Top Brave Search API alternatives in 2026

Keep your Brave code

Every other API in the table asks for a new call and a new reply shape. SpecStream answers https://api.specstream.ai/res/v1/web/search in Brave's JSON: web.results[] with title, url and description, and q, count, offset and freshness as before. The key goes in X-Subscription-Token.

The same key answers Exa's and Tavily's own calls at $1 per 1,000 searches, and Parallel's in every mode but advanced, so a team that tries several of these keeps one client per shape and one bill.

What 100,000 searches a month cost

At 100,000 searches of up to 10 results a month: Brave costs $500, Exa $400 on lite and $700 on auto, Tavily $800 on basic searches as you go, and Parallel $100 in fast mode or $500 in its default advanced mode. SpecStream costs $100 on Brave's call, and $500 with the answer written for you.

The test: run the same queries on both

Prices are half the choice; the other half is what comes back. This script sends the same three questions to Brave and to SpecStream in the same call shape, and prints the status, the number of results, the time and the first URL. Only the host and the key change. On SpecStream the three calls cost $0.003.

import os, time, requests

QUERIES = [
    "who founded Mistral AI",
    "Python 3.13 release date",
    "EU AI Act general purpose model obligations start date",
]
APIS = {
    "Brave": ("https://api.search.brave.com", os.environ["BRAVE_API_KEY"]),
    "SpecStream": ("https://api.specstream.ai", os.environ["SPECSTREAM_API_KEY"]),
}

for name, (host, key) in APIS.items():
    for q in QUERIES:
        start = time.time()
        reply = requests.get(
            f"{host}/res/v1/web/search",
            headers={"X-Subscription-Token": key},
            params={"q": q, "count": 10},
        )
        results = reply.json().get("web", {}).get("results", [])
        top = results[0]["url"] if results else ""
        print(f"{name:10} {reply.status_code} {len(results):2} {time.time()-start:.2f}s {q} {top}")

Add your own questions to QUERIES: the ones your users ask, with answers you already know. A ranked list of the same length, read in the same code, is the fairest test there is.

The most accurate web search API

The SpecStream Search API scores 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 are on the benchmarks page.

From one search to a full dataset

When your product needs every match in place of a results page, write the request in plain words. Deep Search returns structured rows with a source URL and read time on every value, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row, and quotes the most a run can cost before it starts.

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. The Search API costs $1 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results on the fast tier and every drop-in address, and $5 with the answer. The Extract API reads pages at $0.80 per 1,000, and Deep Search delivers full datasets at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a row. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

You.com

Web Search costs $5 per 1,000 calls. SpecStream charges $1 per 1,000 for up to 10 results, and answers in Brave's JSON on Brave's own call.

Serper

Google results sold in credit packs: the 50k pack costs $1.00 per 1,000. SpecStream costs $1 per 1,000 from the first search, with no pack to buy and credit that never expires.

Firecrawl

Search costs 2 credits per 10 results, and Standard sells 100,000 credits for $99 a month, about $1.98 per 1,000 searches. SpecStream answers Firecrawl's own search and scrape calls on the same key.

Perplexity Search API

Ranked results at $5 per 1,000 requests, or $1 with Fast Search. SpecStream costs $1 per 1,000 on Brave's call and $5 with a written answer and its page.

Nimble

Nimble ranks its own Search API first on its list of Brave alternatives and publishes no price for it: its page says to speak to the Nimble team. SpecStream prints every price, from $1 per 1,000 searches.