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Brave Search

Brave Search is a private search engine that maintains its own web index and answers queries with links plus optional AI summaries. It is used for everyday web lookups and as a search source for AI agents and apps.

#2 in AI AssistantsAI Search EnginesFree plan

Who it's for

Best for

  • Privacy-focused searchers who want their own index without Google tracking
  • Power users who want custom search filtering through bangs and Goggles

Not for

  • Everyday searchers who depend on local shop, map and regional results
  • Image-heavy researchers who need Google-grade visual search

Features

  • Ad-free results with Premium

    Brave Search Premium removes paid ads from results; free search still shows ads that are delivered in a way that protects privacy.

  • Ask entry on the home page

    An Ask entry sits beside the search box on the Brave Search home page, as a second way to start a question.

  • Goggles, Rerank and Safe Search

    Help articles document Goggles, Rerank and Safe Search, the settings that change how results are filtered, reordered or restricted.

  • Brave Search API

    A Search API appears in Brave's product list, positioned for pulling Brave search results into other software and services.

  • Search operators

    A reference article covers the search operators available in Brave Search for narrowing and combining queries.

What users say

Pros

  • Brave Search runs its own crawler and index instead of reselling Google or Bing results.
  • Result pages come back without tracker or ad-tech scripts, so content blockers stay idle on Brave results.
  • AI summaries sit above results, cite their sources and say when the search context holds no answer.
  • Bangs query target sites directly from the search bar, and Goggles remove SEO spam and content farms from results.
  • Generates sourced AI answer summaries alongside standard search results without requiring a paid subscription or account.

Cons

  • Results are less relevant than Google's and sometimes return unrelated or scam pages.
  • Local and regional searches return worse results than Google, even with a country filter set.
  • Image search trails Google, often surfacing AI-generated pictures instead of the wanted photo.
  • AI overviews can state incorrect facts and produce bad arithmetic.
  • The Search API caps queries at 400 characters and returns links only, so agents need separate page scraping.
  • Search sometimes stalls behind a bot check and reloads into an error page instead of results.

A selection of the review sources we used:

Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details

Global Traffic Rank

Top 1k

Alternatives

Brave SearchPerplexityKagiMicrosoft Copilot
Rank#2 in category#7 in category#14 in category#17 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
Proindependent index, privacy, sourced AI answers, bangs, free APIClear, current answers backed by sourcesClean, ad-free results, customizable site rankingFree site builds, legal drafting, quick web summaries, file search
Better forSearching internal emails and files across OneDrive and SharePoint
Weaker atSearching the web privately without tracker scripts or user profiling