How to Install Brave Search MCP in Claude Code

Real-time web and local search using the Brave Search API — no tracking, no ads

What Brave Search MCP does

Give your AI agents access to real-time web search using Brave's privacy-focused search API. Unlike other search integrations, Brave Search delivers independent results without tracking or algorithmic bias. Features: - Real-time web search with rich snippets - Local business search with maps data - News search with recency filtering - Safe search controls - Supports up to 20 results per query - Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client The Brave Search MCP is one of the most widely used search integrations in the MCP ecosystem, chosen by developers who want reliable web access without depending on Google's API. Requirements: - Free Brave Search API key (get at api.search.brave.com — 2,000 free queries/month)

web

brave

internet

real-time

Installation steps

1Copy the config below
2Open or create .claude/mcp.json in your project root
3Paste inside "mcpServers": {}
4Reload Claude Code

Configuration

File location: .claude/mcp.json (project root) or ~/.claude/mcp.json (global)

.claude/mcp.jsonjson

{
  "braveSearchMcp": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "-y",
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"
    ],
    "env": {
      "BRAVE_API_KEY": "BSA..."
    }
  }
}

Full server details GitHub Open Config Editor

Install in other clients

🤖Claude Desktop ⌨️Cursor 🏄Windsurf ✨OpenAI ♊Gemini

For maintainers

If you maintain Brave Search MCP, add this badge to your README to show it's verified on CuratedMCP:

[![CuratedMCP Verified](https://curatedmcp.com/api/badge/brave-search-mcp)](https://curatedmcp.com/marketplace/brave-search-mcp)

Related servers

Fetch MCP Server

Fetch any URL and convert web content to clean markdown for AI consumption

Free

Perplexity MCP

AI-powered search with citations — real-time web answers grounded in up-to-date sources

Free

Firecrawl MCP

Advanced web scraping with JavaScript rendering, PDF support, and autonomous research agents

Free