# Brave Search API + MCP vs Kagi Search API

> Brave Search scores 68 (B) to Kagi Search's 48.7 (D) for web search. Brave Search is cheaper for web search, $5 against $12 per 1,000 requests. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-kagi-search
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-kagi-search.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-kagi-search.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-kagi-search.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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

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.

- Brave Search API + MCP: grade B, 68/100, rank #231 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json
- Kagi Search API: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #807 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kagi-search.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kagi-search.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 129 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## 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

| Category | Weight | Brave Search API + MCP | Kagi Search API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 8 | Brave Search API + MCP +47 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 71 | Brave Search API + MCP +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 75 | Kagi Search API +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 64 | Kagi Search API +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 70 | 20 | Brave Search API + MCP +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 41 | Brave Search API + MCP +46 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 69 | Brave Search API + MCP +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68 · B** | **48.7 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Brave Search API + MCP | Kagi Search API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Brave | Kagi |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search` | `https://kagi.com/api/v1/search` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Price for web search | $5 per 1,000 requests | $12 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under the Kagi API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the OpenAPI file states Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-21 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-01 | 2026-09-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-25 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk | 535 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (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.


## For agents

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

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

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