# Brave Search Scraper (`codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes organic web search results from Brave Search (search.Brave.com). Extracts title, link, snippet, domain, and date.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Coding Frontned](https://apify.com/codingfrontend) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 36 total users, 6 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.99 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Brave Search Scraper

Extract organic search results from [Brave Search](https://search.brave.com) at scale using a privacy-focused search engine with no Google bias.

### Features

- **Organic results** — result title, canonicalized URL, snippet, domain, and displayed URL
- **Pagination** — automatically follows pages (offset-based) up to `maxItems`
- **Cross-page deduplication** — skips URLs already seen in previous pages
- **Site links** — captures supplementary links when shown
- **Geo-targeting** — set `country` and `language` for localised results
- **Safe search** — configurable (`off` / `moderate` / `strict`)
- **Proxy support** — defaults to Apify Residential proxy because direct Brave requests are commonly throttled
- **Truthful status** — writes a bounded `OUTPUT` summary and fails blocked or unverifiable zero-result runs

### Input Parameters

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `query` | string | *(required)* | Search query |
| `maxItems` | integer | `50` | Maximum number of results to extract |
| `country` | string | `"us"` | Country code for localised results (e.g. `us`, `gb`, `in`) |
| `language` | string | `"en"` | Language code (e.g. `en`, `es`, `de`) |
| `safeSearch` | string | `"moderate"` | Safe search level: `off`, `moderate`, `strict` |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify Residential | Apify proxy configuration; set explicitly to change the default |

#### Example INPUT.json

```json
{
    "query": "best electric cars 2025",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "country": "us",
    "language": "en",
    "safeSearch": "moderate",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "US"
    }
}
```

### Output Fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `position` | integer | Rank in results (1-based) |
| `resultTitle` | string | Title of the search result |
| `link` | string | Full URL of the result |
| `displayedUrl` | string | Shortened URL shown in Brave |
| `snippet` | string | Descriptive text excerpt |
| `domain` | string | Hostname of the result |
| `date` | string | Publication date (when shown by Brave) |
| `thumbnail` | string | Thumbnail URL (when shown) |
| `siteLinks` | array | Additional sub-links under the result |
| `searchQuery` | string | Query that produced this result |
| `country` | string | Country code used |
| `language` | string | Language code used |
| `safeSearch` | string | Safe Search mode used |
| `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 scrape timestamp |

#### Example Output

```json
{
    "position": 1,
    "resultTitle": "Top 10 Electric Vehicles for 2025",
    "link": "https://www.motortrend.com/features/best-electric-cars/",
    "displayedUrl": "motortrend.com",
    "snippet": "Our rankings for the best electric cars in 2025 based on range, performance and value...",
    "domain": "motortrend.com",
    "searchQuery": "best electric cars 2025",
    "country": "us",
    "language": "en",
    "safeSearch": "moderate",
    "scrapedAt": "2025-05-01T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Pagination

The scraper uses **offset-based pagination** to retrieve more results:

- Each page returns ~10 results
- The scraper queues the next page automatically until `maxItems` is reached
- Duplicate URLs are tracked across pages to prevent pushing the same result twice

### Notes

- Brave Search may return fewer results than requested for niche queries
- Optional fields are omitted when Brave does not provide them; the actor does not emit placeholder `null` values
- Use a **residential proxy** for better reliability on high-volume scraping
- The scraper uses Firefox via Playwright to best replicate real browser behaviour
- A successful zero-row run is only reported when Brave displays an explicit no-results message

### Why Use This Scraper?

- **Privacy-focused SERP data** — Brave Build its own independent web index; results are not personalized, giving true organic rankings
- **Alternative search engine** — Brave Search has millions of users; ranking there is distinct from Google or Bing
- **No filter bubble** — unbiased results not tailored by browsing history
- **Independent indexing** — Brave does not rely on Google or Bing's index for its organic results

### Use Cases

- **Multi-Engine SEO** — compare rankings across Brave, Google, and Bing to spot algorithm differences
- **Privacy Audience Research** — understand what users of privacy-focused browsers see in search
- **Unbiased SERP Studies** — conduct reproducible SEO research with personalization-free results
- **Content Strategy** — discover what pages rank organically on Brave's independent index
- **Link Building** — find high-ranking pages on Brave for outreach or partnership

### Custom Solutions

Need a custom scraper or dedicated server setup? We offer:

- **On-demand scraper development** for any website
- **Individual server setups** with your own infrastructure
- **Custom modifications** to existing scrapers
- **Priority support** and maintenance

📧 Email: lakshmanan.w3dev@gmail.com\
📱 WhatsApp: +91 6382775774

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

The public Brave Search query, up to 300 characters.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of unique organic results to emit.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Bounded page cap; the default retains the prior max-items-based cap.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter Brave country code, for example us, gb, or in.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Brave language code, for example en, de, or fr.

## `safeSearch` (type: `string`):

Safe search level.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional Apify Proxy or custom proxy settings. The prior default is residential Apify Proxy.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Bounded page navigation timeout.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Optional delay between paginated requests.

## `maxRequestRetries` (type: `integer`):

Bounded Crawlee retries for transient page failures.

## `includeDiagnostics` (type: `boolean`):

On a failed run, emit one exact four-field diagnostic dataset row.

## `fixtureFile` (type: `string`):

Local QA only: HTML fixture relative to test/fixtures/.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "artificial intelligence",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxPages": 7,
  "country": "us",
  "language": "en",
  "safeSearch": "moderate",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  },
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 45,
  "requestDelayMs": 0,
  "maxRequestRetries": 2,
  "includeDiagnostics": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

No description

## `output` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "artificial intelligence"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "query": "artificial intelligence" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "artificial intelligence"
}' |
apify call codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,codingfrontend/brave-search-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/r6yERfdNXyxPS0xdW/builds/DgxFFqhDSVLib14vN/openapi.json