Brave Search MCP Server
Brave Search MCP server provides privacy-focused web search capabilities including web, local, image, video, and news search with AI-powered summarization.
Overview
The Brave Search MCP Server integrates Brave's independent search index into AI assistants via the Model Context Protocol. Brave Search provides privacy-respecting web search without tracking users, making it ideal for AI applications where data privacy matters.
Official Brave Server:
Maintained by Brave. It replaces the deprecated reference server previously published as @modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search.
Key Features
Independent Search Index
Brave maintains its own search index, not reliant on Google or Bing
Privacy-Focused
No user tracking, profiling, or personal data collection
Web & Local Search
Global web search plus local business and place search
Image & Video Search
Search for images and videos with content filtering options
News Search
Access recent news articles with freshness filtering
AI Summarization
Built-in AI-powered summarization of search results
Available Tools
Quick Reference
| Tool | Purpose | Category |
|---|---|---|
brave_web_search | General web search with Brave's index | Search |
brave_local_search | Search for local businesses and places | Local |
brave_place_search | Search points of interest by area or coordinates | Local |
brave_image_search | Search for images | Media |
brave_video_search | Search for videos | Media |
brave_news_search | Search recent news articles | News |
brave_llm_context | Retrieve pre-extracted web content for grounding and RAG | Context |
brave_summarizer | Summarize web results using a summary key | AI |
Detailed Usage
brave_web_search▶
Perform a general web search with configurable result count and content filtering.
{
"query": "WebAssembly performance benchmarks 2025",
"count": 10,
"offset": 0
}
brave_local_search▶
Search for local businesses and places with location-specific results.
{
"query": "vegan restaurants",
"location": "San Francisco, CA",
"count": 5
}
brave_image_search▶
Search for images with size, color, and license type filtering.
{
"query": "solarpunk architecture concept art",
"count": 10,
"safesearch": "strict"
}
brave_news_search▶
Search for recent news articles with freshness filtering.
{
"query": "AI regulation policy",
"count": 10,
"freshness": "pw"
}
Installation
{
"mcpServers": {
"brave-search": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@brave/brave-search-mcp-server",
"--transport",
"stdio"
],
"env": {
"BRAVE_API_KEY": "your_brave_api_key"
}
}
}
}
API Key Required:
Get a free Brave Search API key from brave.com/search/api
Sources
Related Articles & Guides
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