Brave Search API vs You.com in 2026

Both calls on one key

A team that runs Brave in one service and You.com in another keeps both. Each call keeps its path, its parameters and its parser; the address and the key change.

# Brave Search API, before and after
curl -G https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: $BRAVE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=open source vector databases" -d count=10
curl -G https://api.specstream.ai/res/v1/web/search \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "q=open source vector databases" -d count=10

# You.com Search API, before and after
curl -X POST https://ydc-index.io/v1/search \
  -H "X-API-Key: $YDC_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "open source vector databases", "count": 10}'
curl -X POST https://api.specstream.ai/you/v1/search \
  -H "X-API-Key: $SPECSTREAM_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "open source vector databases", "count": 10}'

On Brave's path the reply has web.results[] with title, url and description. On /you it has results.web[] with url, title, description and snippets, and metadata. The older GET /you/search answers in its hits[] shape. Every parameter is in the Brave and You.com migration guides.

100,000 searches: $500, $500 or $100

At 100,000 searches of 10 results a month, Brave's Search plan costs $500 and You.com's Web Search API costs $500. On SpecStream the same calls cost $100 on either route, with no plan to buy and no charge for a call that returns nothing or stops at a 429.

You.com adds $1 per 1,000 pages crawled live when a call asks for full pages, so 10 results with every page cost up to $0.015. On SpecStream, passages=true on GET /v1/web-search adds the text of the top pages to the search, and the Extract API reads any page at $0.80 per 1,000.

The most accurate web search API in the world

The SpecStream Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions, 978 of them correct, and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. Every score and its method is on the benchmarks page.

Both drop-in routes run the fast search. Ask GET /v1/web-search on the same key and the reply carries the answer with the page it was read from and its read time in seen_at, when the results agree on one value, at $5 per 1,000.

Search, pages and rows on one key

The same key reads up to 20 pages or documents a call with the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and runs Deep Search, which returns every match for a request in plain words as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. Source URL and read time on every value. A saved request reruns hourly to yearly, with each row labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching.

An agent spends inside a hard maximum

Each API key carries its own spending limit and the operations it allows. A search needs no quote: each call takes its price from the balance, and the reply's price_usd says what it cost. A Deep Search run never costs more than the maximum you approved.

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. Search at $1 per 1,000 on Brave's, You.com's and the other drop-in addresses, $5 with the answer and its page, pages at $0.80 per 1,000, and every match as structured rows at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row.

Tavily

A search API billed in credits at $0.008 each pay as you go, 1 credit a basic search and 2 an advanced one, with 1,000 free credits a month. SpecStream answers Tavily's call at https://api.specstream.ai/tavily for $0.001 a search.

Exa

$4, $7 or $12 per 1,000 requests by search type, with up to 10 results in the base price. SpecStream answers Exa's POST /search at https://api.specstream.ai/exa, in Exa's JSON, at $1 per 1,000.

Perplexity Search API

Ranked web results as JSON at $5 per 1,000 requests, or $1 with fast search, with no generated answer. A SpecStream search at $5 also returns the answer with its page when the results agree on one.

Parallel

Search from $1 per 1,000 requests, with 10 results a request. SpecStream answers Parallel's POST /v1/search at https://api.specstream.ai/parallel, and the same key reads pages and returns rows.