# Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Brave Search API + MCP

> Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 74.3 (BB) to Brave Search's 68 (B) for web search. Brave Search is cheaper for web search, $5 against $7 per 1,000 requests. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-brave-search-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-brave-search-mcp.md (~3,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-brave-search-mcp.min.md (~880 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-brave-search-mcp.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 74.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Brave Search API + MCP's 68 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Brave Search API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do web search. Brave Search API + MCP is cheaper for web search, $5 against $7 per 1,000 requests.

- Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore: grade BB, 74.3/100, rank #76 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentcore-web-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentcore-web-search.json
- Brave Search API + MCP: grade B, 68/100, rank #254 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 163 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore (BB)

Good for: A team already on AWS that wants agents to search the web through a governed MCP gateway, with owner-set domain lists, IAM or OAuth control and queries kept inside AWS.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 55
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 72
- Security & auth, 85 against 58

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No error responses for the tool are documented. The only response example has `isError` false

### Brave Search API + MCP (B)

Good for: Agents that want an independent, non-Google index at a flat price, or that want page text in one call through LLM Context.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 70 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 80

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for web search, $5 against $7 per 1,000 requests
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: The status page marks the Search API "not monitored" and shows no incident history


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Brave Search API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 55 | Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 72 | Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 72 | Brave Search API + MCP +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 85 | 58 | Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +27 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 70 | Brave Search API + MCP +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 87 | Brave Search API + MCP +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 81 | Brave Search API + MCP +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **74.3 · BB** | **68 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Brave Search API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Brave |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://{gateway-id}.gateway.bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com/mcp` | `https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Price for web search | $7 per 1,000 requests | $5 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and Service Terms, with an acceptable-use section on the tool's documentation page | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 1 | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-08-25 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.** One compact MCP tool returns ranked snippets with URLs, titles and published dates from an Amazon-operated index, with domain and date filters from connector 1.2.0, at $7 per 1,000 queries. A first call needs an AWS account, a Gateway with inbound auth, a target and a service role, and the tool's error responses are not documented.

**Brave Search API + MCP.** x402 proxy sells web, LLM Context, news, video, image and local search at $0.005 a call, and a failed search isn't charged. The status page marks the Search API "not monitored" and shows no incident history.

## Before you call either

### Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore

1. Call `tools/list` on the gateway and take the tool's name from it. AWS's call examples name gateway tools by target and tool
2. Keep `query` to 200 characters and `maxResults` between 1 and 25 (default 10). The published schema states these limits only in descriptions
3. Check the target's connector version before sending `filters`. Version 1.1.0, the default, exposes only `query` and `maxResults`
4. Keep each result's URL and title with any answer built from it. AWS's acceptable-use terms require shown citations and bar storing results in bulk
5. On a throttled request, wait the `retryAfter` seconds in the error body. The default quota is 10 Web Search requests a second, adjustable

### Brave Search API + MCP

1. Call /res/v1/llm/context when you need page text rather than links. It saves a separate fetch
2. Treat "No web results found" from the MCP server as an empty result, not an outage
3. On 429, wait for `X-RateLimit-Reset` seconds. There's no `Retry-After` header
4. Skip `brave_summarizer`. The Summarizer is deprecated and the x402 proxy doesn't sell it
5. Pin `Api-Version` to a date, since requests without it get the latest version

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or Brave Search API + MCP?

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 74.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Brave Search API + MCP's 68 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Brave Search API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Which is cheaper for web search, Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or Brave Search API + MCP?

Brave Search API + MCP, at $5 per 1,000 requests against $7 per 1,000 requests for Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and Brave Search API + MCP need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and Brave Search API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore has a hosted endpoint at https://{gateway-id}.gateway.bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com/mcp and Brave Search API + MCP at https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search.

### Are Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and Brave Search API + MCP open source?

No open-source release is listed for Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. Brave Search API + MCP is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-brave-search-mcp.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-brave-search-mcp.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agentcore-web-search", "b": "brave-search-mcp"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agentcore-web-search brave-search-mcp`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentcore-web-search.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json

## Other comparisons with Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or Brave Search API + MCP

- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Cloudflare Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-cloudflare-web-search.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs DeepSeek Search and Fetch API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-deepseek-search-api.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-exa-mcp.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Grep AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-grep-ai.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-linkup.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-searchapi-io.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-serpapi.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-serper.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-valyu.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Cloudflare Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-cloudflare-web-search.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs DeepSeek Search and Fetch API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-deepseek-search-api.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Kagi Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-kagi-search.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-linkup.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpapi.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serper.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-valyu.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Grep AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp