{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "brave-search-mcp", "name": "Brave Search API + MCP", "vendor": "Brave", "vendorUrl": "https://brave.com/search/api/", "kind": "http-api", "category": "search", "summary": "REST API over Brave's independent index with web, news, image, video and local search, an LLM Context endpoint with pre-extracted page content and an Answers endpoint with citations.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json", "repo": "https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "license": "MIT", "transports": [ "stdio", "streamable-http", "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server" }, { "registry": "oci", "name": "mcp/brave-search" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "API key in the `X-Subscription-Token` header. The x402 proxy at search.agent.s.brave.app takes a signed payment instead of a key. An `Api-Version` header pins dated response versions. MCP server: BRAVE_API_KEY (or BRAVE_API_KEY_FILE) environment variable.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Search plan $5 per 1,000 requests with $5 free credit a month, 50 QPS. Answers plan $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million tokens, $5 free credit a month, 2 QPS. A card is required for the free credit. Storing results needs an Enterprise plan with storage rights. Enterprise custom (https://brave.com/search/api/).", "priceSummary": "$5 / 1k req", "where": "both", "x402": { "level": "partial", "evidence": "Brave's docs link a pay-per-request proxy at search.agent.s.brave.app. Web, LLM Context, news, video, image and local paths cost $0.005 in USDC on Base. Answers, Suggest and Spellcheck aren't sold. An unpaid web search returned 402 with a PAYMENT-REQUIRED header on 2026-09-30 (https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/guides/agent-payments)", "endpoints": [ { "url": "https://search.agent.s.brave.app/res/v1/web/search", "priceUsd": 0.005, "network": "eip155:8453" }, { "url": "https://search.agent.s.brave.app/res/v1/llm/context", "priceUsd": 0.005, "network": "eip155:8453" } ] }, "toolCount": 8, "popularity": { "githubStars": 1400, "npmWeekly": 22398, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation", "llmsTxt": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/llms.txt", "registryName": "io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "capabilities": [ "web.search", "web.extract", "search.answer", "search.news", "search.images" ], "tags": [ "official", "local", "open-source", "usage-priced", "hosted", "card-required", "x402", "llms-txt", "enterprise", "mcp" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-17", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 68, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 181, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 629, "categoryRank": 5, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 72, "maintenance": 87, "payments": 70, "reliability": 55, "schema": 72, "security": 58, "transparency": 81 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "Agents that want an independent, non-Google index at a flat price, or that want page text in one call through LLM Context.", "strengths": [ "x402 proxy sells web, LLM Context, news, video, image and local search at $0.005 a call, and a failed search isn't charged", "$5 per 1,000 searches at 50 QPS on the self-serve Search plan", "SOC 2 Type II, a HackerOne bounty and a valid security.txt", "Dated response versions through the `Api-Version` header", "MIT MCP server with five releases since July, tests in CI and a GitHub-verified registry entry" ], "weaknesses": [ "The status page marks the Search API \"not monitored\" and shows no incident history", "A card is required even for the $5 monthly credit", "No public OpenAPI for the keyed API and no API changelog", "No SLA on self-serve plans, and Answers is limited to 2 QPS", "No prompt-injection guidance, though LLM Context returns raw page text" ], "agentNotes": [ "Call /res/v1/llm/context when you need page text rather than links. It saves a separate fetch", "Treat \"No web results found\" from the MCP server as an empty result, not an outage", "On 429, wait for `X-RateLimit-Reset` seconds. There's no `Retry-After` header", "Skip `brave_summarizer`. The Summarizer is deprecated and the x402 proxy doesn't sell it", "Pin `Api-Version` to a date, since requests without it get the latest version" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 68 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 72, "maintenance": 87, "payments": 70, "reliability": 55, "schema": 72, "security": 58, "transparency": 63 }, "provenanceScore": 98 }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search?q=brave+search\u0026count=5\" \\\n -H \"Accept: application/json\" -H \"X-Subscription-Token: $BRAVE_API_KEY\"", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add brave-search -e BRAVE_API_KEY=${BRAVE_API_KEY} -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "config": { "mcpServers": { "brave-search": { "args": [ "-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server" ], "command": "npx", "env": { "BRAVE_API_KEY": "${BRAVE_API_KEY}" } } } }, "x402": "purl --max-amount 5000 'https://search.agent.s.brave.app/res/v1/web/search?q=rust'\n# unpaid requests get HTTP 402 with a PAYMENT-REQUIRED header, USDC on eip155:8453" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/web.search", "tool": "https://letme.dev/brave-search-mcp" }, "area": "web-data", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Search plan", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 5 }, { "item": "Answers plan", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 4, "note": "plus $5 per million tokens" }, { "item": "x402 search, per call", "unit": "call", "usd": 0.005, "note": "USDC on Base, no account" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Brave Software, Inc.", "domain": "brave.com", "domainRegistered": "1995-09-18", "domainNote": "brave.com was registered in 1995, before Brave bought it.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.brave.app", "changelog": "https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server/releases", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "The x402 proxy runs on search.agent.s.brave.app, not brave.com. Brave's API docs link it as official.", "status.brave.app lists the Brave Search API but marks it \"not monitored\" and shows no incident history. The API docs keep a separate status log whose last entry is 27 March 2025 (https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/status-updates/)." ], "score": 98 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.json", "live": { "slug": "brave-search-mcp", "probe": { "target": "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-08T19:08:41.761831727Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 422, "lastMs": 411, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 399, "p95ms24h": 470, "samples24h": 272, "samples30d": 2135, "days": [ { "date": "2026-09-30", "probes": 35, "ok": 35 }, { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 276, "ok": 276 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 217, "ok": 217 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.brave.app", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T17:50:26.265722693Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "version": "v2.1.4", "released": "2026-09-17", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:03:34.752304255Z" }, { "registry": "mcp-registry", "name": "io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "version": "2.1.3", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T02:42:52.272076636Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "version": "2.1.4", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:03:32.902464837Z" } ], "githubStars": 1489, "npmWeekly": 31461, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://brave.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:39:07.374309545Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T14:00:09.241668725Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "brave.com", "registered": "1995-09-18", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/brave.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:07:28.958526087Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:15:13.738634996Z", "changedAt": "2026-09-30T13:09:37.196019706Z", "fingerprint": "8c41a50b5a60" }, { "url": "https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:15:15.883051746Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "e74eb26bd7c7" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-08T19:08:41.761831727Z" } }, "answer": "Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation and security \u0026 auth.", "b": { "slug": "grep-ai", "name": "Grep AI", "vendor": "Parcha Labs, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://grep.ai", "kind": "http-api", "category": "search", "summary": "Grep is a hosted platform from Parcha Labs for building and running research agents that return cited reports and structured output. Outside agents reach it through a REST API, a remote MCP server, an A2A endpoint and two SDKs.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grep-ai", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grep-ai.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grep-ai.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grep-ai.json", "repo": "https://github.com/Parcha-ai/grepai-skills", "license": "Proprietary service under Parcha Labs' terms of service. The grep-research-skills package on npm is MIT. The @parcha/agentrun and parcha-agentrun SDK packages state no licence in their registry metadata", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@parcha/agentrun" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "parcha-agentrun" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "grep-research-skills" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "A Bearer credential on every call except the public agent list and publicly shared runs. Self-serve API keys (`parcha-` prefix) are created in the developer dashboard or at POST /api/v2/keys, and can be listed and revoked. The MCP server and delegated integrations take OAuth access tokens issued by Descope, with scopes research:read, research:write, billing:read, experts:read and experts:write. An agent with an AgentMail inbox can sign in through AgentID with an Ed25519 key and no human account. No partner or sales approval is documented for the self-serve plans.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Credits, with a medium-effort task counted as 20. The Free Trial has 100 one-time credits and the pricing table marks it without API access. Pay As You Go tops up a wallet from $20, also marked without API access. Pro is $200 a month for 1,500 credits and Ultra $500 for 4,500, both with API access. Team plans go through sales. The page says $20 buys 200 credits and its Markdown twin says 100. Whether signup needs a card isn't stated (https://grep.ai/pricing, checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "$200 / mo", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "Not available. The changelog entry of 8 May 2026 announces x402 and MPP payments for API research, but GET and POST requests to https://api.grep.ai/mpp/v1/api returned 503 `gateway_disabled` on 8 October 2026, and the grep-research-skills README says the wallet path returns once the gateway is generally available (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 82, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": 334, "pypiWeekly": 52, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://grep.ai/developers", "llmsTxt": "https://grep.