
Brave Search is a search engine built and operated by Brave Software on an independently crawled index, rather than being a skin over Google or Bing results the way many alternative search engines are. It's the default search provider inside the Brave browser but works from any browser at search.brave.com. Beyond consumer search, Brave Search exposes a paid API aimed at developers building AI and LLM applications: a Search plan returns full web results optimized for use as LLM context, and an Answers plan returns summarized, citation-grounded answers directly. Both are priced per request rather than per seat. A Brave Search Premium subscription removes ads from consumer search results, though it's exclusive to the Brave Browser and its price wasn't disclosed on the pages available.
Brave Search is a search engine built on an independent index rather than reselling Google or Bing results, run by Brave Software as the default search provider in the Brave browser but usable from any browser at search.brave.com. Consumer search is free with no account required. For developers, the Brave Search API charges $5 per 1,000 requests for the Search plan (50 queries/second, includes $5 in free monthly credits) or $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million tokens for the Answers plan (2 queries/second, LLM-ready summarized results with citations); Enterprise plans offer custom terms and zero data retention. Brave Search differentiates on independence: it doesn't primarily repackage another provider's index the way many alternative search engines do, which it positions as both a privacy advantage (no data shared with a third-party index owner) and a technical one for AI applications that need grounding data not filtered through a competitor's ranking algorithm. A paid Brave Search Premium tier offers ad-free results, though pricing for that consumer tier was not published on the pages checked.
Standout feature: Runs on an independently crawled search index rather than reselling another provider's results, exposed through a per-request API purpose-built for grounding LLM answers with citations.
Biggest weakness: Consumer Brave Search Premium (the ad-free tier) doesn't publish its price on Brave's own help documentation, and as a smaller independent index it has less comprehensive long-tail and local search coverage than Google.
Pros
- Built on an independent search index rather than reselling Google or Bing results.
- API pricing is per-request ($5/1,000 for Search, $4/1,000 for Answers) rather than a flat seat-based subscription.
- Free consumer search requires no account and works in any browser.
- Answers API returns citation-grounded summaries designed for direct use in LLM-facing products.
Cons
- Smaller independent index means less comprehensive long-tail and local search coverage than Google.
- Brave Search Premium's ad-free tier price isn't disclosed on Brave's public help documentation.
- Answers API is capacity-limited to 2 queries/second versus 50 queries/second on the base Search plan.
- No official mobile app; it's accessed as a website rather than a dedicated search app.
Brave Search pricing
Free tier · paid from $4/mo · verified from the vendor's pricing page
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer search | Free | Free, ad-supported search at search.brave.com; no account required. |
| API: Search | $5/mo | $5 per 1,000 requests, 50 queries/second, includes $5 in free monthly credits; full web results optimized for LLM context. |
| API: Answers | $4/mo | $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million input/output tokens, 2 queries/second; summarized, citation-grounded answers. |
| API: Enterprise | Custom | Custom pricing; custom capacity/endpoints and full zero data retention. |
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