# Brave Search > Canonical: https://www.yalc.ai/mcps/brave-search/ Privacy-first web search inside Claude Code, with no Google rate-limit drama. ## Categories - intelligence **Website:** https://brave.com/search/api/ **Repo:** https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers ## Glance - Maintainer: ModelContextProtocol - Free tier: 2k queries/mo - Auth: API key **Install Command:** claude mcp add brave-search --env BRAVE_API_KEY=BSA-xxx -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search **Install Notes:** Sign up for the Brave Search API at brave.com/search/api/. The free tier includes 2,000 queries per month with rate limits suitable for piloting. Replace `BSA-xxx` with your key, run the command, restart Claude Code. **Yalc Fit Score:** 8 **Yalc Verdict:** The cleanest "give Claude access to Google" replacement. Privacy-first, free tier sufficient for most Yalc workflows, and the official MCP package just works. ## Plain Description The Brave Search MCP exposes Brave's search index as native Claude tool calls. Two main verbs: web search (general results) and local search (places, businesses, geo). Output is structured JSON with title, URL, description, and ranking signals. For Yalc operators, Brave Search is the default web search MCP. Where Perplexity adds reasoning on top of search, Brave gives raw results that Yalc can compose with Claude's own reasoning. For competitive intel, news scanning, and "find me a vendor for X" lookups, Brave is faster than Perplexity and doesn't have the Google API rate-limit headaches. ## Yalc Framework **Workflow Step:** intake ### Workflow Narrative The Brave Search MCP sits at the **intake** node when Yalc workflows need to discover public information. It pairs with Firecrawl: Brave finds the URLs, Firecrawl extracts the content. Most useful patterns: vendor discovery ("find me 10 alternatives to ToolX"), news monitoring ("what's been written about ICP company Y this month"), and validation lookups ("does this company actually exist or is the lead bogus"). **Workflow Position:** The web search node. Yalc invokes Brave when the answer requires fresh general web results. The output URLs typically flow into Firecrawl for full-text extraction. ### Prompt Patterns - Yalc, search the web for "Series B fintech Germany 2026 announcement" via Brave. Pull top 20 results, dedupe against our ICP list, surface unworked accounts. → Yalc invokes Brave web search, dedupes via Notion, returns candidates. - Yalc, search Brave for the 5 most recent reviews of [competitor]. Pull each URL through Firecrawl for full text. Summarize sentiment. → Yalc chains Brave search + Firecrawl scrape + Claude analysis in one prompt. - Yalc, find local businesses matching "AI agency Paris" via Brave local search. Output their websites for follow-up enrichment via Crustdata. → Yalc uses Brave local search, joins with Crustdata company identify. ### Chaining **Upstream:** Yalc prompt with a query (no upstream) **Downstream:** Brave search results → Firecrawl (extract content) or Crustdata (identify company) ### Anti Patterns - Don't run a Brave query when Crustdata already has the answer. Crustdata's database is more structured for B2B lookups. Brave is for the open web. - Don't burn the free tier on broad queries. Use specific search operators (site:, "exact phrase", -exclude). Brave respects the same operators as Google. - Don't expect Brave to surpass Google's index size. Coverage is competitive but not identical. For obscure long-tail queries, fall back to Perplexity or direct vendor sites. **Compatibility:** Official ModelContextProtocol package. Works in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, and any MCP-compatible client. Brave's API rate limits depend on plan (free tier is 1 query per second, paid tiers higher). ## Pros - Free tier covers 2,000 queries per month. Real workflows ship without paying. - Privacy-first (Brave doesn't track or profile users). - Two search verbs (web + local) cover most Yalc lookup patterns. - Structured JSON output, ready for Claude composition. - Active maintenance under the official MCP servers repo. ## Cons - Index size is competitive but smaller than Google. Some long-tail queries miss. - Free tier rate limit (1 qps) constrains parallel workflows. - No image search, video search, or other vertical search verbs. - Local search coverage is uneven by region. ## Who For - Yalc operators who want fresh web search inside Claude conversations - Privacy-conscious teams avoiding Google's API - GTM engineers chaining search results into deeper Firecrawl extracts ## Related ### Mcp **Rule:** Brave for discovery, Firecrawl for extraction. Standard chain. **Url:** /mcps/firecrawl/ ## Alternatives - **Perplexity MCP** - Rule: Switch when you want LLM-summarized search instead of raw web results. - Url: /mcps/perplexity/ - **Google Search MCP (community)** - Rule: Switch when you specifically need Google's index. Setup is more complex (API key + custom search engine). - Url: # - **Direct web Firecrawl search** - Rule: Skip Brave when Firecrawl's built-in search verb covers the discovery step. - Url: # ## Faq - Q: How does Brave Search compare to Google's API? - A: Brave is cheaper (2k free queries vs Google's 100/day free), faster to set up (one API key vs Google's Custom Search Engine config), and privacy-first. Index size is smaller than Google but competitive for general queries. - Q: When should I use Perplexity instead? - A: Use Perplexity when you want a single summarized answer with citations. Use Brave when you want raw search results to compose downstream. Different jobs. - Q: Can the MCP do image or news search? - A: Brave's API supports news search via a separate endpoint. The MCP exposes web and local search; for news, check the latest version of the MCP package or use Brave's API directly. - Q: How does the rate limit affect Yalc workflows? - A: Free tier is 1 query per second. Light workflows are fine. For high-throughput batch lookups, upgrade the plan or batch your queries serially. - Q: Does Brave have a "site:" operator? - A: Yes. Brave supports the same search operators as Google (site:, "exact", -exclude, intitle:). Use them to narrow queries and save on the free tier budget. - Q: Is Brave Search good for non-English queries? - A: Coverage is decent for major European languages (French, German, Spanish, Italian). Less reliable for non-Latin scripts. For local search in non-English markets, validate before scaling. **Reviewer:** Othmane Khadri