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Brave Search vs Linkup

Linkup scores higher on the AgentReady, 67/100 against 58/100. They differ on 10 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.

What each one is

Brave Search. Brave Search is a private, independent search engine that serves fast, accurate results from its own independent index of the Web, with AI answers and zero profiling.

Linkup. Web Search API for AI with industry-leading accuracy, providing web search built for AI applications via one API call or deployed inside your own cloud.

Where Brave Search is ahead

Brave Search passes structured api reference, and Linkup does not. That is understand, whether an agent can read the docs and work out how the API behaves before calling it.

It also holds operate: agent compatibility verified. Linkup misses it.

Where Linkup is ahead

Linkup passes public docs discoverable, llms.txt published and llms-full.txt / full agent docs, and Brave Search does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds adopt: no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, fast time to first request and copyable quickstart. Brave Search misses those.

And on operate, structured, predictable output. Brave Search misses it.

What neither does

Both fail openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented, programmatic credential creation, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.

Score, pillar by pillar

The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.

Discover. Linkup leads 100 to 73. Brave Search misses public docs discoverable, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs; Linkup misses nothing.

Understand. Brave Search leads 46 to 31. Brave Search misses openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Linkup misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented.

Adopt is whether an agent can get a key and make its first successful call without a human in the loop. Linkup leads 90 to 60. Brave Search misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart; Linkup misses programmatic credential creation.

Operate. Brave Search leads 53 to 47. Brave Search misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable; Linkup misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

Brave Search starts at $4 per 1,000 requests and has a free tier. Linkup starts at $0.001 and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

Linkup clears more of the signals an agent needs, so it is the safer default for unattended use. Full profiles: Brave Search and Linkup. Alternatives to each: Brave Search, Linkup.

An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["brave", "linkup"]}