# Brave Search

> Real-time web search with privacy-focused results.

[Canonical HTML page](https://top-mcps.com/mcp/brave-search) · [server.json](https://top-mcps.com/mcp/brave-search.json) · [methodology](https://top-mcps.com/about/methodology)

## Install

### Claude Desktop — `claude_desktop_config.json`

Paste under mcpServers. Fully quit and reopen Claude after editing.

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Claude Code — `CLI or .mcp.json`

Run from your repo. Commit .mcp.json to share with your team.

```shell
# export BRAVE_API_KEY=brv_your_api_key
claude mcp add brave-search -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server
```

### Cursor — `.cursor/mcp.json`

Global path: ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Reload window after editing.

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### VS Code — `.vscode/mcp.json`

VS Code uses the "servers" key (not "mcpServers").

```jsonc
{
  "servers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Windsurf — `~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json`

Open via Cascade → hammer icon → Configure.

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Cline — `cline_mcp_settings.json`

Open via the Cline sidebar → MCP Servers → Edit.

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Continue — `~/.continue/config.json`

Continue uses modelContextProtocolServers with a transport block.

```json
{
  "experimental": {
    "modelContextProtocolServers": [
      {
        "transport": {
          "type": "stdio",
          "command": "npx",
          "args": [
            "-y",
            "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
          ],
          "env": {
            "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}
```

### Codex CLI — `~/.codex/config.toml`

Codex uses TOML. Each server is a [mcp_servers.<name>] subtable.

```shell
# ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.brave-search]
command = "npx"
args = [
  "-y",
  "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server",
]
env = { BRAVE_API_KEY = "${BRAVE_API_KEY}" }
```

### Zed — `~/.config/zed/settings.json`

Zed calls them "context_servers". Settings live-reload on save.

```jsonc
{
  "context_servers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": {
        "path": "npx",
        "args": [
          "-y",
          "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"
        ]
      },
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### ChatGPT — `ChatGPT → Apps directory`

Brave Search doesn't ship a hosted HTTPS endpoint today. ChatGPT supports remote MCP servers only — to use this server in ChatGPT you'll need to deploy it to a public HTTPS URL first (e.g. via Cloudflare Workers or Vercel) or wait for an official remote build.

```none

```

## At a glance

- **Maintainer:** Brave
- **Transport:** stdio, Streamable HTTP
- **Auth model:** API key
- **Required secrets:** BRAVE_API_KEY
- **Supported clients:** Claude, Cursor, Any MCP-compatible client
- **License:** MIT
- **Language:** TypeScript
- **Latest version:** latest
- **Last verified:** 2026-05-31
- **GitHub stars:** 1,131 (fetched 2026-06-02T11:55:51.633Z)
- **Score:** 79/100 (rubric 2026-04 — see https://top-mcps.com/about/methodology)
- **Source:** https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server

## Tools & permissions

| Tool | Description | Args | Side effects |
|------|-------------|------|--------------|
| `brave_web_search` | Run a general web search. | `query: string, count?: number` | network |
| `brave_local_search` | Search for businesses and places near a location. | `query: string, count?: number` | network |

## Security & scope

- **Access scope:** network
- **Sandbox:** Makes outbound HTTPS calls to the Brave Search API using the key in `BRAVE_API_KEY`. No local filesystem or system access.
- **Gotchas:**
  - The free API tier is rate-limited; the MCP surfaces rate-limit errors verbatim — check logs if queries fail silently.

## Quick answer

**What it does.** Queries the Brave Search API for web results, news, and page content summaries in real-time.

**Best for:**
- Current events and news
- Documentation lookups
- Price or product comparisons
- Research tasks
- Fact verification

**Not for:**
- Deep web crawling
- Private intranet search
- High-volume automated searches

## Recipes

### Surface recent blog posts on a topic

```
Search for the five most recent blog posts about "Model Context Protocol" published in the last 30 days. Return title, publication date, and a one-sentence summary for each.
```

_Tested with: Claude Desktop, Cursor_

## Description

The Brave Search MCP connects AI models to the Brave Search API for real-time web search. Get current results, news, and web content without scraping. One of the fastest ways to add live web knowledge to an AI agent.

## Why it matters

LLMs have a knowledge cutoff. This MCP bridges that gap with live web data directly inside the model context.

## Key features

- Real-time web search
- News search
- Privacy-respecting results
- Brave Search API
- Rate-limited free tier

## FAQ

### Is a Brave Search API key required?

Yes. Create one at brave.com/search/api. The free tier gives you 2,000 queries per month, which covers personal agent use but not production; paid plans start at $3/1000 queries.

### How current are the results?

Brave indexes the open web in near-real-time — typical lag from publication to index is a few hours for news and up to a day for long-form content. For breaking news prefer the `news` search type over the default web search.

### Why is my API key returning 429s on the free plan?

The free plan also has a per-second rate limit (1 req/s), not just the monthly quota. Agents that fan out parallel searches trip it easily. Either throttle on the client or upgrade to a paid tier that raises the burst limit.

### Can I use it for image or video search?

Yes — the MCP exposes web, news, and image search. Video search is routed through the web endpoint with a video filter. The responses include thumbnails, titles, and source URLs.

### How does it compare to the Fetch MCP?

Brave returns ranked search results (titles, snippets, URLs); Fetch retrieves the contents of one specific URL. The common pattern: Brave Search to find relevant pages → Fetch to pull the full text of the top hit.

## Changelog

- **2026-05-31** — Refreshed install snippets and fact sheet; verified for 2026.
- **2024-11-25** — Initial directory listing.