Brave Search API vs SearchApi (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, SearchApi grades higher than Brave Search API: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
SearchApi grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Brave Search API
Web search API from Brave's own index, built for AI agents and apps
SearchApi
Real-time SERP API for Google, AI answers and dozens of other sites
Which one is for you
Pick Brave Search API if
- Fits if you're grounding an AI chatbot in current web results without scraping Google
- Works for apps moving off Google's Custom Search JSON API
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need Google or Bing rankings, as results come only from Brave's index
- Watch out: a credit card is needed to sign up, even for the free monthly credit
- Watch out: storing results or training models on them needs a plan with storage rights
- Tight if you need volume, at 50 requests a second on Search and 2 on Answers before Enterprise
- Pricey if you use Answers, at $4 per 1,000 queries plus $5 per million tokens each way
Pick SearchApi if
- Fits if you need Google results and ChatGPT or Perplexity answers in the same format
- Works for teams watching ads in the Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit and TikTok libraries
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if your jobs come in bursts, since any one hour can use only 20% of the month's searches
- Pricey if you need answers faster, as enhanced speed doubles the price of every plan
- Skip it if you need team management or the legal guarantee for $40, as both start at $100
- Not for you if you want a free plan that renews, since the 100 requests come once
How we grade them
| 2.2GPABrave Search APIFair | 2.4GPASearchApiFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo subscription: Search is $5 per 1,000 requests from prepaid credits, after $5 of free credit a month. That's the dear end of what this category charges per search, and Answers adds token charges on top. | CDeveloper is $40 a month for 10,000 searches, $4 per 1,000, right at this category's middle. Enhanced speed doubles any plan, and the Legal Protection Guarantee needs Production at $100. |
| Free plan and trial | C$5 of free credit every month on each plan, about 1,000 searches, but a credit card is needed to sign up. | CNo free plan: 100 free requests on sign-up with no card, and then you're paying. |
| Features | CWeb, news, image, video and places search from Brave's own index, an LLM Context endpoint, cited Answers and Goggles to rerank results. The listing's own gap: it can't show what ranks on Google or Bing. | BGoogle with AI Overview, AI Mode, Maps, Shopping, Lens and Scholar, answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, plus Bing, Baidu, YouTube, Amazon and ad libraries, targeted down to coordinates. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one key for every search type, and an Answers interface that works with the OpenAI SDK. No rating on record, and a card is asked for at sign-up. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: plain GET requests, with examples in Python, Node, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP and C#. No rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API and the OpenAI SDK, Amazon Bedrock and OpenClaw. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb, with an API, code samples in many languages and an MCP server for AI assistants. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | web results from an independent index | Google and AI answer engines from one API |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Brave Search API and SearchApi. How we grade
Where they differ
At a glance
| Brave Search API | SearchApi | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | Not published | $40 per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly |
| Free plan | $5 of free credit every month on each prepaid plan (Search, Answers, Spellcheck and Autosuggest), applied automatically. A credit card is needed to sign up. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 100 free requests on sign-up, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Brave Software, Inc. | SearchApi, LLC |
| Price read from | api-dashboard.search.brave.com | searchapi.io |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Brave Search API
- Usage is billed from prepaid credits: Search is $5 per 1,000 requests, and Answers $4 per 1,000 queries plus $5 per million input and output tokens.
- Spellcheck and Autosuggest cost $5 per 10,000 requests, and storing results or training models on them needs a plan with storage rights.
- Results come only from Brave's index, so it does not report what ranks on Google or Bing.
- Capacity is 50 requests per second on Search and 2 on Answers; more needs an Enterprise agreement.
SearchApi
- Each plan can use only 20% of its monthly searches in any one hour.
- The Legal Protection Guarantee and team management are not on the Developer plan.
- Enhanced speed doubles the price of any plan; larger plans run to Octo 2M at $2,800 and Octo 5M at $5,000 a month, with custom plans on request.
- The 100 free requests are a sign-up allowance; the pages do not describe an ongoing free plan.
Key features
Brave Search API
- Brave's own index
- Every result comes from Brave's crawler and ranking, informed by opt-in signals from Brave users, with no fallback to Google or Bing for any query.
- LLM Context endpoint
- Returns ranked, extracted page content for a model to answer from, sized from 1k to about 33k tokens, with a relevance threshold and a URL and timestamp per source.
- Web, news, image, video and places
- The Search plan covers human-readable web results plus news, images, videos and location-aware places with map data, under one API key.
- Goggles and richer results
- Goggles rerank results and limit them to chosen sites; up to five extra snippets per result and schema-enriched results with added metadata.
- Answers endpoint
- Writes answers grounded on one or several searches, with citations and streaming, through an interface compatible with the OpenAI SDK.
- Privacy and security
- Brave says queries are never shared or used for training, retention is zero by design, and the service is SOC 2 Type II attested.
SearchApi
- Google and its verticals
- Google Search, Light, AI Overview, AI Mode, Maps and reviews, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, News, Images, Lens, Jobs, Scholar, Trends and a rank tracking endpoint.
- AI answer engines
- Endpoints for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Bing Copilot answers alongside the Google AI features.
- Other engines and sites
- Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Naver, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, TikTok, app stores, and Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit and TikTok ad libraries.
- Pay per success
- Only searches that return a 200 status code are charged, and requests run through premium proxies with location targeting down to coordinates.
- Legal Protection Guarantee
- From the Production plan up, SearchApi says it takes legal responsibility for how it collects and parses public results, with up to $2 million in coverage.
- Code samples and MCP
- Plain GET requests with examples in Python, Node, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP, C# and other languages, and an MCP server for AI assistants.
Plans
Brave Search API
Free monthly credits$0
$5 of credit a month on each of Search, Answers, Spellcheck and Autosuggest; usage beyond it is drawn from prepaid credits.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom terms, capacity and endpoints, full-funnel zero data retention, NDAs, invoicing and enterprise support. Sold through sales.
SearchApi
Developer Plan$40
per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly
$4 per 1,000 searches and a 99.9% SLA. Enhanced speed, with parallel threads, doubles the price to $80.
Production Plan$100
per month for 35,000 searches, billed monthly
$3 per 1,000 searches, team management and the Legal Protection Guarantee. $200 with enhanced speed.
BigData Plan$250
per month for 100,000 searches, billed monthly
$2.50 per 1,000 searches, with medium throughput. $500 with enhanced speed.
Scale Plan$500
per month for 250,000 searches, billed monthly
$2 per 1,000 searches, high throughput and search analytics. $1,000 with enhanced speed.
Octo 500K$900
per month for 500,000 searches, billed monthly
$1.80 per 1,000 searches, dedicated throughput and priority support. $1,800 with enhanced speed.
Octo 1M$1,500
per month for 1 million searches, billed monthly
$1.50 per 1,000 searches, dedicated throughput and priority support. $3,000 with enhanced speed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Brave Search API or SearchApi?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Brave Search API publishes no starting price, and SearchApi starts at $40 per month for 10,000 searches, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Brave Search API or SearchApi?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Brave Search API has a free plan. SearchApi does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.