MCP & Connectors

How do you connect Claude to Brave Search via MCP?

Last verified: July 2026 · 2 min read
QUICK ANSWER

To connect Claude to Brave Search, retrieve a Brave Search API key from the developer portal, and configure the brave-search MCP server using that API key in your Claude configuration.

Step-by-step Connection

  1. Go to Brave Search API Dashboard and register for a developer account.
  2. Generate a new API key.
  3. Add the Brave Search block to your claude_desktop_config.json: 
    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "yourBraveApiKeyHere"
      }
    }
  }
}
  4. Restart Claude Desktop. Claude can now perform live web searches directly using Brave API.
Verified against: Brave Search MCP v1.0.0

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