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "search.research", "search.answer", "kyc.business", "kyc.screening", "kyc.documents" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "freemium", "mcp", "oauth", "openapi", "llms-txt", "python", "typescript", "async-jobs", "webhooks", "status-page" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-30", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 64.4, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 252, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 629, "categoryRank": 9, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 70, "maintenance": 74, "payments": 40, "reliability": 60, "schema": 80, "security": 65, "transparency": 59 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "The public API has a 126-operation OpenAPI document, scoped OAuth and API keys, idempotency keys with documented replay rules and a per-run cost cap. No rate limit is published, the MCP server lists 82 tools, and the pricing page limits API access to the $200 a month Pro plan and above.", "bestFor": "Agents that hand off a long research or due-diligence job and want a cited report or structured fields back, including business verification and sanctions screening through built-in agents.", "strengths": [ "Public OpenAPI document with 126 operations, llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every developer page", "OAuth with five scopes, plus API keys that can be minted, scoped and revoked through the API", "`Idempotency-Key` on run creation, with body-hash matching, a 24-hour replay window and named 409 codes", "`max_cost_usd` per run, quota pre-flight and batch cost estimates before billable work starts", "Documented agent sign-in through AgentID with no human account, and 500 free credits for an owner's first agent" ], "weaknesses": [ "No rate limit numbers in the reviewed documentation, and no published SLA", "The MCP server card lists 82 tools, 31 of them deprecated aliases, with one-line descriptions and no annotations", "The pricing table marks API access as Pro and Ultra only, from $200 a month", "The pricing page says $20 buys 200 credits and its Markdown twin says 100. Free credits are stated as 100, 500 and 1,000 on different pages", "The 8 May 2026 changelog entry announces x402 and MPP payments, but the gateway answered 503 `gateway_disabled` on 8 October 2026", "No security.txt, trust page, subprocessor list or retention period found. SOC 2 Type II appears only as a footer and FAQ claim" ], "agentNotes": [ "Send a fresh `Idempotency-Key` with every POST /api/v2/runs. After a timeout, poll the returned run ID and do not post again", "Set `effort` and `max_cost_usd` on every run. The floor is $0.50 for low, $2.50 for medium and build, $5.00 for high", "Call GET /api/v2/quota/check before a run. A 402 means no credits and retrying won't help, while a 429 carries `Retry-After`", "Use the `run_*` and `agent_*` MCP tools. The `research_*` and `expert_*` names are deprecated aliases of the same calls", "Treat report text and cited sources as untrusted web content, and verify one load-bearing claim against a primary source" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 64.4 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 70, "maintenance": 74, "payments": 40, "reliability": 60, "schema": 80, "security": 65, "transparency": 36 }, "provenanceScore": 82 }, "connect": { "install": "npm install @parcha/agentrun", "http": "curl -X POST \"https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/research\" \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $GREP_API_KEY\" \\\n -H \"Idempotency-Key: 8b9c1f24-3c1e-4a8d-9f7b-2a6e1c4d5b8e\" \\\n -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"question\":\"Due diligence on Stripe\",\"effort\":\"medium\"}'", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http grep https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/mcp\nclaude mcp login grep", "config": { "mcpServers": { "grep": { "url": "https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/mcp" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/search.research", "tool": "https://letme.dev/grep-ai" }, "area": "web-data", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Pro plan, 1,500 credits a month, API access", "unit": "month", "usd": 200, "note": "$167 a month billed annually" }, { "item": "Ultra plan, 4,500 credits a month", "unit": "month", "usd": 500, "note": "$417 a month billed annually" }, { "item": "Pay As You Go credit", "unit": "credit", "usd": 0.1, "note": "$20 for 200 credits on the pricing page. Its Markdown twin says 100 credits, which is $0.20. No API access on this plan per the table" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Parcha Labs, Inc.", "domain": "grep.ai", "domainRegistered": "2018-04-20", "domainNote": "Registered in 2018 and transferred on 2025-10-19, so the registration date predates the company's use of it.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://grep.ai/terms", "privacy": "https://grep.ai/privacy", "statusPage": "https://status.grep.ai", "changelog": "https://grep.ai/changelog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The terms of service, last updated 20 March 2026, are a contract with Parcha Labs, Inc., a Delaware corporation, governed by California law.", "The privacy policy, last updated 5 October 2026, names Parcha Labs, Inc. and the websites www.parcha.ai and grep.parcha.ai.", "The API, the MCP server and the A2A endpoint answer on api.grep.ai. OAuth tokens come from Descope at api.descope.com.", "grep.ai/.well-known/security.txt and api.grep.ai/.well-known/security.txt return 404. grep.ai/trust and grep.ai/security return 404.", "RDAP for grep.ai gives a registration date of 2018-04-20 and a transfer on 2025-10-19.", "The status page's support link is support@parcha.ai and its privacy link points