Brave Search vs Consensus (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Brave Search grades higher than Consensus: 3.2 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Brave Search grades higher on value for money and the free plan. Consensus grades higher on features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Brave Search
Private web search engine with its own index and AI answers
Free plan · from $3/mo
Consensus
AI search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers
Free plan
Which one is for you
Pick Brave Search if
- Fits if you want web search that does not profile you
- Works for developers who want a search API with their own web index
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need peer-reviewed papers, because it searches the open web
- Not for you if you hate ads, as free results carry them and removal costs $3 a month
- Watch out: the Search API is separate, at $5 per 1,000 requests, and asks for a credit card even for the free credits
- Too light for managing sources or citations, since it has neither
Pick Consensus if
- Fits if you want to know what peer-reviewed studies say about one specific question
- Works for teams that want cited paper search inside ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or their own tools
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need the price before you sign up, as the paid prices couldn't be read
- Tight if you're staying free, with 10 Pro messages and 3 Deep Searches a month
- Tight if you lean on Deep Search, with 15 a month on Pro and 50 a seat on Team
- Watch out: API calls past your plan's credits cost $0.05 each, with 500 included on Pro and Team
- Not for you if you want an iPhone app, since none was found on the US App Store
How we grade them
| 3.2GPABrave SearchVery good | 2.6GPAConsensusGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree with ads and no account, and the ad-free Search premium is $3 a month or $29.99 a year, under the category's $4.75 mark. | CNobody can put a number on this one. The pricing page didn't show its paid prices on two readings, and Consensus's own pricing summary leaves the dollar amounts out, so it lands where every unpriced tool lands. Pro has 15 Deep Searches a month, Deep has 200, and students get up to 40% off. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe whole search is free with no account needed. | CBasic paper search across 400M+ papers is free and the Citation Graph comes with every account, which is more than nothing. But the AI is rationed to 10 Pro messages and 3 Deep Searches a month, so the bit you came for runs out in an afternoon. |
| Features | COwn index, Ask Brave answers, Goggles and a Search API. For research it is a web search: no scholarly filter and no citation tools. | BIt covers the whole job: plain-language questions answered from their source papers, filters for study type, journal rank and sample size, Deep Search across 1,000 papers, a citation graph, a Zotero library, an API and an MCP connector. Its rivals cover the same ground, mind, several of them screening more papers. |
| Ease of use | BNo store rating on record. Type a query and read the results, nothing to set up. | BNo store rating on record either way, so this rests on the product: you type a question the way you'd ask a colleague, and the answer comes back with its papers attached. Nothing to connect or configure first. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb search that works with the Brave browser and has a Search API. No standalone app is listed. | BWeb and an Android app, with an API and an MCP connector that puts Consensus search inside ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot. It imports from Zotero too. No iOS app was found on the US App Store when it was checked. |
| Best for | private web search with AI answers | asking what the studies actually say |
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 and Consensus. How we grade
Where they differ
- Brave Search also covers web browser.
- Consensus also covers AI agents, research and citations.
In commonFree planWebPublic APIAI search
At a glance
| Brave Search | Consensus | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $3 per month, or $29.99 per year | Not published |
| Free plan | Search and Ask Brave are free to use and supported by ads; no account is needed. | Basic paper search across 400M+ papers, plus 10 Pro messages and 3 Deep Searches per month. Paid tiers are Pro, Deep, Team and Enterprise; their prices could not be read. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Brave Software | Consensus NLP, Inc. |
| Price read from | brave.com | Not confirmed |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Brave Search
- It searches the open web, not scholarly databases, so it does not filter to peer-reviewed papers or manage citations.
- Free results include ads; removing them needs Search premium at $3 a month or $29.99 a year.
- The Search API is a separate product: $5 per 1,000 requests, or $4 per 1,000 plus $5 per million tokens for Answers, with up to $20 of free credits monthly.
- The API requires a credit card even for the free credits, which the vendor says is an anti-fraud check.
Consensus
- Paid prices could not be confirmed: the pricing page did not show them on two readings, and Consensus's own pricing summary leaves out dollar amounts.
- The free tier allows 10 Pro messages and 3 Deep Searches per month. Pro includes 15 Deep Searches, Deep 200 and Team 50 per seat.
- API calls beyond a plan's included credits cost $0.05 each; 500 are included on Pro, Team and Enterprise and 2,000 on Deep.
- An Android app is listed on Google Play. No iOS app was found on the US App Store when checked.
Key features
Brave Search
- Independent index
- Results come from an index Brave built itself, not from a pass-through to Google or Bing, according to the vendor.
- Ask Brave
- Combines an AI chat answer with a results page, so you get a summary plus sources and can ask follow-up questions.
- No profiling
- The vendor says it does not collect personal data to profile searchers, and its search ads are anonymous and marked.
- Ad-free option
- A paid Search premium subscription removes ads from the results pages.
- Goggles
- Custom re-ranking rules let you boost or drop domains in results; the API page lists Goggles as an option.
- Search API
- A separate developer API returns web, news, image and video results and LLM-ready page context, billed from prepaid credits.
Consensus
- Cited answers from 400M+ papers
- Ask a research question in plain language and get a summary tied to its source papers, with filters for study type, journal rank, citation count, sample size and year.
- Deep Search
- Builds and runs a search strategy, screens up to 1,000 papers and writes a report on the 50 most relevant. The monthly allowance depends on the plan.
- Research agent
- Chains citation crawling, DOI lookup, author search and similar-paper search, and can build a comparison table from the full text of the results.
- Citation Graph
- Starts from one or more seed papers and maps what they cite and what has cited them since. It is included with every account.
- Library with Zotero import
- Imports papers from Zotero, BibTeX, RIS or PDF, then searches the collection, looks for gaps in it and generates bibliographies.
- API and MCP connector
- The API returns ranked papers with metadata for use in other tools, and the MCP connector links Consensus search to ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot.
Plans
Brave Search
Free$0
Web search with Ask Brave AI answers, with ads in the results.
Search premium$3
per month, billed monthly ($29.99 per year)
Removes ads from search results pages; the vendor lists no other differences.
Consensus
Pricing could not be confirmed. See consensus.app.
Ways to pay less
Brave Search
- Annual discount
Search premium costs $29.99 a year
Brave's premium page lists Search premium at $3 per month or $29.99 per year, which is below twelve monthly payments.
Consensus
- Education
Up to 40% off for students, faculty and US clinicians
Students and faculty with a valid school email, and US clinicians with a valid NPI number, can claim up to 40% off. Consensus's pricing summary gives students 40% off for 12 months with a verified student email.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Brave Search or Consensus?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Brave Search starts at $3 per month, or $29.99 per year, and Consensus has no price we could confirm.
Which has a free plan, Brave Search or Consensus?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Brave Search and Consensus have a free plan.
Which platforms do Brave Search and Consensus run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Consensus lists an Android app. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
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.