Brave Search API vs Perplexity Search API for AI agents
Programmatic access to Brave Search, which runs its own independent web index. Perplexity Search API is raw ranked web results from Perplexity's own index (Search API), plus Sonar models that return cited AI answers.
The short answer
- Brave Search API: Independent (non-Google, non-Bing) web results at a simple flat price, with fast throughput.
- Perplexity Search API: Fresh, ranked web snippets from a large independent index, or a cited answer when you want one.
Side by side
| Brave Search API | Perplexity Search API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Brave's own independent index (Brave says 40+ billion pages); web, news, images, video. | Perplexity's own web index, which it says covers hundreds of billions of webpages. |
| Returns | JSON web results (URLs, titles, snippets, up to five extra snippets), news, images and more, plus an LLM-context endpoint; a separate Answers plan returns AI answers. | Search API: JSON results with title, URL, ranked snippet text and date. Sonar: an LLM answer with citations. |
| Before the first call | An account, an API key, and a credit card even for the free credit (used for identity, not charged). | An account and an API key from the API console; pay-as-you-go, no subscription. |
| Free | $5 in free credits every month (about 1,000 searches at $5 per 1,000); card required. | Not stated on its pages |
| Paid | $5 per 1,000 requests (Search plan, 50 queries per second). | Search API $5 per 1,000 requests ($1 per 1,000 with Fast Search), no token costs; Sonar models are priced per token plus a per-request fee. |
| Acting on a result | Through the web page each result links to | Through the web page each result links to |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | No storing, caching or building a database of results beyond transient storage unless you buy a plan that explicitly grants storage rights. | Output may be displayed only within your own applications; rights are non-sublicensable and non-transferable. |
| AI in its terms | Results may not be used to create, train, fine-tune or benchmark AI models (storage-rights plans are separate). | Perplexity says it will not use customer content to train or fine-tune generative AI models. |
| MCP server | Official MCP server from Brave: https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server | Official MCP server: https://github.com/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol (npm @perplexity-ai/mcp-server) |
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Brave Search API?
An account, an API key, and a credit card even for the free credit (used for identity, not charged).
Is Brave Search API free?
$5 in free credits every month (about 1,000 searches at $5 per 1,000); card required.
What do I need before I can use Perplexity Search API?
An account and an API key from the API console; pay-as-you-go, no subscription.
Is Perplexity Search API free?
Its pages listed no free use when we read them on October 15, 2026.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Brave Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- brave.com/search/api: “$5 per 1,000 requests”
- brave.com/search/api: “Includes $5 in free credits every month”
- brave.com/search/api: “Brave's index includes 40+ billion pages, kept fresh by 100+ million page updates every day.”
- brave.com/search/api: “Get up to five snippets picked in real time to maximize contextual relevance to a search.”
- brave.com/search/api: “For free plans, the card is only used to confirm your identity and will not be charged.”
- brave.com/search/api: “you will need to subscribe to a plan that explicitly grants storage rights.”
- api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service: “store, cache, or create a database of Search Results, in whole or in part, other than transient storage”
- api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/resources/terms-of-service: “use the Search Results to create, evaluate, train, re-train, fine-tune, benchmark”
Perplexity Search API, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “The Search API charges per successful request, including a successful request with multiple queries, with no token costs.”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “Total cost per query = token costs + a per-request fee (Sonar, Sonar Pro, and Sonar Reasoning Pro)”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/quickstart: “Pay-as-you-go pricing for all APIs. No subscription required.”
- perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-the-perplexity-search-api: “With an index covering hundreds of billions of webpages”
- docs.perplexity.ai/guides/search-quickstart: “real-time, ranked web results as structured data”
- perplexity.ai/hub/legal/perplexity-api-terms-of-service: “display such Output, in each case, solely within the Customer Applications”
- perplexity.ai/hub/legal/perplexity-api-terms-of-service: “Perplexity shall not use (or authorize third parties to use) Customer Content to train, retrain, fine-tune”
- docs.perplexity.ai/guides/mcp-server: “https://github.com/perplexityai/modelcontextprotocol”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “Search API $5.00 Raw web search results with advanced filtering”
- docs.perplexity.ai/getting-started/pricing: “Search API with Fast Search $1”