# Brave Search review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Private web search engine with its own index and AI answers Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Brave Search is a web search engine that runs on Brave's own index instead of Google's or Bing's. It adds an AI answer feature called Ask Brave and says it does not profile users. Results show ads unless you pay for the Search premium subscription. - **Category:** AI Research Tools - **Made by:** Brave Software - **Website:** https://search.brave.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you need peer-reviewed papers, because it searches the open web. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Brave Search has a free plan, and paid plans start at $3 per month, or $29.99 per year. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Search and Ask Brave are free to use and supported by ads; no account is needed. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | Read from https://brave.com/premium/ on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Brave Search before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Search premium costs $29.99 a year** (Annual discount): Brave's premium page lists Search premium at $3 per month or $29.99 per year, which is below twelve monthly payments. Source: https://brave.com/premium/ ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Anyone wanting a general search engine that does not profile them - Quick web lookups with a cited AI summary - Developers who need a search API for AI agents ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 3.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Brave Search is a web search engine with its own index and Ask Brave AI answers, free and supported by ads. It searches the open web, not scholarly databases, so it will not filter to peer-reviewed work or manage citations. Removing the ads costs $3 a month. - **Value for money: A.** Free 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. - **Free plan and trial: A.** The whole search is free with no account needed. - **Features: C.** Own index, Ask Brave answers, Goggles and a Search API. For research it is a web search: no scholarly filter and no citation tools. - **Ease of use: B.** No store rating on record. Type a query and read the results, nothing to set up. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web search that works with the Brave browser and has a Search API. No standalone app is listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Brave Search's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI research tools - Brave Search's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 65 of the 69 other AI research tools we grade, and level with 4. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 61 of 69) and worst on features (C, above 1). - Its paid plans start at $2.50 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 1 of the 48 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-research ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Brave Search you would be making a search engine with an AI model behind it. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.2 is higher than 65 of the 69 other AI research tools we grade. It costs $29.99 a year. - You could not: A search engine with an AI model behind it. - You could not: A web browser. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Brave Browser among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Brave Browser **Tags:** AI search, AI features, Web browser, Public API ## Alternatives - [Exa](https://toolgpa.com/tools/exa): Web search API built for AI agents and applications. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-vs-exa) - [Liner](https://toolgpa.com/tools/liner): AI search with cited answers, research agents and a writer. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-vs-liner) - [Google Scholar](https://toolgpa.com/tools/google-scholar): Free search engine for scholarly articles, books and theses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-vs-google-scholar) - [Consensus](https://toolgpa.com/tools/consensus): AI search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-vs-consensus) - [Undermind](https://toolgpa.com/tools/undermind): AI literature search agent that reads hundreds of papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brave-search-vs-undermind) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://brave.com/search/ - https://brave.com/premium/ - https://brave.com/search/api/ - https://search.brave.com/help/ads Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/brave-search Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).