Brave Search API vs Keenable
At 100,000 searches a month: Brave Search API $495.00, Keenable $0.00. Keenable costs the same or less from 20,000 to 500,000 standard searches.
Brave Search API checked Oct 29, 2026 · Keenable checked Oct 27, 2026
Brave Search API vs Keenable: both bills as the job grows
The monthly bill at every volume from 20,000 to 500,000 searches, with your job marked. A step is a plan boundary.
- Brave Search API
- Keenable
The bills behind the curve
- Brave Search API: 20,000: $95.00 · 50,000: $245.00 · 100,000: $495.00 · 200,000: $995.00 · 500,000: $2,495.00
- Keenable: 20,000: $0.00 · 50,000: $0.00 · 100,000: $0.00 · 200,000: $400.00 · 500,000: $1,600.00
Both bills at the same volume · Depth and variants: one page of results per search
100,000 search calls. The verdict above follows your volume; the write-up below uses 100,000 search calls.
Brave Search API
Keenable
The difference
Charge by charge
| Charge | Brave Search API | Keenable |
|---|---|---|
| Standard searches, per 1,000 | $4.95 | $0.00 |
| Deep searches, per 1,000 | not published | not published |
| Failed requests billed | no | not published |
| Past the plan's allowance | pay as you go, no allowance | no plan covers this job |
| Paying yearly | no yearly price | no yearly price |
| Concurrent requests on this plan | not published | not published |
| Free tier | $5 of usage a month, card required | 100,000 requests a month |
| Works with | MCP server, n8n | MCP server, n8n, LangChain, LlamaIndex |
Choose Brave Search API when
- no published charge favours it for this job; weigh what it offers beyond price
Choose Keenable when
- price for 100,000 searches a month matters most: $0.00 against $495.00
- you work through LangChain or LlamaIndex (each listed for it; not for the other)
How the Brave Search API bill adds up
- Base rate1 requestper request
- × JavaScript renderingNot requiredNot part of this workload
- × Premium proxyNot required
- ÷ Success rate1Failed requests are not billed
- = Billed units per search1 requestFrom this bill’s calculation
- = per 1,000 searches$4.95Search, pay as you go
Credits and multipliers
JavaScript rendering
Billed failures
Success rate
Concurrency
Free tier
Renews monthly How the Keenable bill adds up
- Base rate1 request
- × JavaScript renderingNot required
- × Premium proxyNot required
- ÷ Success rate1Failure billing is not published; this is an assumption
- = Billed units per search1 request
- = per 1,000 searches$0.00Free tier, free within its limits
Credits and multipliersJavaScript renderingBilled failuresSuccess rateConcurrencyFree tierRenews monthly Both bills, step by step
Brave Search API
-
Successes you want
100,000 standard searches
Your stated workload. Every vendor on this site is priced against this same number.
- × 1
Attempts you are billed for
100,000 standard searches
Brave Search API does not bill failed fetches, so failures cost nothing here.
- × 1
What the meter counts
100,000 requests
One attempt is one billed unit for this workload.
- =
Metered cash this month
$495.00 /mo
Search: the cheapest way to buy this volume, not just the first plan big enough.
Bars share one linear scale across the 3 counted stages, so a multiplier shows as length. Units differ by stage and are labelled. Cash is not on that scale.
Keenable
-
Successes you want
100,000 standard searches
See the note above.
- ÷ 1
Attempts you are billed for
100,000 standard searches
Failure billing is not published. This workload assumes no failures, so the missing rule does not change the bill.
- × 1
What the meter counts
100,000 requests
- =
Cash per month
$0.00 /mo
Free tier: the cheapest way to buy this volume, not just the first plan big enough.
Both ladders share one linear scale, topping out at 100,000 counted units, so a longer bar means more billed work rather than a different drawing.
These figures are for one stated workload: 100,000 standard search calls with one default-depth result set per call. Change the volume above and both bills, the verdict and the curve follow it.
Decision boundary: none on price. Up to 1,000 searches a month both are free; above that Keenable costs less at every volume. Brave charges $5 per 1,000 requests and takes its $5 monthly credit off the bill, so 10,000 searches cost $45 and 100,000 cost $495. Keenable gives 100,000 requests a month free and charges $4 per 1,000 after, so both of those cost nothing, 200,000 cost $400 against Brave’s $995, and a million cost $3,600 against $4,995. (Brave Search API; Keenable pricing, checked Oct 21, 2026)
Billing models side by side
Brave sells its Search plan from prepaid credits at $5 per 1,000 requests, with $5 of credit applied every month; it asks for a card to prevent abuse and charges only for credits you choose to buy. Only successful requests count against your quota and are billed. Keenable bills one request per search, takes the month’s 100,000 free requests first and then draws $4 per 1,000 from prepaid credits; it does not say whether a failed request made with an API key uses a credit. (Brave Search API; Brave rate-limiting guide; Keenable credits, checked Oct 21, 2026)
What each provides that the other does not
Both search their own index rather than Google’s or Bing’s. Brave allows 50 queries a second on its Search plan against Keenable’s 10 per organization, adds Goggles for your own reranking and filtering, and sells a separate Answers product at $4 per 1,000 requests plus $5 per million tokens. It lets you store results or train models on them only with a plan that includes storage rights. (Brave Search API, checked Oct 21, 2026)
Keenable returns up to 50 results per search, each with the date the page was published and the date it was indexed where known, and can search its index as it stood on a past day. Its Fetch endpoint returns its stored copy of a page as Markdown for the same one request, and agents with no account can pay per call. Its terms limit results to your internal business purposes, with no resale or distribution on their own. (Search API reference; Keenable credits; Keenable terms of service, checked Oct 21, 2026)
Who should pick which
Pick Keenable to pay less at any volume above 1,000 searches a month, and above all under 100,000 searches a month, which it prices at nothing. Pick Brave when you need more than 10 queries a second without asking, want it in writing that failed requests are not billed, or need a plan that lets you store results. Neither price says anything about result quality, so test both on your own queries.