What is Brave?
The internet is a sea of creepy ads, trackers, and echo chambers. Big tech makes huge profits off our data, and tells us what’s true and what’s not. Brave is fighting back.
Brave is an Internet company on a mission to build a user-first Web. Starting with its core browser and search engine, Brave offers a suite of tools that shield users from Big Tech’s data vacuum, and keep the Web private, fast, and independent.
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Private browser: The Brave browser blocks invasive ads & trackers on every webpage you visit (even video & streaming sites). It has a built-in VPN, encrypted video calls, and more. All in a single privacy super app.
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Independent search: Brave Search is powered by a completely independent index of the Web. It’s one of only three global-scale search engines in the West, and the only one outside of Big Tech. Brave Search does not profile users, and introduces unique features like an AI answer engine and a way to customize results ranking.
More than 100 million people worldwide use Brave to upgrade their Web experience. Hundreds of thousands more download our browser every day. It works on any platform: Android and iOS; Linux, macOS, and Windows. And it only takes 60 seconds for users to switch.
The Brave browser
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Chromium + WebKit: The Brave browser for Android and desktop is a Chromium fork that removes privacy-harmful features and disables or proxies connections to Google when possible; for iOS it’s built on Apple’s WebKit. Regardless of platform, Brave is a lightweight, ultra fast browser that blocks creepy ads and trackers on every webpage by default. That includes pre-roll and mid-roll video ads—even on YouTube—along with on-page ads, and more.
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Performance benefits: Without that unwanted junk, users save Wi-Fi bandwidth and mobile data, CPU and memory, and prolong their device’s battery life. And websites load 3x-6x faster.
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Shields: The core feature that enables all this is called Brave Shields. The Shields feature is built into Brave, and provides default protection against privacy-invasive ads, trackers, cross-site cookies, fingerprinting, phishing attempts, and more. No extensions required.
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No extensions required: And, unlike other privacy tools, Brave works right out of the box. No dials to turn, no extensions, no PhD required. Users can simply download; import settings, saved passwords, and extensions from their old browser; and get browsing again within 60 seconds.
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Integrated AI: A novel approach from Brave that transforms browsing via AI, while still maintaining strict privacy and security safeguards.
- And, coming soon, Agentic browsing!
The Brave browser is available in more than 50 languages, with support for more languages on the horizon.
Brave Search
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Independent: Brave Search is one of only three global-scale independent search engines, and the only one not influenced by Big Tech companies like Google and Microsoft. Brave Search is powered by its own index of the Web, and built with novel index-building techniques like machine learning and anonymous contributions by real users.
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Private: Brave Search does not profile its users. It’s impossible for Brave to share, sell, or lose a user’s search data because that data isn’t collected in the first place.
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AI answers: Its AI-powered summarizer serves lightning fast, accurate answers for a quarter of all daily queries (or about 15 million per day), making it one of the most widely used AI answer engines in the world today. It also features a conversational interface called Ask Brave.
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Browser default: Most new Brave browser users will see Brave Search as their default search engine. It’s also available as the default search in any other browser, or at search.brave.com. Brave Search supports more than 40 languages, and we’re constantly adding more.
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Brave Search API: Brave Search can also power other AI and search applications, via the Brave Search API.
Brave by the numbers
The Brave browser
Brave Search
Key features
Brave Shields
The core that sets Brave apart from any other browser—the key to everything, really—is Shields, Brave’s built-in ad & tracker blocker. But Brave is about so much more than blocking the visible, third-party ads that clutter up webpages and slow down browsing.
Brave’s best-in-class privacy features include:
- Fingerprinting protections
- Blocking of bounce tracking
- Blocking of phishing and malware attempts
- Blocking cross-site cookies and cookie consent notifications
- HTTPS upgrades
- De-AMP
- Disabling/removing Chromium features that could harm privacy
- Limited network server calls
- Client-side encryption for cross-device syncing
- Query parameter filtering
- Network-state partitioning
- Blocking of social media embeds
- Private windows (and private windows with Tor functionality)
Best of all, Brave Shields work out-of-the-box. There are no dials to turn, no special knowledge required. The Shields feature is on by default, so users can simply browse their favorite sites in Brave—more private and secure; faster; and with far fewer annoyances and clutter.
