Record · brave-searchMCP serverOpen sourceVerified Sep 23, 2026

Brave Search MCP Server

Brave's official MCP server for web, news, image, video, local and place search plus summaries.

Visit Brave Search MCP Server →View source

Sources and review

Checked against public documentation on September 23, 2026. Suitability guidance is our editorial judgment; this is not a performance benchmark or an endorsement.

Repository and README

Best for

Adding an independent web search index to an MCP client.

Avoid if

You don't have a Brave Search API key; every tool calls that API.

About Brave Search MCP Server

Brave's official MCP server integrates the Brave Search API, with tools for web, local business, place, image, video and news search, an LLM context tool and AI summarization. It runs over stdio by default, with an HTTP transport available. Version 2 stopped returning base64 image data from image search to save context.

Brave Search MCP Server is an open-source project written primarily in TypeScript, with 1.5k stars on GitHub. It was last updated in September 2026.

Add Brave Search MCP Server to your MCP client

Generated from the launch command in the project's README. Your client starts the server on demand. Replace <your-api-key> with your own value first.

Claude CodeRun in your terminal

claude mcp add brave-search-mcp -e 'BRAVE_API_KEY=<your-api-key>' -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server

Cursor~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "brave-search-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.brave-search-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server"]
env = { BRAVE_API_KEY = "<your-api-key>" }

Check the project's README for required accounts, keys and permissions before connecting. Setup guide for each client →

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Brave Search MCP Server vs. the alternatives

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