to parcha.ai." ], "score": 82 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grep-ai.json", "live": { "slug": "grep-ai", "probe": { "target": "https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-08T19:08:48.328236956Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 401, "lastMs": 313, "lastNote": "asks for credentials", "authRequired": true, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 379, "p95ms24h": 509, "samples24h": 42, "samples30d": 42, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 42, "ok": 42 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.grep.ai", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T19:06:41.247636962Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "Parcha-ai/grepai-skills", "version": "v0.2.0", "released": "2026-08-04", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:15:07.589068505Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@parcha/agentrun", "version": "0.2.1", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:15:03.929041874Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "grep-research-skills", "version": "0.2.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:15:07.371903924Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "parcha-agentrun", "version": "0.2.1", "released": "2026-09-30", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:15:07.178365237Z" } ], "githubStars": 2, "npmWeekly": 334, "pypiWeekly": 52, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://grep.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:38:56.474115574Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://grep.ai/changelog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:43.809396033Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "5f4c7902b1e3" }, { "url": "https://grep.ai/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:46.272067131Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "a9ffcdfc713c" }, { "url": "https://grep.ai/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:48.076387468Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "68d0ef896769" }, { "url": "https://grep.ai/terms", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:50.381060662Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "5c21afb05a2d" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-08T19:08:48.328236956Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Brave", "b": "Parcha Labs, Inc.", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search", "b": "https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP", "b": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "OAuth or key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Freemium", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "$4 per 1,000 requests", "b": "not published", "name": "Price for search answer" }, { "a": "payer tooling only", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT", "b": "Proprietary service under Parcha Labs' terms of service. The grep-research-skills package on npm is MIT. The @parcha/agentrun and parcha-agentrun SDK packages state no licence in their registry metadata", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "8", "b": "82", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server", "b": "not listed", "name": "MCP registry" }, { "a": "2026-09-17", "b": "2026-09-30", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2026-09-01", "b": "2026-03-20", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-08-25", "b": "2026-09-21", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk", "b": "334 npm/wk, 52 PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3.5/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation and security \u0026 auth.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Brave Search API + MCP or Grep AI?" }, { "answer": "Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.", "question": "Do Brave Search API + MCP and Grep AI need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Brave Search API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search and Grep AI at https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs.", "question": "Can an agent call Brave Search API + MCP and Grep AI without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "Brave Search API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Grep AI.", "question": "Are Brave Search API + MCP and Grep AI open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Payments \u0026 pricing, 70 against 40", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 87 against 74", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 81 against 59" ], "also": [ "Runs on your own machine", "Open source" ], "goodFor": "Agents that want an independent, non-Google index at a flat price, or that want page text in one call through LLM Context.", "slug": "brave-search-mcp", "watchFor": "The status page marks the Search API \"not monitored\" and shows no incident history" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 60 against 55", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 80 against 72", "Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 58" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Agents that hand off a long research or due-diligence job and want a cited report or structured fields back, including business verification and sanctions screening through built-in agents.", "slug": "grep-ai", "watchFor": "No rate limit numbers in the reviewed documentation, and no published SLA" } ], "job": { "capability": "search.answer", "name": "Search answer" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-cloudflare-web-search.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Cloudflare Web Search API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-cloudflare-web-search" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Exa API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Firecrawl MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-linkup.