# Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite (slim)

> 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…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.md (~2,450 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.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: B 68.1, rank #131 of 460 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brave-search-mcp.min.md
- SerpKite: B 64.8, rank #179 of 460 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpkite.min.md
- Brave Search API + MCP, 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 Runs on your own machine; Open source; No incidents deducted, where SerpKite loses 3 points for them.
- SerpKite, 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 Free to start without a card.

| Category | Brave Search API + MCP | SerpKite |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 72 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 72 | 92 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 58 | 37 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 70 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 87 | 80 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 82 | 77 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Brave Search API + MCP | SerpKite |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 |
| 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 |