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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Brave Search API + MCP vs Kagi Search API

Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Kagi Search API's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Kagi Search API leads on security & auth. Both do web search. Brave Search API + MCP is cheaper for web search, $5 against $12 per 1,000 requests.

Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 129 search comparisons

Brave Search API + MCPBrave · HTTP API B68/100#231 of 950 Kagi Search APIKagi · HTTP API D48.7/100#807 of 950

Which one, for what

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

  • Reliability, 55 against 8
  • Payments & pricing, 70 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 41
  • Transparency & trust, 81 against 69

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for web search, $5 against $12 per 1,000 requests
  • Open source

Watch for

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

Kagi Search API D

Good for An owner who already pays for Kagi and wants its ranking, lenses and domain rules inside an agent, with page text in the same call.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 64 against 58

Watch for

Public preview since 21 May 2026. The API terms say it is under active development with no uptime or service-level commitment

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBrave Search API + MCPKagi Search APIEdge
Reliability16%20558Brave Search API + MCP +47
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27271Brave Search API + MCP +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.27275Kagi Search API +3
Security & auth14%17.55864Kagi Search API +6
Payments & pricing10%12.57020Brave Search API + MCP +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88741Brave Search API + MCP +46
Transparency & trust7%8.88169Brave Search API + MCP +12
Negative events≤1500
Total68 · B48.7 · D

Facts side by side

FactBrave Search API + MCPKagi Search API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBraveKagi
Hosted endpointhttps://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/searchhttps://kagi.com/api/v1/search
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
Price for web search$5 per 1,000 requests$12 per 1,000 requests
x402payer tooling onlyno
LicenceMITProprietary service under the Kagi API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the OpenAPI file states Apache-2.0
Tools exposed8none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registryio.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-servernot listed
Last release2026-09-172026-08-21
Terms last updated2026-09-012026-09-22
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-25no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk535 stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

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.

Kagi Search API

A public OpenAPI file, typed filters and API keys that can be limited by product and IP address make the API simple to call, at $12 per 1,000 searches. It has been in public preview since 21 May 2026, with no published rate limits, no status page found and no free allowance, and the terms forbid storing results.

Before you call either

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

Kagi Search API

  1. Send POST https://kagi.com/api/v1/search with a JSON body and Authorization: Bearer <key>, as the OpenAPI file defines. Only query is required
  2. Set limit to cap results returned. In the mixed search workflow the MCP tool applies the cap to each result category separately
  3. Use extract.count (1 to 10) only when page text is needed. Extraction is billed at the Extract rate on top of the search
  4. Do not store results. The API terms allow only the transient caching an application needs, and require deletion on termination
  5. On 429 back off before retrying. The response covers both rate limiting and an exhausted usage limit, and no Retry-After header is documented

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Brave Search API + MCP or Kagi Search API?

Brave Search API + MCP scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Kagi Search API's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Kagi Search API leads on security & auth.

Which is cheaper for web search, Brave Search API + MCP or Kagi Search API?

Brave Search API + MCP, at $5 per 1,000 requests against $12 per 1,000 requests for Kagi Search API. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Brave Search API + MCP and Kagi Search API need an API key?

Brave Search API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Kagi Search API needs an API key.

Can an agent call Brave Search API + MCP and Kagi Search API without installing anything?

Yes. Brave Search API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search and Kagi Search API at https://kagi.com/api/v1/search.

Are Brave Search API + MCP and Kagi Search API open source?

Brave Search API + MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Kagi Search API.

Other comparisons with Brave Search API + MCP or Kagi Search API

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