Brave MCP server
online · 100% uptimeVisit https://brave.com/search/api/ for a free API key. Search the web, local businesses, images,…
1.5k stars
Reviews
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Brave tools
Tool list not cached yet. `describe` through the gateway fetches it live.
Public scan report
scanner v0.1.10 · 2026-10-01 · same rubric, same numbers if you re-run it
- –Code scanremote-only server, no package to scann/a
- Live reliabilityremote reachable in 89ms (auth required)20/20
- –Tool poisoningtools not inspected (endpoint requires auth); not countedn/a
- Auth qualityOAuth resource metadata advertised on 40115/15
- Maintenancelast push 2 days ago15/15
- Maintainer identityendpoint served from the registry-verified namespace domain8/10
How Brave compares
Against every graded Web search MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.
- Safety score
- 97/100
- higher than 98% of 3,470 Web search servers
- Uptime
- 100%
- of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%
- Response time
- 355 ms
- faster than 44% of 2,238 Web search servers
- GitHub stars
- 1,479
- more than 95% of 1,786 Web search servers
Install Brave in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code
claude mcp add --transport http brave https://server.smithery.ai/brave/mcp
What the publisher says
From the Brave repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub
Brave Search MCP Server
An MCP server implementation that integrates the Brave Search API, providing comprehensive search capabilities including web search, local business search, place search, image search, video search, news search, LLM context, and AI-powered summarization. This project supports both STDIO and HTTP transports, with STDIO as the default mode.
Migration
1.x to 2.x
Default transport now STDIO
To follow established MCP conventions, the server now defaults to STDIO. If you would like to continue using HTTP, you will need to set the BRAVEMCPTRANSPORT environment variable to http, or provide the runtime argument --transport http when launching the server.
Response structure of braveimagesearch
Version 1.x of the MCP server would return base64-encoded image data along with image URLs. This dramatically slowed down the response, as well as consumed unnecessarily context in the session. Version 2.x removes the base64-encoded data, and returns a response object that more closely reflects the original Brave Search API response. The updated output schema is defined in src/tools/images/schemas/output.ts.
Tools
Web Search (bravewebsearch)
Performs comprehensive web searches with rich result types and advanced filtering options.
Parameters:
- query (string, required): Search terms (max 400 chars, 50 words)
- country (string, optional): Country code (default: "US")
- search_lang (string, optional): Search language (default: "en")
- ui_lang (string, optional): UI language (default: "en-US")
- count (number, optional): Results per page (1-20, default: 10)
- offset (number, optional): Pagination offset (max 9, default: 0)
- safesearch (string, optional): Content filtering ("off", "moderate", "strict", default: "moderate")
- freshness (string, optional): Time filter ("pd", "pw", "pm", "py", or date range)
- text_decorations (boolean, optional): Include highlighting markers (default: true)
- spellcheck (boolean, optional): Enable spell checking (default: true)
- result_filter (array, optional): Filter result types (default: ["web", "query"])
- goggles (array, optional): Custom re-ranking definitions
Local Search (bravelocalsearch)
Searches for local businesses and places with detailed information including ratings, hours, and AI-generated descriptions.
Parameters:
- Same as bravewebsearch with automatic location filtering
- Automatically includes "web" and "locations" in result_filter
Note: Requires Pro plan for full local search capabilities. Falls back to web search otherwise.
Video Search (bravevideosearch)
Searches for videos with comprehensive metadata and thumbnail information.
Parameters:
- query (string, required): Search terms (max 400 chars, 50 words)
- country (string, optional): Country code (default: "US")
- search_lang (string, optional): Search language (default: "en")
- ui_lang (string, optional): UI language (default: "en-US")
- count (number, optional): Results per page (1-50, default: 20)
- offset (number, optional): Pagination offset (max 9, default: 0)
- spellcheck (boolean, optional): Enable spell checking (default: true)
- safesearch (string, optional): Content filtering ("off", "moderate", "strict", default: "moderate")
- freshness (string, optional): Time filter ("pd", "pw", "pm", "py", or date range)
Image Search (braveimagesearch)
Searches for images with metadata including URLs, dimensions, and confidence scores.
Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.
Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.
Brave: common questions
- Is Brave MCP server safe?
- Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (97/100). Read the Brave safety report
- How do I install Brave?
- It runs remotely at server.smithery.ai. Add it to Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop with the snippets above, or call it through the mcp.market gateway without installing anything.
- Does Brave need an API key?
- No key to paste: it signs you in with OAuth when your client connects.
- Is Brave maintained?
- The last commit was 35 days ago (2026-09-30). The latest release is v2.0.58.
- Is Brave up?
- 100% of our last 28 checks got an answer. We check remote servers about four times a day.
- What can I use instead of Brave?
- Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Brave Search MCP server, Free Search MCP server and searxNcrawl MCP server. Compare all Brave alternatives.
- How does Brave compare with other Web search MCP servers?
- safety score 97/100 (higher than 98% of 3,470 Web search servers); uptime 100% (of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%); response time 355 ms (faster than 44% of 2,238 Web search servers). Full comparison.
Alternatives to Brave
Same job from other publishers: the closest match first, then the best rated.
- Brave SearchBrave Search MCP Server: web results, images, videos, rich results, AI summaries, and more.not reviewedEstablishedA
Free SearchNo-API-key web search, page fetching and document reading across many engines. Local-first.not reviewedEstablishedB- searxNcrawlWeb search via SearXNG and/or You.com, plus clean Markdown crawling via Crawl4AI. Self-hosted.not reviewedEstablishedA
Zotero MCPSearch, read, annotate, and add to your Zotero research library, local or web.not reviewedWidely usedB- Perplexity API Platform (moved to ai.perplexity/mcp-server)Real-time web search, reasoning, and research through Perplexity's APInot reviewedWidely usedA