Brave Search vs Tavily

Brave Search and Tavily are both in Search and retrieval in this directory. The table repeats the description, category, transport, auth, publisher mark, and links stored on each listing. A field this directory does not have says Not listed. This page is not a ranking and does not add features, prices, or test results.

Brave Search listing Tavily listing

Brave Search vs Tavily
Field	Brave Search	Tavily
Description	Vendor MCP server for the Brave Search API. The README covers web, local business, place, and news search, plus LLM context and an AI summarizer. STDIO is the default transport and HTTP is opt-in.	Tavily is an MCP server for web search, with extract, map, and crawl tools.
Category	Search and retrieval	Search and retrieval
Transport	STDIO is the default. HTTP is enabled with BRAVE_MCP_TRANSPORT=http or --transport http. The HTTP host defaults to 127.0.0.1 and port 8080.	The remote Claude Code example uses HTTP (--transport http). The local section shows an npx command and does not name stdio or HTTP for that command.
Auth	BRAVE_API_KEY or BRAVE_API_KEY_FILE is required for the Search API. The README links keys at https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/keys. It says the HTTP endpoint is unauthenticated.	API key in the tavilyApiKey query parameter or an Authorization: Bearer header. OAuth on the remote server is optional. The local example sets TAVILY_API_KEY. The README says a free account is available at https://app.tavily.com/home.
Publisher	Not listed	Not listed
Listing link	https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server	https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Repository	https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server	https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Homepage	Not listed	https://tavily.com
Source	https://github.com/brave/brave-search-mcp-server/blob/main/README.md	https://github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp/blob/main/README.md

Connect it: Brave Search

from vendor docs, not tested by us

Source: Brave Search MCP server README

The README's stdio example uses that npx command and the placeholder YOUR_API_KEY_HERE. The same README also shows --transport http. This page does not include a key.

Local command

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-official": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server",
        "--transport",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add brave-search-official -- npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server --transport stdio

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search-official": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server",
        "--transport",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "brave-search-official": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server",
        "--transport",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Connect it: Tavily

from vendor docs, not tested by us

Source: Tavily MCP README

The README also shows a tavilyApiKey query parameter on the remote URL. This snippet uses the URL it prints without a key.

Remote URL

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http tavily "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "tavily": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Local command

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add tavily -- npx -y tavily-mcp@latest

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tavily": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code

{
  "servers": {
    "tavily": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tavily-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}