/api

Brave Search API pricing and alternatives

What Brave Search API costs, what its terms allow, and the alternatives for finance questions.

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Brave Search API at a glance

Free
$5 in credits a month (card needed, not charged)
Search
$5 per 1,000 requests
Answers
$4 per 1,000 + tokens
Enterprise
custom, zero data retention

What Brave Search API costs

Brave charges per request, with $5 in free credits a month. A card is needed for the free credits but isn't charged.

PlanPriceCapacityIncludes
Search$5.00 / 1,000 requests50 per secondWeb, LLM context, news, videos, images
Answers$4.00 / 1,000 queries + $5 / 1M input tokens + $5 / 1M output tokens2 per secondAI answers with citations
Spellcheck and Autosuggest$5.00 / 10,000100 per second
EnterpriseCustom

Brave's terms (updated 1 Sep 2026) don't allow storing or caching results beyond transient use, or using them to train AI models. Storing results needs "a plan that explicitly grants storage rights".

When to use the Brave Search API

Choose it for results from its own web index. Choose Finks when your agent's questions are about markets and filings, and every result needs a finance source.

  1. 01

    Its own index

    Its own web index, "not a scraper" of Google or Bing.

  2. 02

    High throughput

    50 requests a second on the standard plan.

  3. 03

    News with date filters

    A news index you can filter by date.

Alternatives to Brave Search API

  • Finks

    Best for: AI agents that search financial sources in plain English and need the passage that answers, with its source.

    Finks is a search API built for AI agents. Your agent searches in plain English and gets back the results that answer it, each linked to its source. Today that covers news, SEC filings and earnings call transcripts.

    Filing results can carry the matching passage in the filing's own words, which your agent can quote and cite. The Finks MCP server adds the same search to Claude, Cursor or any MCP-compatible client.

    Brave searches the whole web. Finks searches finance sources only, each result with its source and, for filings, the passage.

    What Finks does not do

    Finks does not search the open web. If your agent needs general web results, keep Brave or another web search API for them.

    Try Finks for free

    Get set up in minutes. Free tier, no card required. Paid plans start at $29 a month (Starter).

    Request

    POST /v1/search
{
  "query": "material cybersecurity incident disclosed in Item 1.05",
  "types": ["filing"],
  "event_types": ["cybersecurity_incident"],
  "depth": "deep",
  "limit": 3
}

    Response

    {
  "type": "filing",
  "title": "Nutex Health Inc. — 8-K Item 1.05, Material Cybersecurity Incidents",
  "published_at": "2026-08-31T20:25:25Z",
  "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1479681/000162828026059602/nutx-20260831.htm",
  "matched": "passage",
  "passage": {
    "section_id": "8-k/item-1.05",
    "text": "…Nutex Health Inc. (the “Company”) became aware of unauthorized activity involving data stored on its computer network…"
  }
}

    Live response, 26 Oct 2026, test key (fewer fields than a production key)

  • Exa

    Best for: pay-as-you-go web search with no subscription.

    Exa charges per request: search from $4 per 1,000 requests, deep search from $12. It gives $10 in free credits a month with no payment method required.

    Exa pricing and alternatives

  • Tavily

    Best for: fixed monthly credit plans and keyless trials.

    Tavily gives 1,000 free credits a month with no card. Plans run from $30 (4,000 credits) to $500 (100,000 credits) a month, and search has a "finance" topic option.

    Tavily pricing and alternatives

  • Perplexity Search API

    Best for: cheap raw web results with batching.

    Perplexity's Search API costs $5 per 1,000 requests, and up to five queries in one request count as one. Fast Search costs $1 per 1,000.

    Perplexity API pricing and alternatives

Related pages

Questions about Brave Search API pricing

Is the Brave Search API free?

It includes $5 in credits a month. A card is required for the free credits but isn't charged.

How much does Brave Search API cost?

Search costs $5 per 1,000 requests. Answers costs $4 per 1,000 queries plus tokens. Prices checked 20 Oct 2026.

Can I store Brave Search API results?

Not on the standard terms. Storing results needs a plan that explicitly grants storage rights.

Does Brave have an MCP server?

Yes. Brave publishes one at github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server.

Does Finks replace Brave Search API?

Not for general web search. Finks returns the passages that answer a question, each with its source; today that covers news, SEC filings and earnings call transcripts. Use Brave Search API for general web search and Finks for the finance answers behind it.

Finks makes this page. We took every price and limit from each company's own website on 20 Oct 2026 and link to each source. Prices change, so check them before you buy.

Sources

Add sourced finance results to your web search

Finks returns news, SEC filings and earnings call passages, each with its source.

Try Finks for free