Brave Search API vs looot (2026)

Brave Search API

by Brave Software

looot

by AY Automate LLC

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.

Pros

• ✓Every endpoint shows its price before the call runs, and a call that fails at the provider is charged $0.
• ✓One key reaches more than 2,000 endpoints from more than 70 providers through an MCP server listed in the official MCP Registry, a CLI and a REST API.
• ✓Users can bring their own provider keys with no looot fee, and can connect their own Gmail and Google Workspace accounts so agents can act as well as read.

Limitations

• –There is no free plan or trial credit, so every paid call needs a funded balance, with a $5 minimum top-up.
• –The terms of service, privacy policy and data processing agreement are marked as drafts under legal review, and the vendor states it holds no SOC 2 or other third-party certification.
• –Each provider call passes its inputs to that third-party provider under the provider's own terms, and looot stores the inputs and outputs of every run.