The Brave Search API gives you independent web search results from Brave's own index (not a Google or Bing reseller), which makes it popular for RAG, AI agents and apps that need fresh, privacy-respecting web data. Pricing is per 1,000 queries. Here's the cost, the free tier, and how to get a key.
| Plan | Price | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free free tier | $0 | 2,000 queries / mo, 1 query / sec |
| Base (Web) | ~$3 / 1,000 queries | higher rate limit, pay-as-you-go |
| Pro / AI plans | ~$5+ / 1,000 | extra snippets & data for AI use |
The free plan covers up to 2,000 queries per month at 1 query per second — enough to prototype a search feature or a small AI agent. It uses Brave's independent index, so you're not rate-bound to a third-party search engine. When you need more throughput or AI-grounding snippets, the Base plan starts around $3 per 1,000 queries, billed as you go.
1. Sign up at api-dashboard.search.brave.com.
2. Subscribe to a plan — the free plan is selectable; paid plans ask for a card.
3. Go to API Keys and generate a subscription token.
4. Send it in the X-Subscription-Token header on each request.
Run a web search:
SerpApi (see our SerpApi guide) scrapes Google/Bing results and is great when you specifically need Google's SERP, but costs more per query. Bing Web Search is being retired/repriced by Microsoft, pushing many builders toward independent indexes. Firecrawl (guide) is for crawling and scraping specific pages rather than searching the web. For most AI-grounding use cases, Brave's own index at ~$3/1,000 is one of the cheapest real-web options.
Yes — 2,000 queries/month at 1 query/second, using Brave's independent web index. Good for prototypes and small apps.
Sign up at api-dashboard.search.brave.com, pick a plan, then generate a subscription token under API Keys and send it in the X-Subscription-Token header.
Usually yes per query — Brave's Base plan is ~$3/1,000 queries. SerpApi costs more but returns actual Google/Bing SERP data. Choose Brave for independent web results, SerpApi when you must mirror Google.
Yes — it's a common choice for grounding LLMs because it returns fresh, independent web results and offers AI-oriented plans with extra snippet data. Model the rest of a retrieval pipeline with our RAG cost calculator.
Not affiliated with Brave. Prices are reference estimates — always verify on the official pricing page.