TL;DR
- Search plan: $5 per 1,000 requests, 50 queries a second, with $5 of free credit every month (about 1,000 searches).
- Answers plan: $4 per 1,000 plus $5 per million input and output tokens, 2 queries a second.
- Prepaid, no subscription, but a credit card is required. Storing results needs a plan with storage rights.
- Brave is the go-to independent index. For the same job at a fraction of the price, Keirolabs lite is $0.03–0.10 per 1,000 from its own index.
Brave runs one of the few large independent web indexes in the West, and its API is the closest thing left to the old Bing Search API. Pricing got simpler in 2026: a flat per-request price, prepaid credits, and a monthly free allowance. Here’s the whole picture.
Brave Search API plans
From brave.com/search/api, November 5, 2026:
| Plan | Price | Free monthly credit | Rate limit | What’s included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search | $5 per 1,000 requests | $5 | 50 queries/sec | Web, news, images, LLM context, Goggles, extra snippets, schema-enriched results |
| Answers | $4 per 1,000 requests + $5 per million input/output tokens | $5 | 2 queries/sec | Cited answers, streaming, OpenAI SDK compatible |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Zero data retention, custom terms, invoicing |
The Search plan covers both classic web search and the LLM Context endpoint, which returns pre-extracted page content for models. If an LLM reads your results, use that instead of fetching pages yourself. How to set it up: Brave Search API key guide.
The fine print
- Card required. Credits are prepaid with no subscription, but Brave asks for a card to prevent abuse, even if you only use the free credit.
- Free credit is per plan. Each plan lists $5 a month. Brave’s banner mentions “up to $20 in free calls”, which appears to count several plans together.
- Storage rights. Storing results, or using them to train models, is only allowed on plans that include storage rights. Check before you cache results in a database.
- Answers adds tokens. At $4 per 1,000 plus $5 per million tokens, a long answer can cost more in tokens than in requests.
What Brave costs at your volume
| Searches a month | Brave Search cost (after $5 free) |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0 |
| 10,000 | $45 |
| 100,000 | $495 |
| 1,000,000 | $4,995 |
How Brave compares
| API | Per 1,000 | Index | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brave | $5 | Own, independent | $5 a month |
| Exa | $4–7 | Own, neural | $10 a month |
| Perplexity Search | $1–5 | Own | — |
| Parallel | $1–5 | Own | Monthly free requests |
| Serper | $0.30–1.00 | Google (scraped) | 2,500 once |
| Keirolabs | $0.03–0.10 lite · $0.44–1.33 fast | Own | 750 credits |
Brave’s independence is worth paying for when people read your results. But if you picked Brave to avoid Google dependency and price is starting to bite, Keirolabs gives you the same thing, an index nobody upstream can switch off, for 50–160× less per lite search. It also returns page markdown, cited answers and deep search on the same key, and its deep search scored 96.5% on SimpleQA with public code and results. Through Black Friday, KEIRO20 takes 20% off: pricing.
Is the Brave Search API free?
Partly. The $5 monthly credit covers about 1,000 searches, and it renews every month. Beyond that, it’s $5 per 1,000. There’s no longer a separate card-free free plan. More free options: free web search APIs.
FAQ
How much does the Brave Search API cost?
$5 per 1,000 requests on the Search plan, after $5 of free credit each month.
Does Brave Search API have a free tier?
Yes: $5 of credit every month, about 1,000 searches. A credit card is required.
What’s the rate limit?
50 queries a second on Search and 2 a second on Answers. Enterprise is custom.
Can I store Brave Search results?
Only on plans with storage rights. Check your plan before caching results or using them for training.