Brave Search API
Official OpenAPI specification for the Brave Search API. Provides independent, privacy-preserving web search, LLM context grounding for AI agents and RAG pipelines, news, images, videos, and query suggestions. **Features:** - Privacy-first web index independent of Google and Microsoft. - Specialized LLM Context grounding endpoint (`/llm/context`) designed for AI agents. - Rich multimedia search across news, images, and videos. - Custom ranking via Brave Goggles and freshness filters.
Connect this API to an AI agent Browse all specs
What you can do with Brave Search API via MCP
Every endpoint below becomes a governed tool your AI agent (Claude, ChatGPT, or a customer-facing VX agent) can call — with scoped permissions, sandbox testing, and audit logs.
| Method | Path | Operation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| GET | /web/search |
searchWeb | Search the Web |
| GET | /llm/context |
getLlmContext | LLM Context Grounding |
| GET | /news/search |
searchNews | Search News Articles |
| GET | /images/search |
searchImages | Search Images |
| GET | /videos/search |
searchVideos | Search Videos |
| GET | /suggest/search |
suggestQueries | Query Autosuggest |
Authentication
ApiKeyAuth
API key — sent as the X-Subscription-Token header
Brave Search API Subscription Token.
Sign up and generate a token at https://brave.com/search/api/.
Pass this token in the X-Subscription-Token header on every request.
Usage guide
Brave Search API Usage Guide for AI Agents
Authentication
Every request requires your Brave Search API key sent in the header:
X-Subscription-Token: <YOUR_BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY>
Get an API key at https://brave.com/search/api/.
Versioning
To pin an exact API release, send the optional header:
Api-Version: YYYY-MM-DD
1. Web Search (/web/search)
Use for general search queries to retrieve organic web results, snippets, discussions, and infoboxes.
GET /res/v1/web/search?q=artificial+intelligence&count=5&freshness=pw
Key Parameters:
q: Query string (max 600 characters).count: Number of results (1-20, default: 20).freshness: Filter by recency:pd(past 24h),pw(past week),pm(past month),py(past year).extra_snippets: Set totrueto get up to 5 additional text excerpts per result for deeper context.units:metricorimperial.goggles: Custom Goggle URL or ID for community-driven reranking.
2. LLM Context Grounding (/llm/context)
Optimized specifically for LLM prompts and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Returns concise, structured text snippets with high signal-to-noise ratio.
GET /res/v1/llm/context?q=latest+developments+in+quantum+computing
3. Specialized Search
- News Search (
/news/search): Real-time news articles with publish timestamps. - Image Search (
/images/search): Web images with thumbnails, dimensions, and source pages. - Video Search (
/videos/search): Video results with creators, views, and durations. - Autosuggest (
/suggest/search): Query completions for interactive agent search bars.
How to use this spec
- Create a free VX Agents account (sandbox tools included).
- Open the marketplace and connect “Brave Search API” to an agent.
- Expose it as an MCP server for Claude/ChatGPT, or chat with it directly.