# Brave Search API review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Web search API from Brave's own index, built for AI agents and apps Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. Brave Search API returns results from Brave's own web index, with no fallback to Google or Bing. One key covers web, news, image, video and place search, an LLM Context endpoint that returns extracted page text for AI models, and an Answers endpoint that writes cited answers. It is paid for with prepaid credits used as you go, with $5 of free credit each month on each plan. - **Category:** SERP & SEO Data APIs - **Made by:** Brave Software, Inc. - **Website:** https://brave.com/search/api/ - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you need Google or Bing rankings, as results come only from Brave's index. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, Brave Search API has a free plan. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **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. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | Custom terms, capacity and endpoints, full-funnel zero data retention, NDAs, invoicing and enterprise support. Sold through sales. | Read from https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Brave Search API before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers grounding AI agents and chatbots in current web results - Apps that need web, news and image search without scraping Google - Teams moving off Google's Custom Search JSON API ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Brave Search API returns results from Brave's own index, with news, images, video, places and an LLM Context endpoint for AI models, and $5 of free credit a month. It never falls back to Google or Bing, so it can't tell you how you rank there, and Search costs $5 per 1,000 past the free credit. - **Value for money: C.** No 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. - **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. - **Features: C.** Web, 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. - **Ease of use: C.** Judged 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. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with an API and the OpenAI SDK, Amazon Bedrock and OpenClaw. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Brave's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among SERP and SEO data APIs - Brave Search API's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 7 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs we grade, and level with 8. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 9 of 38) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo-data-apis ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Brave Search API you would be making search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 23 of the 38 other SERP and SEO data APIs grade higher. - You could not: Search results fetched at scale from many countries without being blocked. - You could not: It plugs into other products, OpenAI SDK, Amazon Bedrock and OpenClaw among them, and has an API. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: SOC 2. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with OpenAI SDK, Amazon Bedrock, OpenClaw **Tags:** SERP API, Public API, AI features ## Alternatives - [SerpApi](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serpapi): Real-time search results API for Google and dozens of other engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-api-vs-serpapi) - [Serper](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serper): Google search results API sold in prepaid credit packs. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-api-vs-serper) - [SearchApi](https://toolgpa.com/tools/searchapi): Real-time SERP API for Google, AI answers and dozens of other sites. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-api-vs-searchapi) - [DataForSEO](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dataforseo): Pay-as-you-go APIs for SERP, keyword, backlink and AI mention data. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-api-vs-dataforseo) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing - https://brave.com/search/api/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/brave-search-api Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).