2026-09-17, SERP API · Google · Agents

Brave Search API vs a Google SERP API: index, terms and cost

Brave Search API and a Google SERP API are both “web search as JSON”, but they answer different questions. Brave returns results from its own independent index, ranked by Brave, at a flat per-request price, with an endpoint that returns page content prepared for LLMs. A Google SERP API returns what Google shows a person for a query in a given market and device, with Google’s positions, SERP features and the AI Overview.

Pick Brave when you need a fast, affordable, non-Google web index for real-time use and its terms fit how you will use the data. Pick a Google SERP API when the result has to mean something about Google. This post compares the two on index, output, parameters, price, limits and terms. Brave facts were checked on 2026-09-17 and are linked. For the wider field of Google vendors, see best SERP APIs; for agent tools generally, best search APIs for AI agents.

Index: independent versus Google’s

Brave’s API page, checked 2026-09-17, states that “Brave’s index includes over 30 billion pages, kept fresh by over 100 million page updates every day”, calls it “a completely independent index of the Web”, and says it “is not a scraper that simply uses bots to query Google or Bing”.

A Google SERP API has no index of its own: it returns Google’s results page as data. This API’s POST /v1/monitor/google returns it per request for the country you set, down to a city with location.

What follows from that:

• Results differ by design. Brave’s top result for a query is Brave’s judgment. It does not stand in for a Google position, and overlap between the two varies by query.
• Google-only features exist only in Google data. The AI Overview, Google’s local pack, People Also Ask, Google ads and the knowledge panel are Google page elements.
• Independence can be the point. If you want a second opinion that does not depend on Google’s ranking, or a supplier not tied to Google’s access decisions, Brave’s index is that. Google’s own full-web API is closing: the Custom Search JSON API overview, checked 2026-09-17, says it is closed to new customers, with existing customers given until January 1, 2027.

What each returns

Brave Web Search

From Brave’s Web Search docs: GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search, authenticated with an X-Subscription-Token header. The response is organized into sections: web, news, videos, discussions, faq, infobox, locations, mixed, rich and query. extra_snippets adds up to 5 additional excerpts per result.

Brave LLM Context

A separate endpoint, https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/llm/context (docs), returns content for grounding: a grounding object with extracted snippets (generic, poi, map) and a sources object keyed by URL with title, hostname and age. Controls include maximum_number_of_tokens from 1,024 to 32,768 (default 8,192), maximum_number_of_urls 1 to 50, count 1 to 50, a context_threshold_mode of strict, balanced, lenient or disabled, freshness and country. Queries are 1 to 600 characters and up to 75 words. Brave’s pricing page lists “LLM context” among what the Search plan includes.

Google SERP API (this API)

POST /v1/monitor/google returns organicResults, ads, peopleAlsoAsk, relatedSearches, localResults, localResultsMoreLink, knowledgeGraph, shoppingCards, peopleAreSaying and, with include.aioverview, an aioverview object with text, sources, citationPills, relatedLinks, videos and ads. No extracted page text: snippet is Google’s excerpt. See structured SERP data for every field.

Parameters side by side

Brave parameters are from its web search docs, checked 2026-09-17.

A matching pair of requests:

# Google, as a user in the US would see it, with the AI Overview
curl -X POST https://api.answerline.dev/v1/monitor/google \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANSWERLINE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "emergency dentist",
    "country": "US",
    "include": { "aioverview": {} }
  }'

On Brave, the closest request is q=emergency dentist&country=US&search_lang=en against the web search endpoint. It returns Brave’s ranking, with no Google positions, local pack or AI Overview. Brave’s web search docs also list no city or device parameter (checked 2026-09-17); this API’s Google Search takes location and device, and local rank tracking builds on it.

Plans, prices and rate limits

Brave

From brave.com/search/api, checked 2026-09-17:

Google SERP data on this API

Price per request at the Starter tier (billing):

Tier prices are on /pricing; there is no concurrency cap, see rate limits. Failed requests cost nothing. For price comparisons across Google vendors, see cheapest SERP API.

Throughput shape

Brave’s Search plan is a flat 50 queries per second, suited to real-time traffic. Google SERP requests on this API have no concurrency cap and no per-account rate limit, and bulk work is queued: POST /v1/async/task/batch accepts 1 to 500 tasks per call and delivers results to a webhook. For a nightly job of 50,000 keywords, queueing matters more than per-second throughput; for an interactive agent handling user traffic, per-second throughput matters more. See sync, async and webhooks.

Terms of use

Brave’s Search API terms, checked 2026-09-17, contain three clauses that decide many projects:

1. No storage beyond transient use. Customers may not “store, cache, or create a database of Search Results, in whole or in part, other than transient storage required for operation”.
2. No AI model development with results. Customers may not “use the Search Results to create, evaluate, train, re-train, fine-tune, benchmark or otherwise improve artificial intelligence models”.
3. Attribution. Display of results requires “POWERED BY BRAVE” attribution with Brave’s logo, per its usage guidelines.

The terms page checked did not describe different storage rights by self-serve plan; the Enterprise plan offers custom agreements. Read the current terms yourself before building, and get anything outside them in writing.

Why it matters in practice:

• Rank tracking and SEO history are databases of results by definition. A time series of positions is stored results.
• RAG with a persistent vector index stores content derived from results.
• Evaluation sets for your own models or agents are an explicit prohibition.
• Real-time answering that uses results for one response and discards them fits the transient-use pattern.

Google SERP APIs have their own terms, and they differ by vendor; this post does not summarize them. Check your vendor’s terms for storage and AI-use rights with the same care, particularly if you are replacing Brave in a pipeline that stores data.

Decision table

Worked cost example

An assistant runs 300,000 searches a month interactively and discards results. A separate SEO job tracks 3,000 keywords daily on Google with the AI Overview.

Brave prices checked 2026-09-17. The split in this example: an independent index for high-volume grounding, Google data where the product’s promise is about Google.

Pitfalls

• Calling Brave results “search rankings” in an SEO product. They are Brave’s rankings. Label them.
• Building a cache or vector store on Brave results without checking terms. The terms checked allow transient storage only.
• Using Answers for bulk work. Its limit is 2 queries per second.
• Forgetting token cost on Answers. $5 per million input and output tokens is on top of $4 per 1,000 requests.
• Paying for AI Overviews you do not read. On this API it is a $0.00071 add-on per request that shows one, at Starter; request it only where you use it.
• Sync calls for scheduled jobs. Async tasks queue instead of holding a connection open.

For the Google side, start with the quickstart or the Google Search engine page.

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