Learn more about Brave Shields.
Learn more about Brave’s advanced privacy techniques.
Brave Search features
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Answer with AI For many question-like queries, Brave Search will surface an AI-powered answer right at the top of the search results page (SERP). These answers are synthesized from multiple webpages and its own LLM and—unlike other answer engines—Brave Search cites the sources it used to create this answer. Brave Search also features a conversational interface called Ask Brave.
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Discussions Popular, relevant community threads from sites like Reddit are included in SERP.
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Rerank Allows users to upvote/downvote domains that appear in SERP, thus customizing the algorithm according to their preferences.
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Goggles Essentially publicly-available “Rerank” lists, Goggles allow anyone to alter the ranking of SERP, and publish that list for others to use. A Goggle can then be cloned or contributed to by other Brave Search users.
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CodeLLM CodeLLM offers programmers an option to get AI code snippets grounded in search results, with step-by-step explanations and citations of the sources for reference and validation.
Other table-stakes features include video and image search; shopping carousels; sports, weather, and other informational widgets; featured snippets; search operators; bangs; and fallback mixing (a way to tune results via anonymous checks of other engines).
AI features
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Brave Leo
(Brave browser): The smart AI assistant built right into the Brave browser. Leo can answer questions, summarize pages (even PDFs and Google Docs / Sheets), generate new content, analyze or translate text or images, suggest and write code, and more.
- Built with privacy at its core, Leo’s models don’t retain or share chats, or use them for model training. And no account or login is required.
- Available across desktop, Android, and iOS.
- Includes multiple AI models, including the latest from Anthropic’s Claude and Meta’s Llama. Also offers users the option to use their own models or connect to other providers.
- Also available in a Premium version, with access to higher rate limits and more models. Purchase details (such as the email address you used to sign up) cannot be linked to your day-to-day use of Leo.
- More features: Personalized memory, temporary chats, support for many different languages, and live data for understanding current events.
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Answer with AI
(Brave Search): For many question-like queries, Brave Search will surface an AI-powered answer right at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). There’s also a new search/AI chat experience called Ask Brave.
- Answers synthesized from multiple webpages and its own LLM.
- Unlike other answer engines, Brave Search cites the sources it used to create this answer.
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Search API
The Brave Search index is accessible via a publicly available API to power other search and AI applications, train models, and more.
- Truly unique data set, with real-time data on search queries.
- Index populated by both machine-learning techniques and anonymous contributions from Brave Search users.
- An index of billions of pages.
- Both free and subscription-based options.
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Agentic browsing (coming soon) Turn the browser into a truly smart partner, automating tasks and freeing yourself up to do more with your time, all while maintaining strict privacy and security standards.
Crypto / Web3 features
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Brave Rewards
Support content creators and earn the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
- If users opt in to view ads from Brave’s private advertising network, they can earn a share of the ad revenue in BAT. Earned BAT can be used to contribute to content creators, used in Web3 apps (DApps), to book flights, exchange for other currencies, and more.
- Content creators—including website-owners, YouTube creators, Twitch and X users, and others—can register with Brave Creators and receive BAT from their audiences to supplement their income.
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Brave Wallet Brave’s browser-native crypto wallet protects against the risk of extension-based wallets. It’s multi-chain, supports NFTs and dozens of other currencies, and serves as a secure onramp to DApps, DeFi, and Web3.
Other Brave features
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VPN The secure, fast VPN built right into the browser. Hide your IP address, mask your location, and access your favorite content on the go
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Playlist Make playlists of the content you love, right in the browser. Access anytime, anywhere. Even offline. (iOS only)
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News A private, personalized newsfeed, accessible right in the Brave new tab page.
