--- title: "Brave Search vs Parallel: Web Search API Comparison, Independently Benchmarked (2026) | Openbenchmarks" description: "Is Brave Search or Parallel the better web search API for AI agents in 2026? Measured on all three tasks: factual lookup, hard retrieval (coding agents), and multi-hop company search." url: https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-parallel --- [](https://openbenchmarks.com/) [← web search benchmark](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) [benchmarks](https://openbenchmarks.com/) / [web-search](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) / brave search vs parallel web search API · three tasks · 2026 # Brave Search vs Parallel: web search API comparison Brave Search and Parallel measured on the same three jobs: factual lookup, hard retrieval for coding agents, and multi-hop company search. Winner per task is in the table below. \[01\] across tasks ## Brave Search or Parallel — winner per task Best measured endpoint per vendor on each task. Modes stay separate rows in the tables below. | Task | Brave Search | Parallel | Measured winner | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Hard retrieval** (task completion, search-only) | 38.0% | 66.7% | **Parallel** | | **Multi-hop** (F1, search-only) | 28.0% | 46.5% | **Parallel** | \[02\] factual lookup ## Brave Search and Parallel on company-news lookup One query, one verifiable fact. 300 questions, max 10 results. [Full factual lookup board →](https://openbenchmarks.com/company-news) One or both vendors are not on the factual lookup board yet. __Brave Search vs Parallel factual lookup endpoints__ | Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | $ / 1k correct | Accuracy | AR@1 | AR@5 | Latency | Snippet tokens | Total $ | Official docs | Cost per 1,000 queries | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | [Brave Search](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave Search in a new tab") web search Brave LLM context | POST /res/v1/llm/context count=10 | **$5.32** | 94.0% | 81.0% | 94.7% | 601ms | 2,064 | $1.50 | [Official docs](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/services/llm-context "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$5 / 1k](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") Search plan · LLM Context | | 2 | [Brave Search](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave Search in a new tab") web search | GET /res/v1/web/search count=10 · result\_filter=web | **$5.36** | 93.3% | 79.3% | 91.7% | 630ms | 817 | $1.50 | [Official docs](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/services/web-search "Open official docs for this endpoint") | [$5 / 1k](https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/documentation/pricing "Open the vendor pricing page this list price was taken from") | $ / 1k correct is $ / 1k queries divided by extracted-answer accuracy. Ranked by $ / 1k correct. Cost per 1,000 queries is the published PAYG list price, linked to the vendor pricing page. Not promotional packs or volume discounts. TinyFish Search is free with a 30 requests/min cap — $0 is not unlimited throughput. \[03\] hard retrieval ## Brave Search and Parallel on coding-agent docs Grounded task completion on 100 documentation tickets. A pass needs a `# source:` URL from that run. [Full coding-agent board →](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search-for-coding-agents) **Parallel** leads at 66.7%. Median task time: Brave Search 20s vs Parallel 19s. \[03.a\] search & fetch __Brave Search vs Parallel search & fetch coding-agent board__ | Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | [Parallel advanced](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel advanced in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=advanced POST /v1/extract | 77.0 ± 1.0 | 33s | $0.096 $0.019 search+fetch $0.077 token cost | 3.11s | 27,092 | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch | | 2 | [Parallel basic](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel basic in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=basic POST /v1/extract | 76.0 ± 0.0 | 30s | $0.107 $0.023 search+fetch $0.084 token cost | 1.59s | 32,809 | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch | \[03.b\] search only __Brave Search vs Parallel search-only coding-agent board__ | Rank | Vendor | Endpoint & configuration | Task completion | Median task time | Median task cost | Avg search time | Median task tokens | API list price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | [Brave](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave in a new tab") | POST /res/v1/llm/context | 38.0 ± 2.6 | 20s | $0.082 $0.025 search $0.057 token cost | 523ms | 14,103 | $0.005 / search | | 2 | [Parallel fast](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=fast | 66.7 ± 1.5 | 22s | $0.054 $0.005 search $0.049 token cost | 953ms | 12,460 | $0.001 / search | | 3 | [Parallel turbo](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel turbo in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=turbo | 64.7 ± 2.1 | 19s | $0.059 $0.005 search $0.054 token cost | 333ms | 14,130 | $0.001 / search | \[04\] multi-hop ## Brave Search and Parallel on multi-turn company search 45 questions, each with three or four constraints. Scored on precision, recall, F1, and exact-set. [Full multi-turn board →](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) **Parallel** leads F1 at 46.5%. Median agent time: Brave Search 43.52s vs Parallel 46.40s. Median task cost: Brave Search $0.268 vs Parallel $0.419. \[04.a\] search only __Brave Search vs Parallel search-only multi-turn board__ | Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Brave Search](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave Search