Brave Search

At a glance

Availability: Experimental (how to enable).
Auth: API key.
Connection: The key from BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY is sent as the X-Subscription-Token header.
Docs: https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/documentation

Set these per environment. See Connect an integration.

Variable	Required	Description
`BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY`	Yes	Brave Search API subscription token from the API dashboard Docs.

Create an API account: Go to https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com and register (separate from a regular Brave account). Adding a payment method is required to activate a subscription.
Choose a plan and get credits: Pick a plan in the dashboard. The API is credit-based - you purchase request credits rather than getting a permanent free tier; new accounts may receive a small trial credit.
Create an API key: Open https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/keys and generate a subscription token for your plan.
Store the key: Add it to your .env file as BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY=…
Verify access: Run the Web Search tool with a simple query. A 401 means the token is invalid or sent in the wrong header (it must be X-Subscription-Token, not Authorization); a 429 means you exceeded your plan’s rate limit.

The API is credit/usage-based with no permanent free tier - monitor remaining credits in the dashboard
The API key goes in the X-Subscription-Token header; Authorization: Bearer will be rejected
Some endpoints (e.g. Local/POI details) are only available on higher-tier (Pro) plans
Web Search pagination is limited: count max 20 per request, offset max 9

Tool	Access	Description
Web Search	Read	Search the web and get ranked results from Brave’s independent index
News Search	Read	Search recent and historical news articles from trusted outlets worldwide
Image Search	Read	Search Brave’s image index and get image URLs with source page metadata
Video Search	Read	Search for videos and get results with titles, creators, durations, and thumbnails
Get Local Descriptions	Read	Get AI-generated text descriptions for up to 20 locations using location IDs returned in a Web Search response’s locations results
Get Local Places	Read	Get rich details (address, hours, ratings, pictures) for up to 20 locations using location IDs returned in a Web Search response’s locations results

Search the web with Brave for a topic I provide and summarize the top results with links.
Search Brave News for the latest articles on a topic I provide and give me a short briefing.
Search Brave for a type of business near a location I provide and show details for the top matches.