answers

Requires API Key: Get one at https://api.search.brave.com

Plan: Included in the Answers plan. See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe

When to Use

Use Case	Skill	Why
Quick factual answer (raw context)	llm-context	Single search, returns raw context for YOUR LLM
Fast AI answer with citations	answers (single-search)	streaming, citations
Thorough multi-search deep research	answers (research mode)	Iterative deep research, synthesized cited answer

This endpoint (/res/v1/chat/completions) supports two modes:

• Single-search (default): Fast AI-grounded answer from a single search. Supports enable_citations.
• Research (enable_research=true): Multi-iteration deep research with progress events and synthesized cited answer.

Quick Start (cURL)

Blocking (Single-Search)

curl -X POST "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "How does the James Webb Space Telescope work?"}],
    "model": "brave",
    "stream": false
  }'

Streaming with Citations (Single-Search)

curl -X POST "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What are recent breakthroughs in fusion energy?"}],
    "model": "brave",
    "stream": true,
    "enable_citations": true
  }'

Research Mode

curl -X POST "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -d '{
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Compare quantum computing approaches"}],
    "model": "brave",
    "stream": true,
    "enable_research": true,
    "research_maximum_number_of_iterations": 3,
    "research_maximum_number_of_seconds": 120
  }'

Endpoint

POST https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions

Authentication: X-Subscription-Token: <API_KEY> header (or Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>)

SDK Compatible: Works with OpenAI SDK via base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1"

Two Modes

Feature	Single-Search (default)	Research (enable_research=true)
Speed	Fast	Slow
Searches	1	Multiple (iterative)
Streaming	Optional (stream=true/false)	Required (stream=true)
Citations	enable_citations=true (streaming only)	Built-in (in <answer> tag)
Progress events	No	Yes (<progress> tags)
Blocking response	Yes (stream=false)	No

Parameters

Standard Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
messages	array	Yes	-	Single user message (exactly 1 message)
model	string	Yes	-	Use "brave"
stream	bool	No	true	Enable SSE streaming
country	string	No	"US"	Search country (2-letter country code or ALL)
language	string	No	"en"	Response language
safesearch	string	No	"moderate"	Search safety level (off, moderate, strict)
max_completion_tokens	int	No	null	Upper bound on completion tokens
enable_citations	bool	No	false	Include inline citation tags (single-search streaming only)
web_search_options	object	No	null	OpenAI-compatible; search_context_size: low, medium, high

Research Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
enable_research	bool	No	false	Enable research mode
research_allow_thinking	bool	No	true	Enable extended thinking
research_maximum_number_of_tokens_per_query	int	No	8192	Max tokens per query (1024-16384)
research_maximum_number_of_queries	int	No	20	Max total search queries (1-50)
research_maximum_number_of_iterations	int	No	4	Max research iterations (1-5)
research_maximum_number_of_seconds	int	No	180	Time budget in seconds (1-300)
research_maximum_number_of_results_per_query	int	No	60	Results per search query (1-60)

Constraints (IMPORTANT)

Constraint	Error
enable_research=true requires stream=true	"Blocking response doesn't support 'enable_research' option"
enable_research=true incompatible with enable_citations=true	"Research mode doesn't support 'enable_citations' option"
enable_citations=true requires stream=true	"Blocking response doesn't support 'enable_citations' option"

OpenAI SDK Usage

Blocking (Single-Search)

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1",
    api_key="your-brave-api-key",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="brave",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "How does the James Webb Space Telescope work?"}],
    stream=False,
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Streaming with Citations (Single-Search)

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1",
    api_key="your-brave-api-key",
)

stream = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="brave",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What are the current trends in renewable energy?"}],
    stream=True,
    extra_body={"enable_citations": True}
)

for chunk in stream:
    if chunk.choices[0].delta.content:
        print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content, end="")

Research Mode

from openai import AsyncOpenAI

client = AsyncOpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1",
    api_key="your-brave-api-key",
)

stream = await client.chat.completions.create(
    model="brave",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Compare quantum computing approaches"}],
    stream=True,
    extra_body={
        "enable_research": True,
        "research_maximum_number_of_iterations": 3,
        "research_maximum_number_of_seconds": 120
    }
)

async for chunk in stream:
    if chunk.choices[0].delta.content:
        print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content, end="", flush=True)

Response Format

Blocking Response (stream=false, single-search only)

Standard OpenAI-compatible JSON:

{
  "id": "chatcmpl-...",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "choices": [{"message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "The James Webb Space Telescope works by..."}, "index": 0, "finish_reason": "stop"}],
  "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 10, "completion_tokens": 50, "total_tokens": 60}
}

Streaming Response

SSE response with OpenAI-compatible chunks:

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-...","object":"chat.completion.chunk","choices":[{"delta":{"content":"Based on"},"index":0}]}

data: {"id":"chatcmpl-...","object":"chat.completion.chunk","choices":[{"delta":{"content":" recent research"},"index":0}]}

data: [DONE]

Streaming Tags by Mode

Single-Search (with enable_citations=true)

Tag	Purpose
<citation>	Inline citation references
<usage>	JSON cost/billing data

Research Mode

Tag	Purpose	Keep?
<queries>	Generated search queries	Debug
<analyzing>	URL counts (verbose)	Debug
<thinking>	URL selection reasoning	Debug
<progress>	Stats: time, iterations, queries, URLs analyzed, tokens	Monitor
<blindspots>	Knowledge gaps identified	Yes
<answer>	Final synthesized answer (only the final answer is emitted; intermediate drafts are dropped)	Yes
<usage>	JSON cost/billing data (included at end of streaming response)	Yes

Usage Tag Format

The <usage> tag contains JSON-stringified cost and token data:

<usage>{"X-Request-Requests":1,"X-Request-Queries":8,"X-Request-Tokens-In":15000,"X-Request-Tokens-Out":2000,"X-Request-Requests-Cost":0.005,"X-Request-Queries-Cost":0.032,"X-Request-Tokens-In-Cost":0.075,"X-Request-Tokens-Out-Cost":0.01,"X-Request-Total-Cost":0.122}</usage>

Use Cases

• Chat interface integration: Drop-in OpenAI SDK replacement with web-grounded answers. Set base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1".
• Deep research / comprehensive topic research: Use research mode (enable_research=true) for complex questions needing multi-source synthesis (e.g., "Compare approaches to nuclear fusion").
• OpenAI SDK drop-in: Same SDK, same streaming format — just change base_url and api_key. Works with both sync and async clients.
• Cited answers: Enable enable_citations=true in single-search mode for inline citation tags, or use research mode which automatically includes citations in its answer.

Notes

• Timeout: Set client timeout to at least 30s for single-search, 300s (5 min) for research
• Single message: The messages array must contain exactly 1 user message
• Cost monitoring: Parse the <usage> tag from streaming responses to track costs