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Brave Search vs Valyu

Valyu scores higher on the AgentReady, 62/100 against 58/100. They differ on 12 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.

Valyu. Search and deep research API for AIs doing knowledge work.

Where Brave Search is ahead

Brave Search passes structured api reference and authentication documented, and Valyu 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: observable execution and agent compatibility verified. Valyu misses those.

Where Valyu is ahead

Valyu 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 understand: limits / constraints documented. Brave Search misses it.

And on adopt, no mandatory sales call, fast time to first request and copyable quickstart. Brave Search misses those.

Finally, 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, agent-compatible signup flow, 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 is whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists. Valyu leads 100 to 73. Brave Search misses public docs discoverable, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs; Valyu 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; Valyu misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented.

Adopt. Valyu leads 80 to 60. Brave Search misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart; Valyu misses agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation.

Operate. Brave Search leads 53 to 35. Brave Search misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable; Valyu misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

Brave Search starts at $4 per 1,000 requests and has a free tier. Valyu starts at $29/mo and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

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

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