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Linkup", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-linkup" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs SearchAPI.io", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-searchapi-io" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpapi.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpApi", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpapi" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serper.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Serper", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serper" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Tavily API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-valyu.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Valyu", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-valyu" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-you-com-api.json", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs You.com APIs", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-you-com-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-grep-ai.json", "title": "Exa API + MCP vs Grep AI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-grep-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-linkup.json", "title": "Grep AI vs Linkup", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-linkup" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-parallel-search-api.json", "title": "Grep AI vs Parallel Search and Task APIs", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-parallel-search-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tavily-mcp.json", "title": "Grep AI vs Tavily API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tavily-mcp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.json", "title": "Grep AI vs Valyu", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-you-com-api.json", "title": "Grep AI vs You.com APIs", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-you-com-api" } ], "scores": [ { "brave-search-mcp": 55, "by": 5, "edge": "grep-ai", "grep-ai": 60, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "brave-search-mcp": 72, "by": 8, "edge": "grep-ai", "grep-ai": 80, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "brave-search-mcp": 72, "by": 2, "edge": "brave-search-mcp", "grep-ai": 70, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "brave-search-mcp": 58, "by": 7, "edge": "grep-ai", "grep-ai": 65, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "brave-search-mcp": 70, "by": 30, "edge": "brave-search-mcp", "grep-ai": 40, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "brave-search-mcp": 87, "by": 13, "edge": "brave-search-mcp", "grep-ai": 74, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "brave-search-mcp": 81, "by": 22, "edge": "brave-search-mcp", "grep-ai": 59, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation and security \u0026 auth. Both do search answer.", "verdicts": { "brave-search-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.", "grep-ai": "The public API has a 126-operation OpenAPI document, scoped OAuth and API keys, idempotency keys with documented replay rules and a per-run cost cap. No rate limit is published, the MCP server lists 82 tools, and the pricing page limits API access to the $200 a month Pro plan and above." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.min.md" }, "markdown": "Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation and security \u0026 auth. Both do search answer.\n\n- Brave Search API + MCP: grade B, 68/100, rank #181 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json\n- Grep AI: grade B, 64.4/100, rank #252 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grep-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grep-ai.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Brave Search API + MCP (B)\n\nGood for: Agents that want an independent, non-Google index at a flat price, or that want page text in one call through LLM Context.\n\nAhead on:\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 70 against 40\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 87 against 74\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 81 against 59\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Runs on your own machine\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: The status page marks the Search API \"not monitored\" and shows no incident history\n\n### Grep AI (B)\n\nGood for: Agents that hand off a long research or due-diligence job and want a cited report or structured fields back, including business verification and sanctions screening through built-in agents.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 60 against 55\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 80 against 72\n- Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 58\n\nWatch for: No rate limit numbers in the reviewed documentation, and no published SLA\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Brave Search API + MCP | Grep AI | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 60 | Grep AI +5 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 80 | Grep AI +8 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 70 | Brave Search API + MCP +2 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 65 | Grep AI +7 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 70 | 40 | Brave Search API + MCP +30 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 74 | Brave Search API + MCP +13 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 59 | Brave Search API + MCP +22 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **68 · B** | **64.4 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Brave Search API + MCP | Grep AI |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Brave | Parcha Labs, Inc. |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search` | `https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs` |\n| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |\n| Price for search answer | $4 per 1,000 requests | not published |\n| x402 | payer tooling only | no |\n| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Parcha Labs' terms of service. The grep-research-skills package on npm is MIT. The @parcha/agentrun and parcha-agentrun SDK packages state no licence in their registry metadata |\n| Tools exposed | 8 | 82 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| MCP registry | `io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server` | not listed |\n| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-30 |\n| Terms last updated | 2026-09-01 | 2026-03-20 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-25 | 2026-09-21 |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | 1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk | 334 npm/wk, 52 PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**Grep AI.** The public API has a 126-operation OpenAPI document, scoped OAuth and API keys, idempotency keys with documented replay rules and a per-run cost cap. No rate limit is published, the MCP server lists 82 tools, and the pricing page limits API access to the $200 a month Pro plan and above.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Brave Search API + MCP\n\n1. Call /res/v1/llm/context when you need page text rather than links. It saves a separate fetch\n2. Treat \"No web results found\" from the MCP server as an empty result, not an outage\n3. On 429, wait for `X-RateLimit-Reset` seconds. There's no `Retry-After` header\n4. Skip `brave_summarizer`. The Summarizer is deprecated and the x402 proxy doesn't sell it\n5. Pin `Api-Version` to a date, since requests without it get the latest version\n\n### Grep AI\n\n1. Send a fresh `Idempotency-Key` with every POST /api/v2/runs. After a timeout, poll the returned run ID and do not post again\n2. Set `effort` and `max_cost_usd` on every run. The floor is $0.50 for low, $2.50 for medium and build, $5.00 for high\n3. Call GET /api/v2/quota/check before a run. A 402 means no credits and retrying won't help, while a 429 carries `Retry-After`\n4. Use the `run_*` and `agent_*` MCP tools. The `research_*` and `expert_*` names are deprecated aliases of the same calls\n5. Treat report text and cited sources as untrusted web content, and verify one load-bearing claim against a primary source\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Brave Search API + MCP or Grep AI?\n\nBrave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation and security \u0026 auth.\n\n### Do Brave Search API + MCP and Grep AI need an API key?\n\nBoth take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.\n\n### Can an agent call Brave Search API + MCP and Grep AI without installing anything?\n\nYes. Brave Search API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search and Grep AI at https://api.grep.ai/api/v2/runs.\n\n### Are Brave Search API + MCP and Grep AI open source?\n\nBrave Search API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Grep AI.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"brave-search-mcp\", \"b\": \"grep-ai\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare brave-search-mcp grep-ai`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grep-ai.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Brave Search API + MCP or Grep AI\n\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Cloudflare Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-cloudflare-web-search.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-exa-mcp.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Firecrawl MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-firecrawl-mcp.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-linkup.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-parallel-search-api.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-searchapi-io.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpapi.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serper.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-tavily-mcp.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-valyu.md)\n- [Brave Search API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)\n- [Exa API + MCP vs Grep AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-grep-ai.md)\n- [Grep AI vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-linkup.md)\n- [Grep AI vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-parallel-search-api.md)\n- [Grep AI vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-tavily-mcp.md)\n- [Grep AI vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-valyu.md)\n- [Grep AI vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-you-com-api.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-08", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Grep AI", "url": "" } ], "description": "Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Grep AI's 64.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Grep AI leads on reliability, schema \u0026 documentation and security \u0026 auth. Both do search answer. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by…", "facts": [ "Brave Search API + MCP B 68", "Grep AI B 64.4", "scores" ], "h1": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Grep AI", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai.png", "path": "/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Brave Search API + MCP vs Grep AI for AI agents, B 68 vs B 64.4", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-08", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-grep-ai" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2400, "slim": 730 }, "version": 1 }