Brave Search
Real-time web search with privacy-focused results.
What it does
Queries the Brave Search API for web results, news, and page content summaries in real-time.
Why it matters
LLMs have a knowledge cutoff. This MCP bridges that gap with live web data directly inside the model context.
Best for
- Current events and news
- Documentation lookups
- Price or product comparisons
- Research tasks
- Fact verification
Not ideal for
- Deep web crawling
- Private intranet search
- High-volume automated searches
When to use it
When you need current information, news, recent events, or live documentation that the model may not know.
When not to use it
When the query is well within the model's training data, or when the Brave Search API cost is a concern for high-volume use.
Key features
- Real-time web search
- News search
- Privacy-respecting results
- Brave Search API
- Rate-limited free tier
Frequently asked questions
Is a Brave Search API key required?
Yes. Get a free API key at brave.com/search/api. Free tier includes up to 2,000 queries/month.
How current are the results?
Results are real-time indexed by Brave Search, typically within hours of publication.
Install
$ npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-searchScores
Details
- Pricing
- freemium
- Setup time
- 5 min
- Complexity
- Low
Works with
Alternatives
- Fetch →
Retrieve web pages and convert them to clean markdown.
- Puppeteer →
Full browser automation: navigate, click, screenshot, and scrape.
More Web Research MCPs
Other tools in the same category worth evaluating.
Exploring Top MCPs for Web Research? See all Web Research MCPs →