in a new tab") | GET /res/v1/web/search brave | **28.0 ± 1.7** | 66.9 ± 8.5 | 19.3 ± 0.5 | 0.7 ± 1.3 | 43.5 s | 8.0 | $0.268 $0.070 search $0.200 token cost | $0.005 / search | | [Parallel basic](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel basic in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=basic parallel-basic | **46.5 ± 1.9** | 88.7 ± 0.9 | 34.4 ± 2.0 | 3.7 ± 2.6 | 67.6 s | 7.4 | $1.120 $0.070 search $1.050 token cost | $0.005 / search | | [Parallel advanced](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel advanced in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=advanced parallel-advanced | **44.2 ± 1.4** | 87.6 ± 3.4 | 32.0 ± 1.6 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 83.4 s | 7.3 | $0.625 $0.070 search $0.565 token cost | $0.005 / search | | [Parallel fast](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=fast parallel-fast | **38.0 ± 2.0** | 79.9 ± 4.6 | 27.5 ± 1.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 53.9 s | 7.6 | $0.460 $0.014 search $0.447 token cost | $0.001 / search | | [Parallel turbo](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel turbo in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=turbo parallel-turbo | **34.7 ± 2.4** | 80.0 ± 5.2 | 24.8 ± 2.4 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 46.4 s | 7.6 | $0.419 $0.014 search $0.405 token cost | $0.001 / search | F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search endpoint the harness calls. \[04.b\] search + fetch __Brave Search vs Parallel search+fetch multi-turn board__ | Provider | Endpoint & configuration | F1 | Precision | Recall | Exact set | Median time | Mean turns | Median task cost | API list price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Brave Search](https://brave.com/search/api/ "Open Brave Search in a new tab") | GET /res/v1/web/search brave | **29.4 ± 1.6** | 73.5 ± 5.8 | 20.4 ± 0.9 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 45.1 s | 8.0 | $0.285 $0.060 search+fetch $0.222 token cost | $0.005 / search | | [Parallel basic](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel basic in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=basic parallel-basic | **42.3 ± 1.1** | 81.3 ± 2.8 | 31.3 ± 1.1 | 3.0 ± 1.3 | 68.6 s | 7.5 | $1.089 $0.061 search+fetch $1.033 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch | | [Parallel advanced](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel advanced in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=advanced parallel-advanced | **42.2 ± 1.1** | 87.6 ± 0.3 | 30.1 ± 1.1 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 80.9 s | 7.4 | $0.599 $0.061 search+fetch $0.538 token cost | $0.005 / search $0.001 / fetch | | [Parallel fast](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel fast in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=fast parallel-fast | **39.3 ± 3.3** | 82.3 ± 6.6 | 28.2 ± 2.0 | 2.2 ± 0.0 | 55.1 s | 7.6 | $0.441 $0.014 search+fetch $0.427 token cost | $0.001 / search $0.001 / fetch | | [Parallel turbo](https://parallel.ai "Open Parallel turbo in a new tab") | POST /v1/search mode=turbo parallel-turbo | **36.0 ± 3.5** | 83.6 ± 4.0 | 25.0 ± 2.6 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 48.1 s | 7.7 | $0.414 $0.013 search+fetch $0.400 token cost | $0.001 / search $0.001 / fetch | F1, precision, recall, and exact-set accuracy are percentages reported as mean ± sample SD across three independent runs; each run aggregates all 45 questions. SD is measured in percentage points. Median time is the median end-to-end time across all runs for each vendor. Median task cost is the median of LLM $ plus search/fetch API $ per agent run. API list price is the PAYG unit rate of the search (and fetch) endpoint the harness calls. \[05\] faq ## Brave Search vs Parallel — common questions ### Brave Search vs Parallel: which web search API is better? Hard retrieval: Parallel leads task completion (Brave Search 38.0% vs Parallel 66.7%). Multi-hop: Parallel leads F1 (Brave Search 28.0% vs Parallel 46.5%). Openbenchmarks open benchmarks [← web search benchmark](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search) [most accurate](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/most-accurate-search-api) [coding agents](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search-for-coding-agents) [multi-turn](https://openbenchmarks.com/multi-turn-company-search) [Exa alternatives](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-alternatives) [Exa vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-tavily) [Tavily vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/tavily-vs-parallel) [Brave Search vs Exa](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-exa) [Linkup vs Firecrawl](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-firecrawl) [Parallel vs Exa](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/parallel-vs-exa) [Linkup vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-tavily) [Exa vs Perplexity](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-perplexity) [Brave Search vs Tavily](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/brave-vs-tavily) [Exa vs Firecrawl](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/exa-vs-firecrawl) [Perplexity vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/perplexity-vs-parallel) [You vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/you-com-vs-parallel) [Linkup vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/linkup-vs-parallel) [Firecrawl vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/firecrawl-vs-parallel) [TinyFish vs Parallel](https://openbenchmarks.com/web-search/tinyfish-vs-parallel) [source ↗](https://github.com/openbenchmarks-labs/factual-lookup-company-news-search) © 2026 Openbenchmarks