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name answers description USE FOR AI-grounded answers via OpenAI-compatible /chat/completions. Two modes: single-search (fast) or deep research (enable_research=true, thorough multi-search). Streaming/blocking. Citations. Answers — AI Grounding Requires API Key : Get one at https://api.search.brave.com Plan : Included in the Answers plan. See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe When to Use Use Case Skill Why Quick factual answer (raw context) llm-context Single search, returns raw context for YOUR LLM Fast AI answer with citations answers (single-search) streaming, citations Thorough multi-search deep research answers (research mode) Iterative deep research, synthesized cited answer This endpoint ( /res/v1/chat/completions ) supports two modes: Single-search (default): Fast AI-grounded answer from a single search. Supports enable_citations . Research ( enable_research=true ): Multi-iteration deep research with progress events and synthesized cited answer. Quick Start (cURL) Blocking (Single-Search) curl -X POST "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY} " \ -d '{ "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "How does the James Webb Space Telescope work?"}], "stream": false }' Streaming with Citations (Single-Search) curl -X POST "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY} " \ -d '{ "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What are recent breakthroughs in fusion energy?"}], "stream": true, "enable_citations": true }' Research Mode curl -X POST "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY} " \ -d '{ "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Compare quantum computing approaches"}], "stream": true, "enable_research": true, "research_maximum_number_of_iterations": 3, "research_maximum_number_of_seconds": 120 }' Endpoint POST https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/chat/completions Authentication : X-Subscription-Token: <API_KEY> header (or Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY> ) SDK Compatible : Works with OpenAI SDK via base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1" Two Modes Feature Single-Search (default) Research ( enable_research=true ) Speed Fast Slow Searches 1 Multiple (iterative) Streaming Optional ( stream=true/false ) Required ( stream=true ) Citations enable_citations=true (streaming only) Built-in (in <answer> tag) Progress events No Yes ( <progress> tags) Blocking response Yes ( stream=false ) No Parameters Standard Parameters Parameter Type Required Default Description messages array Yes - Single user message (exactly 1 message) stream bool No true Enable SSE streaming country string No "US" Search country (2-letter country code or ALL ) language string No "en" Response language safesearch string No "moderate" Search safety level ( off , moderate , strict ) max_completion_tokens int No null Upper bound on completion tokens enable_citations bool No false Include inline citation tags (single-search streaming only) web_search_options object No null OpenAI-compatible; search_context_size : low , medium , high Research Parameters Parameter Type Required Default Description enable_research bool No false Enable research mode research_allow_thinking bool No true Enable extended thinking research_maximum_number_of_tokens_per_query int No 8192 Max tokens per query (1024-16384) research_maximum_number_of_queries int No 20 Max total search queries (1-50) research_maximum_number_of_iterations int No 4 Max research iterations (1-5) research_maximum_number_of_seconds int No 180 Time budget in seconds (1-300) research_maximum_number_of_results_per_query int No 60 Results per search query (1-60) Constraints (IMPORTANT) Constraint Error enable_research=true requires stream=true "Blocking response doesn't support 'enable_research' option" enable_research=true incompatible with enable_citations=true "Research mode doesn't support 'enable_citations' option" enable_citations=true requires stream=true "Blocking response doesn't support 'enable_citations' option" OpenAI SDK Usage Blocking (Single-Search) from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI( base_url= "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1" , api_key= "your-brave-api-key" , ) response = client.chat.completions.create( model= "brave" , messages=[{ "role" : "user" , "content" : "How does the James Webb Space Telescope work?" }], stream= False , ) print (response.choices[ 0 ].message.content) Streaming with Citations (Single-Search) from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI( base_url= "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1" , api_key= "your-brave-api-key" , ) stream = client.chat.completions.create( model= "brave" , messages=[{ "role" : "user" , "content" : "What are the current trends in renewable energy?" }], stream= True , extra_body={ "enable_citations" : True } ) for chunk in stream: if chunk.choices[ 0 ].delta.content: print (chunk.choices[ 0 ].delta.content, end= "" ) Research Mode from openai import AsyncOpenAI client = AsyncOpenAI( base_url= "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1" , api_key= "your-brave-api-key" , ) stream = await client.chat.completions.create( model= "brave" , messages=[{ "role" : "user" , "content" : "Compare quantum computing approaches" }], stream= True , extra_body={ "enable_research" : True , "research_maximum_number_of_iterations" : 3 , "research_maximum_number_of_seconds" : 120 } ) async for chunk in stream: if chunk.choices[ 0 ].delta.content: print (chunk.choices[ 0 ].delta.content, end= "" , flush= True ) Response Format Blocking Response ( stream=false , single-search only) Standard OpenAI-compatible JSON: { "id" : "chatcmpl-..." , "object" : "chat.completion" , "choices" : [ { "message" : { "role" : "assistant" , "content" : "The James Webb Space Telescope works by..." } , "index" : 0 , "finish_reason" : "stop" } ] , "usage" : { "prompt_tokens" : 10 , "completion_tokens" : 50 , "total_tokens" : 60 } } Streaming Response SSE response with OpenAI-compatible chunks: data: {"id":"chatcmpl-...","object":"chat.completion.chunk","choices":[{"delta":{"content":"Based on"},"index":0}]} data: {"id":"chatcmpl-...","object":"chat.completion.chunk","choices":[{"delta":{"content":" recent research"},"index":0}]} data: [DONE] Streaming Tags by Mode Single-Search (with enable_citations=true ) Tag Purpose <citation> Inline citation references <usage> JSON cost/billing data Research Mode Tag Purpose Keep? <queries> Generated search queries Debug <analyzing> URL counts (verbose) Debug <thinking> URL selection reasoning Debug <progress> Stats: time, iterations, queries, URLs analyzed, tokens Monitor <blindspots> Knowledge gaps identified Yes <answer> Final synthesized answer (only the final answer is emitted; intermediate drafts are dropped) Yes <usage> JSON cost/billing data (included at end of streaming response) Yes Usage Tag Format The <usage> tag contains JSON-stringified cost and token data: <usage>{"X-Request-Requests":1,"X-Request-Queries":8,"X-Request-Tokens-In":15000,"X-Request-Tokens-Out":2000,"X-Request-Requests-Cost":0.005,"X-Request-Queries-Cost":0.032,"X-Request-Tokens-In-Cost":0.075,"X-Request-Tokens-Out-Cost":0.01,"X-Request-Total-Cost":0.122}</usage> Use Cases Chat interface integration : Drop-in OpenAI SDK replacement with web-grounded answers. Set base_url="https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1" . Deep research / comprehensive topic research : Use research mode ( enable_research=true ) for complex questions needing multi-source synthesis (e.g., "Compare approaches to nuclear fusion"). OpenAI SDK drop-in : Same SDK, same streaming format — just change base_url and api_key . Works with both sync and async clients. Cited answers : Enable enable_citations=true in single-search mode for inline citation tags, or use research mode which automatically includes citations in its answer. Notes Timeout : Set client timeout to at least 30s for single-search, 300s (5 min) for research Single message : The messages array must contain exactly 1 user message Cost monitoring : Parse the <usage> tag from streaming responses to track costs