Overview

OpenClaw is a powerful self-hosted personal AI assistant ("the lobster way 🦞") that runs locally on any OS and connects to messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, and more. The Brave Search API is the official default and recommended web_search provider, allowing agents to fetch fresh web results directly from Brave's independent 30+ billion page index.

This integration reduces hallucinations by grounding responses in real-time data and powers core tools like web_search and related web capabilities.

Key Features

Default web_search tool with full Brave API support
Advanced filters: country, language, freshness (day/week/month/year), date ranges
Result control: 1–10 results (default 5), caching (15 min TTL)
AI-optimized: Works seamlessly with LLM Context endpoint (included in Search plan)
Privacy-first: No tracking, independent index, Zero Data Retention option
Multi-endpoint support: Web, images, news, videos via the same API key

Setup & Configuration

Sign up at brave.com/search/api and select the Search plan.
Generate your API key in the Brave dashboard.
Set the key in OpenClaw:
- Environment variable: BRAVE_API_KEY=your_key_here
- Or via config file / openclaw configure (recommended for security).

(Optional) Customize in tools.web.search:

{
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "search": {
        "provider": "brave",
        "apiKey": "BRAVE_API_KEY_HERE",
        "maxResults": 5,
        "timeoutSeconds": 30
      }
    }
  }
}

Example agent call:

await web_search({
  query: "AI news",
  freshness: "week",
  language: "en"
});

Pricing & Credits

Every Brave plan includes $5/month renewing free credit (covers ~1,000 queries).
Search plan: $5 per 1,000 requests.
Legacy free tier (2,000 queries) still works for some users but lacks newer features.
Set usage alerts in the Brave dashboard to avoid overages.

Use Cases

Real-time research during conversations
Fact-checking and current events summarization
Building autonomous agents that browse, extract, and act on live web data
Enhancing coding, shopping, or news agents with fresh sources

Notes & Best Practices

Results are cached for performance (configurable).
Storage of results for model training requires explicit plan rights (see Brave ToS).
Community plugins exist for alternatives (Tavily, Perplexity, etc.) if needed.

For full OpenClaw docs: github.com/openclaw/openclaw. Brave API portal: brave.com/search/api.

Brave Search API with OpenClaw