{"slug": "brave-search-api", "name": "Brave Search API", "category": "search", "category_name": "Search", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 8, "warners": 0, "score": 3.964, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2026-01-23", "latest": "2026-10-17", "why": "there are plenty of web search APIs for agents - the Brave one is the one I use", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 4, "compare": 2, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "there are plenty of web search APIs for agents - the Brave one is the one I use", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "brave.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://brave.com/search/api/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Brave Search API"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 802072256, "item_id": 50129516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50129516", "by": "alex-moon", "date": "2026-10-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there are plenty of web search APIs for agents - the Brave one is the one I use", "excerpt": "I may be missing something so apologies if I'm telling you something you already know but: there are plenty of web search APIs for agents - the Brave one is the one I use: https://brave.com/search/api/", "context": "", "use_case": "web search for agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "DeepSeek-v4.1-Flash-1017"}, {"id": 776933808, "item_id": 48558363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48558363", "by": "iagooar", "date": "2026-06-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brave search is one of these services I highly recommend paying for", "excerpt": "Yes, Brave search is one of these services I highly recommend paying for, the search they provide (similar to Exa, Tavily) is what makes an \"OK LLM\" become super smart.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search for LLMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Running local models is good now"}, {"id": 751487936, "item_id": 46967996, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46967996", "by": "brift", "date": "2026-02-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brave does have a plan for AI Inference", "excerpt": "Brave does have a plan for AI Inference, and it works great with OpenClaw: https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/plans?tab=ai You'll just have to cancel your current plan and sign up for an AI plan instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "Web search API", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Brave Search API forbids use with AI agents (openclaw, moltbot?)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["web search for agents", "web search backend", "search api for llms", "web search for llms", "search engine api", "web search api"], "compared": [{"slug": "exa", "name": "Exa", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50129045", "title": "DeepSeek-v4.1-Flash-1017", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49963171", "title": "Web Search API", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686380", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49537553", "title": "Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48555993", "title": "Running local models is good now", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48013706", "title": "Google is discontinuing its free web search index for developers", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"compare": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 802072256, "item_id": 50129516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50129516", "by": "alex-moon", "date": "2026-10-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there are plenty of web search APIs for agents - the Brave one is the one I use", "excerpt": "I may be missing something so apologies if I'm telling you something you already know but: there are plenty of web search APIs for agents - the Brave one is the one I use: https://brave.com/search/api/", "context": "", "use_case": "web search for agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "DeepSeek-v4.1-Flash-1017"}, {"id": 799492240, "item_id": 49968265, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968265", "by": "raajg", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "They're basically competing with https://brave.com/search/api/, https://www.tavily.com/ etc.", "excerpt": "not that straightforward for agents. They're basically competing with https://brave.com/search/api/, https://www.tavily.com/ etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Web Search API"}, {"id": 797511649, "item_id": 49844478, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49844478", "by": "nathanjclark", "date": "2026-09-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "search uses Brave API", "excerpt": "I'm currently working on kelve (https://kelve.ai/) - an AI research tool that won't answer for you. You talk through what you're looking into, it searches the web for you as you go and suggests which pages are worth opening. It never summarises a page. You keep speaking and ideating while opening pages, it asks, responds, questions, searches, until you're happy with where you got to. When you're done it writes up wha", "context": "", "use_case": "Web search backend", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)"}, {"id": 792790529, "item_id": 49549408, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549408", "by": "mark_l_watson", "date": "2026-09-03", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Exa and Brave search APIs separately", "excerpt": "That is my understanding, which is a nice thing. I use Exa and Brave search APIs separately but the Google bundling is convenient. Ollama Cloud offers the same thing: they supply a web search tool bundled with cloud API inference services.", "context": "", "use_case": "search API for LLMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber"}, {"id": 776933808, "item_id": 48558363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48558363", "by": "iagooar", "date": "2026-06-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brave search is one of these services I highly recommend paying for", "excerpt": "Yes, Brave search is one of these services I highly recommend paying for, the search they provide (similar to Exa, Tavily) is what makes an \"OK LLM\" become super smart.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search for LLMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Running local models is good now"}, {"id": 768367921, "item_id": 48022995, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48022995", "by": "SyneRyder", "date": "2026-05-05", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "Brave: free for first 1000/mth, 0.5c per search", "excerpt": "Some alternative web search APIs: Marginalia: free-ish for non-commercial use https://about.marginalia-search.com/article/api/ Brave: free for first 1000/mth, 0.5c per search https://brave.com/search/api/ Mojeek: \u00a30.001 - \u00a30.003 (0.1p - 0.3p) per search https://www.mojeek.com/services/search/web-search-api/ Kagi: 2.5c per search https://help.kagi.com/kagi/api/search.html", "context": "", "use_case": "Search engine API", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google is discontinuing its free web search index for developers"}, {"id": 754654706, "item_id": 47165919, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47165919", "by": "mark_l_watson", "date": "2026-02-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "search APIs from Brave", "excerpt": "I agree 100%. Often when I use increasingly powerful local models (qwen3.5:32b I love you) I mix in web search using search APIs from Brave, Perplexity, and DuckDuckGo summaries. Of course this requires that I use local models via small Python or Lisp scripts I write. I pay for the Lumo+ private chat service and it has excellent integrated search, like Gemini or ChatGPT. EDIT: I have also experimented with creating a", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Will OpenAI Compete?"}, {"id": 751487936, "item_id": 46967996, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46967996", "by": "brift", "date": "2026-02-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Brave does have a plan for AI Inference", "excerpt": "Brave does have a plan for AI Inference, and it works great with OpenClaw: https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/plans?tab=ai You'll just have to cancel your current plan and sign up for an AI plan instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "Web search API", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Brave Search API forbids use with AI agents (openclaw, moltbot?)"}, {"id": 747790672, "item_id": 46736917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46736917", "by": "agosta", "date": "2026-01-23", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "see Brave's Search API pricing", "excerpt": "Among the various rulings, Google is supposed to provide access at market rates... which they are. At least for what is published: $5 per thousand queries is market rate for a product like this - see Brave's Search API pricing https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/plans?tab=ai. Granted, that is scoped to 50 domains. But we don't know if the enterprise package, which allows full web search, isn't roughly market r", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google is ending full-web search for niche search engines"}]}