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Talk Unlimited, private video calls, right in your browser. No extra apps to download, no tracking, no account required. Users can start or join calls from any browser, even outside of Brave.
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Speedreader A distraction-free “reader mode” that declutters pages for focused reading, faster loading, and less data usage.
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Cross-device sync Encrypt and sync your Brave bookmarks, passwords, tabs, and more across devices.
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Shred Quickly delete browsing data that sites can use to identify you across visits. (iOS only)
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Sidebar Easy access to your favorite sites, reading list, bookmarks, and other Brave features.
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Vertical tabs An efficient way to organize your tabs (plus pinning, grouping, and other tools).
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Extension support Brave is compatible with extensions in the Chrome Web Store, even some MV2 extensions that will no longer work in Chrome due to the MV2 deprecation.
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Webpage translation Built-in webpage translation that protects your privacy.
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Private windows with Tor onion routing Brave’s Tor integration makes it easy to proxy your IP address.
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Split view Look at two websites side-by-side in the same browser window. Great for product comparisons, research projects, and more.
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Containers (coming soon) Easily isolate cookies, session storage, and local storage for an individual tab from all other tabs open in a browser window.
Performance benefits and comparisons to other browsers
By blocking creepy ads, trackers, and other unwanted junk, the Brave browser brings a variety of performance improvements over other browsers. These include:
- Faster page load
- Less CPU used
- Less RAM used
- Device battery savings
- WiFi bandwidth / mobile data savings
In Brave’s latest round of performance tests, Brave showed significant improvement across each metric.
Browser comparisons
Search comparisons
Brave under the hood
The Brave browser
On Android & desktop, the Brave browser is powered by the open-source Chromium browser engine. On iOS, the Brave browser is powered by Apple’s WebKit. And, thanks to its Chromium core, on Android and desktop Brave supports any extension available in the Chrome Web Store (even some MV2 extensions).
Brave Search
Brave Search is powered by its own, totally independent index of the Web. This is true for text-based search results, as well as image and video results. It is one of only three global-scale independent search engines (the others being Microsoft’s Bing and Alphabet’s Google). The Brave Search team used several novel AI techniques to build its index. The index is also grown via anonymous contributions from real Brave users. This mechanism—called the Web Discovery Project (WDP)—allows users to contribute anonymous data about some searches and webpage visits, thus growing the index and improving result quality/nuance for all users. Brave Search also offers users the opportunity to anonymously check other search engines for results via a technique called fallback mixing, and augment results accordingly.
Brave the business
Brave Ads
Many Brave users are cord-cutters, meaning they’re not reachable through traditional channels like TV or social media. They’re tech savvy, discerning, and highly engaged. Because of this unique audience profile, Brave Ads perform far better than other ad channels on key metrics like impressions, click-through rates (CTR), purchases, and brand recognition.
Brave Ads also boast several other unique value propositions, including:
- Less competition from other brands
- Fast growing usage
- Better brand safety (with less chance of unwanted collisions)
- Better effectiveness (with units proven to drive brand awareness and conversions)
- Full funnel ad units are good for brands of all sizes and various marketing goals
Major brands like Amazon, Ford, Intuit, and Wayfair have found success with Brave Ads, as have brands in more specific verticals like crypto/Web3, gaming, and travel.
Brave Ads include three different ad units, each of which are available across desktop & mobile:
- Brave Search ads
- Brave browser ads:
- New Tab Takeovers
- Push notification ads
It also now offers marketers and media buyers a self-serve ads manager.
Brave Search API
With a truly independent index of the Web, Brave Search can be a great resource for other companies. The Brave Search API can power search functionality in other apps, and serve as a unique source of training data for AI models. The Brave Search API offers:
- An ever-growing index of billions of webpages, accessible with a single API call
- Data that’s useful and real-time (Brave Search is constantly refreshed with new data via the Web Discovery Project).
- Easy-to-use access for developers, with a consistent, intuitive data structure
- Affordable, transparent pricing—free for up to 2,000 calls / month, with multiple subscription tiers that are far cheaper than the other major option (Microsoft Bing).
