Brave Search vs Liner (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Brave Search grades higher than Liner: 3.2 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Brave Search grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. Liner grades higher on features 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
Liner
AI search with cited answers, research agents and a writer
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 Liner if
- Fits if you want every line of an AI answer tied to a source you can open
- Works for students drafting a literature review or hunting for citations, on a desktop
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if ads in your answers would bother you and you don't plan to pay
- Tight if you lean on the agents, since Pro's 1,000 credits go at 30 to 80 a request
- Not for you if you do your research on a phone, as Liner Scholar and Liner Write are desktop only
- Watch out: Liner doesn't offer refunds, so cancel before the renewal date
- Too light for agent work on the free plan, which allows 1 upload a day and lists 0 agent credits
How we grade them
| 3.2GPABrave SearchVery good | 2.6GPALinerGood | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CPro is $14.99 a month billed annually, or $17.99 monthly, which sits above this category's middle of about $12. It does cover all three products and drop the ads. But the agents run on credits: Pro gets 1,000 and one Deep Research request spends 40, and unlimited uploads mean Max at $29.99. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe whole search is free with no account needed. | CAdvanced Search is unlimited, but the rest is thin: ads in the answers, 1 file upload a day, and the plan table lists 0 agent credits, though the FAQ says there are some. So Deep Research and the Scholar agents, the reason you'd come here, are shut. Caps you'll hit. |
| 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: a citation on every line of an answer, Deep Research reports, Scholar agents for literature reviews, citation finding and peer review across 480 million papers, and Liner Write for the drafting. What it hasn't got is a trick its rivals lack. |
| Ease of use | BNo store rating on record. Type a query and read the results, nothing to set up. | C4.4 on the App Store from 1,371 ratings, which is middling rather than good: our higher band starts at 4.5. Asking a question is simple enough, but credits are the thing to learn, since each agent request costs between 30 and 80 of them. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb search that works with the Brave browser and has a Search API. No standalone app is listed. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and extensions for Chrome and Edge, plus a search API and MCP servers that hand its scholar search to other AI agents. The catch is that Liner Scholar and Liner Write are desktop only. |
| Best for | private web search with AI answers | AI answers with a source on every line |
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 Liner. How we grade
Price against what you get
Brave Search starts at $2.50 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Liner starts at $14.99 a month and scores 3.0.
Liner scores higher, and starts $12.49 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, none scores higher than Brave Search for less, and none scores higher than Liner for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Brave Search also covers web browser.
- Liner also covers AI agents, research, citations, long-form writing and highlights.
At a glance
| Brave Search | Liner | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $3 per month, or $29.99 per year | $14.99 per month, billed annually ($17.99 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Search and Ask Brave are free to use and supported by ads; no account is needed. | Unlimited Advanced Search with ads in the answers, 1 file upload a day of up to 25 MB and 10 Research Assistant uses a day. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Brave Software | Liner |
| Price read from | brave.com | liner.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 5, 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.
Liner
- The free plan shows ads in answers and allows 1 file upload a day; the plan table lists 0 agent credits for it, though the FAQ mentions limited credits.
- Agents and external models spend credits: Pro includes 1,000 and Max 2,500, and one Literature Review request uses 40.
- The site's FAQ says Liner Scholar and Liner Write are supported only on desktop.
- Liner does not offer refunds; a subscription can be canceled before it renews.
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.
Liner
- Cited answers
- Answers carry a citation on each line that opens the source. Follow-up questions continue the thread, and an answer can be turned into a mind map.
- Deep Research
- Gathers information on a topic and returns it as an organized report while showing its line of reasoning. Each request uses 40 agent credits.
- Liner Scholar agents
- Agents for academic work include Literature Review, Citation Recommender, Research Tracer, Hypothesis Generator and Peer Review. Each request costs between 30 and 80 credits.
- File uploads
- Upload papers and PDFs to get summaries and ask questions about them: 1 file a day on Free, 20 a day on Pro and unlimited on Max.
- Liner Write
- A writing workspace that drafts from a topic, shapes ideas into emails, newsletters and reports, and lets you search and edit in the same window.
- Search API and MCP
- Developers can call Liner's search and answer agents through an API, and MCP servers expose its web search and scholar search to other AI agents.
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.
Liner
Free$0
Unlimited Advanced Search with ads in the answers, 1 file upload a day of up to 25 MB and 10 Research Assistant uses a day.
Pro$14.99
per month, billed annually; $17.99 billed monthly
1,000 agent credits, 20 file uploads a day of up to 100 MB, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude models, and no ads. Covers Liner, Liner Scholar and Liner Write.
Max$29.99
per month, billed annually; $35.99 billed monthly
Everything in Pro with 2,500 agent credits and unlimited file uploads of up to 200 MB each.
Team$26.99
per seat / month
For 2 to 20 members: everything in Max plus central billing, a workspace with admin controls and team data excluded from AI training.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Team plus a dedicated manager, onboarding sessions, audit logs and higher discount rates.
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.
Liner
- Annual discount
Lower monthly rate with annual billing
The pricing page labels annual billing as saving 20%. Pro is $14.99 a month billed annually against $17.99 monthly, and Max is $29.99 against $35.99, about 17% less.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Brave Search or Liner?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Brave Search is cheaper to start with: $2.50 a month when paid by the year, against $14.99 a month for Liner. Brave Search starts at $3 per month, or $29.99 per year, and Liner starts at $14.99 per month, billed annually ($17.99 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Brave Search or Liner?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Brave Search and Liner have a free plan.
Which platforms do Brave Search and Liner run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Liner lists macOS, Windows, iOS and Android apps and a browser extension. 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.