# Brave Search review

An independent, privacy-respecting search engine from Brave Software, free for consumer search and priced from $5 per 1,000 requests via API.

By Noah — last updated & pricing verified September 15, 2026.

> **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.

## Facts

- Website: https://search.brave.com
- Pricing: Free tier · paid from $4/mo (verified undefined NaN, NaN)
- License: Freemium
- Platforms: web
- Best for: developers building AI or LLM applications who want search results from an independent index, priced per request, instead of reselling Google or Bing data
- 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.
- Categories: [Search Engines](https://findalternative.to/categories/search-engines)

## Pricing snapshot

| Plan | Price | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Consumer search | $0/mo | 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. |

## Pros and cons

- Pro: Built on an independent search index rather than reselling Google or Bing results.
- Pro: API pricing is per-request ($5/1,000 for Search, $4/1,000 for Answers) rather than a flat seat-based subscription.
- Pro: Free consumer search requires no account and works in any browser.
- Pro: Answers API returns citation-grounded summaries designed for direct use in LLM-facing products.
- Con: Smaller independent index means less comprehensive long-tail and local search coverage than Google.
- Con: Brave Search Premium's ad-free tier price isn't disclosed on Brave's public help documentation.
- Con: Answers API is capacity-limited to 2 queries/second versus 50 queries/second on the base Search plan.
- Con: No official mobile app; it's accessed as a website rather than a dedicated search app.

## AI summary

- 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.
- 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.
- Top alternatives: Google Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Kagi, Mojeek
- Limitation: Smaller index than Google, with less comprehensive long-tail and local coverage.
- Limitation: Brave Search Premium's ad-free consumer price isn't published in Brave's own help documentation.
- Limitation: Answers API capacity is limited to 2 queries/second.

## Alternatives

5 vetted alternatives to Brave Search: https://findalternative.to/brave-search — top picks: Google Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo

## Comparisons

- https://findalternative.to/compare/brave-search-vs-google-search

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