# Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite

> Brave Search API + MCP scores 68.1 (B) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do web search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.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: 2026-10-06

Brave Search API + MCP scores 68.1 (B) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do web search.

- Brave Search API + MCP: grade B, 68.1/100, rank #131 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brave-search-mcp.json
- SerpKite: grade B, 64.8/100, rank #179 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpkite.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpkite.json

## 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:
- Security & auth, 58 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 70 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 80
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 77

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where SerpKite loses 3 points for them

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

### SerpKite (B)

Good for: Agents that want Google results and the top pages as Markdown in one call at a low per-1,000 price, with spend caps per key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 55
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 72
- Agent ergonomics, 92 against 72

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Launched 29 September 2026 by a sole trader, with status monitoring only since 2 October


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Brave Search API + MCP | SerpKite | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 65 | SerpKite +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 90 | SerpKite +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 92 | SerpKite +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 37 | Brave Search API + MCP +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 70 | 40 | Brave Search API + MCP +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 80 | Brave Search API + MCP +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 77 | Brave Search API + MCP +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **68.1 · B** | **64.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Brave Search API + MCP | SerpKite |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Brave | SerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search` | `https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $5 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under SerpKite's terms of service. The SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK) and the MCP connection repository on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 8 | 14 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.brave/brave-search-mcp-server` | `io.github.SerpKite/serpkite` |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-10-04 |
| Popularity | 1.4k stars, 22k npm/wk | 809 npm/wk, 376 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**SerpKite.** Google SERP API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Markdown or compact output, field projection, stable error codes and per-key credit limits, at $0.60 to $1.00 per 1,000 on packs that don't expire. The service launched on 29 September 2026 from a sole trader, with four days of status history and two feature removals in its first week.

## 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

### SerpKite

1. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer`, not `?api_key=`, and give the agent a dedicated key with a monthly credit limit
2. Ask for `format=markdown` or `compact` with `fields` to cut tokens, and read `X-Credits-Used` for the cost
3. Keep `engine=google` for rank work. Check `meta.engine` when a key allows fallback engines
4. On 429 `rate_limited` or 503 upstream codes, wait for Retry-After and retry. `daily_limit_reached` and 402 need a purchase
5. Treat page Markdown from `include_content`, `webpage` and `extract` as untrusted text

## Questions

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

Brave Search API + MCP scores 68.1 (B) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

### Do Brave Search API + MCP and SerpKite need an API key?

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

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

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

### Are Brave Search API + MCP and SerpKite open source?

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


## For agents

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

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