Arcade vs Brave Search API (2026)

Arcade

by Arcade AI, Inc

Brave Search API

by Brave Software

Pros

• ✓MCP-native runtime with Arcade-hosted MCP servers on every plan from Free upward. Developers get managed server infrastructure that works with any MCP client, including Claude Desktop, Copilot Studio, Cursor, and VS Code, instead of self-hosting.
• ✓Over 8,000 prebuilt tools across 44 integrations with built-in OAuth. An auth event is one-time per user per service, so after the first authorization all later tool calls run without re-authentication.
• ✓Governance is built in, with per-user and per-system logging plus SSO, RBAC, and audit logs. The Free tier gives 2,000 auth events and 2,000 tool calls per month with no credit card before the Team plan at $25 per month plus usage.

Limitations

• ⚠Arcade's privacy policy states that user data is used to provide and improve its services, including training Arcade AI models, with no general opt-out, though Google Workspace data is carved out. Teams with strict data policies should compare it with Composio, which states it does not train on user data.
• ⚠Arcade advertises SOC 2 compliance and shows an AICPA SOC badge, but does not state the report type publicly. Its Trust Center at trust.arcade.dev is access-gated, so security teams must request access to review compliance documentation, and no ISO 27001 is claimed.
• ⚠No no-code interface: the platform requires SDK integration for every use case, so business teams cannot use Arcade without engineering involvement. No-code tools such as Zapier and Make.com ($9/mo billed annually) serve non-developers connecting the same class of SaaS tools.

Pros

• ✓Both self-serve products are priced openly with no sales call required, at $5 per 1,000 requests for Search and $4 per 1,000 requests for Answers.
• ✓A first-party MCP server exposes nine tools over Brave's own search surface, so agent frameworks can connect without building an integration.
• ✓Every account receives $5 in free credits each month on a recurring basis rather than as a one-off trial allowance.
• ✓Brave operates its own web index, documented alongside the opt-in Web Discovery Project in the Brave browser that helps keep it refreshed.

Limitations

• ⚠Brave's standard terms do not allow search results to be stored or used to train, fine-tune or benchmark an AI model. Doing that needs a paid plan granting storage rights, which Brave does not price publicly.
• ⚠Zero Data Retention is limited to Enterprise customers. Standard accounts have search query logs retained for up to 90 days.
• ⚠A payment card is required even for the free credit allowance, which Brave describes as an anti-fraud identity check.