- True independence—a unique data set not available anywhere else.
Used by some of the biggest names in AI, including Cohere, Mistral, Perplexity, and You.com, the Brave Search API continues to grow at an exponential rate. Learn more.
Brave Premium
Brave offers four different premium-feature experiences. One is only available via subscription, while the remaining three are subscription-based ways to unlock additional functionality of otherwise free features (aka “freemium”).
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Brave VPN A powerful VPN built right into the browser. Available for short-term free trials, then with monthly and annual subscription options thereafter. One subscription covers up to 10 devices across Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Powered by third-party, independently-audited partner Guardian.
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Brave Search Premium Independent and actively working to combat implicit, algorithmic bias & manipulation of results, Brave Search premium offers users a way to support the Brave Search mission. It’s also ad-free.
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Brave Leo AI Premium Brave Leo Premium offers users access to more LLMs, higher daily rate limits, and early access to new features.
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Brave Talk Premium Brave’s free, private videocalling service is also available as a premium offering. This subscription access adds moderator controls like participant muting and entry passcodes, call recordings, groupwatch, and the ability to host calls for hundreds of participants.
Brave Wallet and Web3 partnerships
Brave Wallet is the only secure Web3 wallet built directly into a private browser. Use of Brave Wallet is totally free, while Brave earns a small (1%) fee on fiat-to-crypto transactions (through onramp partners) conducted in Brave Wallet.
Brave also earns a nominal fee on creator tips made via Brave Rewards. Lastly, Brave earns revenue through partnerships with other Web3 companies and DApps made available in Brave Wallet and Brave Rewards.
Company info
Brave was co-founded in 2015 by Internet pioneers Brendan Eich (creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla) and Brian Bondy (formerly of Khan Academy and Mozilla).
We remember ad-free pages. We remember when Google said “Don’t be evil” and actually meant it. We remember what the Web was meant to be…and we’re fighting to build a user-first Web. For privacy, neutrality, openness, and most of all for freedom online.
For us, “privacy” isn’t just marketing. It’s real, tangible fixes. Our world-class engineering, security, and research team’s core mission is to safeguard your data, not take it—to close data loopholes, not open them. Every single day we discover new vulnerabilities and new schemes by Big Tech. Every single day we work to shield you from those schemes, and build those shields directly into our products. Because privacy should be easy.
Below are just a few of the people leading the Brave movement.
Founder & CEO
Founder & CTO
Chief Information Security Officer
Chief of Search
Chief Business Officer
Chief Financial Officer
VP of Design
VP of Engineering
VP of Communications
Principal Engineer
VP of Business Operations
VP of Business
Principal Engineer
VP of IT
VP, BAT and Browser Services
VP of Privacy & Security
VP of Marketing
VP of Growth
Key dates
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2015
Brave is co-founded by Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy -
2016
First desktop beta -
2017
$35M raised in ICO for Basic Attention Token (BAT) (link) -
2018
- First Chromium release for desktop
- Surpasses 3M MAU
- Tor integration via Tor tabs
- Brave-core beta for desktop release
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2019
- Surpasses 5.5M MAU
- 1.0 launch
- Surpasses 10M MAU
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2020
- VPN for iOS
- Cross-device sync
- Brave News
- Surpasses 20M MAU
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2021
- Tailcat acquisition (the core IP + team that became Brave Search)
- Surpasses 36M MAU
- Brave Talk (browser-based videocalling)
- Brave Wallet
- Brave Search
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2022
- Surpasses 50M MAU
- VPN for Android
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2023
- VPN for desktop
- Self-serve Brave Ads
- Brave Search launches Summarizer
- Brave Search API
- Brave Search image & video
- Brave Leo (browser-based AI assistant)
- Surpasses 60M MAU
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2024
- Brave Search Answer with AI
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2025
- Surpasses 100M MAU
- Surpasses 42M DAU
Contact
- Press: press@brave.com
- Advertising: adsales@brave.com
- Business development: bizdev@brave.com
Social media