Brave Search API vs Serper (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Serper 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
Serper grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, 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
Serper
Google search results API sold in prepaid credit packs
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 Serper if
- Fits if you only need Google and would rather pay per query than per month
- Works for AI agents on LangChain or CrewAI that need current Google results
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need Bing, Yahoo or any engine other than Google
- Watch out: credits expire 6 months after purchase, so a big pack you don't use up is money lost
- Tight if you're testing, as the 2,500 free queries come once and there's no monthly free plan
- Watch out: refunds run 7 days from the first payment, and only with under 20% of the credits used
How we grade them
| 2.2GPABrave Search APIFair | 2.4GPASerperFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | B$50 buys 50,000 Google queries, $1 per 1,000, one of the lowest rates in this category, and bigger packs fall to $0.30. The first spend is at the dear end of the usual $25 to $50, though, and the credits lapse after 6 months. |
| 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, but 2,500 free queries with no card. They're a one-off, not a monthly allowance. |
| 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. | CTen Google result types, from web and maps to Scholar, patents and autocomplete, fetched live with country and language set. Google only, though: no Bing, Yahoo or other engine, which the listing itself points out. |
| 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: most results in 1 to 2 seconds and 2,500 free queries to test with. No rating on record, and no client libraries named. |
| 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 and listed integrations with LangChain, CrewAI, Haystack and Jan AI. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | web results from an independent index | live Google results on prepaid credits |
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 Serper. How we grade
Where they differ
At a glance
| Brave Search API | Serper | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | Not published | $50 one-time for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000 queries) |
| 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 | 2,500 free queries, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Brave Software, Inc. | Serper.dev |
| Price read from | api-dashboard.search.brave.com | serper.dev |
| 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.
Serper
- Its site lists Google endpoints only, with no Bing, Yahoo or other search engines.
- Credits expire 6 months after purchase, so a large pack bought for a lower rate can go unused.
- Refunds are given within 7 days of the first payment only if less than 20% of the credits are used.
- The 2,500 free queries are a one-time allowance, not a monthly 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.
Serper
- Ten Google result types
- Endpoints for Google web search, images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, Scholar, patents and autocomplete.
- Live results
- Each call queries Google directly and nothing is cached; most results return in 1 to 2 seconds, sometimes 2 to 4 when a request is retried.
- Location and language
- Every pack lets you set the country and language a search is run from.
- Rate limits by pack
- From 50 queries a second on Starter to 300 on Ultimate, which Serper says is roughly 15,000 to 18,000 searches a minute.
- Charged on success
- Credits are deducted only for successful responses, and the API stops taking queries when the balance reaches zero.
- AI framework integrations
- Listed integrations with LangChain, CrewAI, Haystack and Jan AI for feeding search results to AI agents and chatbots.
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.
Serper
Starter$50
one-time for 50,000 credits, valid for 6 months
50,000 queries at $1.00 per 1,000, up to 50 queries a second. Prices exclude sales tax or VAT.
Standard$375
one-time for 500,000 credits, valid for 6 months
500,000 queries at $0.75 per 1,000, up to 100 queries a second.
Scale$1,250
one-time for 2.5 million credits, valid for 6 months
2.5 million queries at $0.50 per 1,000, up to 200 queries a second.
Ultimate$3,750
one-time for 12.5 million credits, valid for 6 months
12.5 million queries at $0.30 per 1,000, up to 300 queries a second; a higher limit can be arranged.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Brave Search API or Serper?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Brave Search API publishes no starting price, and Serper starts at $50 one-time for 50,000 credits ($1.00 per 1,000 queries).
Which has a free plan, Brave Search API or Serper?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Brave Search API has a free plan. Serper 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.