Place Search (Search API)

Requires API Key: Get one at https://api.search.brave.com

Plan: Included in the Search plan (with locations option). See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe

Standalone: Unlike local-pois and local-descriptions, this endpoint does not require POI IDs from a prior web search. You provide a location and an optional query directly.

Quick Start (cURL)

Search by Query + Coordinates

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=coffee shops" \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=37.7749" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=-122.4194" \
  --data-urlencode "radius=5000"

Search by Query + Location String

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=sushi restaurants" \
  --data-urlencode "location=tokyo japan" \
  --data-urlencode "country=JP" \
  --data-urlencode "search_lang=en"

Browse General POIs (No Query)

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "latitude=48.8566" \
  --data-urlencode "longitude=2.3522" \
  --data-urlencode "radius=3000" \
  --data-urlencode "country=FR"

Endpoint

GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/place_search

Authentication: X-Subscription-Token: <API_KEY> header

Parameters

Location (optional but recommended)

Providing a geographic anchor improves precision. You can use coordinates (latitude + longitude) or a location string. Omitting both is allowed when a q is given — results are sourced globally and may be less precise. Omitting all three (q, latitude/longitude, and location) returns HTTP 422.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
latitude	float	Conditional	—	Latitude (-90.0 to 90.0). Required together with longitude
longitude	float	Conditional	—	Longitude (-180.0 to 180.0). Required together with latitude
location	string	No	—	Location string, alternative to coordinates. US: <city> <state> <country> (e.g., san francisco ca united states). Non-US: <city> <country> (e.g., tokyo japan). Case-insensitive, no commas needed. English or the most popular local language works best

Search

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
q	string	No	—	Free-text query (e.g., coffee shops, pizza). Fully optional — if omitted, returns general POIs in the given area

Additional Options

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
radius	float	No	—	Search radius bias around the provided coordinates, in meters. Not a hard cutoff — results may extend beyond it. No upper limit
count	int	No	20	Total items returned across all buckets (1–100), not just results — an address query can spend the whole budget on addresses/streets
geoloc	string	No	—	User geolocation as <latitude>x<longitude> (e.g., 40.7128x-74.0060), used to compute distance
country	string	No	US	Search country (2-letter country code or ALL)
search_lang	string	No	en	Language for search results (2+ char language code)
ui_lang	string	No	en-US	UI language (locale code, e.g., en-US)
units	string	No	metric	Measurement units: metric or imperial
safesearch	string	No	strict	Safe search level: off, moderate, or strict
spellcheck	bool	No	true	Whether to apply spellcheck to the query

Response Format

Top-Level Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "locations"
results	array	List of LocationResult objects (individual POIs)
cities	array	Matched cities, type: "city" — see Geographic Place Fields
countries	array	Matched countries, type: "country"
regions	array	Matched regions, type: "region"
neighborhoods	array	Matched neighborhoods, type: "neighborhood"
addresses	array	List of AddressResult objects with type: "address" — specific street + number locations
streets	array	List of AddressResult objects with type: "street" — entire streets
mixed	array	ResultReference ordering hints describing how to interleave the buckets on a SERP
location	object?	Resolved location info
location.coordinates	[float, float]	[latitude, longitude] of the resolved center
location.name	string	Resolved location name (e.g., "Helsinki")
location.country	string	Two-letter country code (e.g., "FI")

Treat a missing bucket as empty. For typical POI-style queries only results is populated, so clients that don't render rich SERPs can ignore the rest — except for address- or street-shaped queries, which can return an empty results and put every match in addresses/streets.

LocationResult Fields

Each item in results is a LocationResult:

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "location_result"
title	string	Business/POI name
url	string	Canonical URL
description	string?	Short description or category label (e.g., "Coffee Shop")
provider_url	string	Provider page URL
id	string?	Opaque POI identifier (valid ~8 hours, usable with local-pois and local-descriptions)
coordinates	[float, float]?	[latitude, longitude]
postal_address	object	displayAddress, plus optional streetAddress, addressLocality, addressRegion, postalCode, country
contact.telephone	string?	Phone number
contact.email	string?	Email address
rating.ratingValue	float?	Average rating
rating.bestRating	float?	Max possible rating
rating.reviewCount	int?	Number of reviews
rating.is_tripadvisor	bool	Whether the rating comes from Tripadvisor
opening_hours.current_day	object[]?	Today's hours (abbr_name, full_name, opens, closes)
opening_hours.days	object[][]?	Hours for each day of the week
categories	string[]	Business categories (default [])
price_range	string?	Price indicator, e.g. $, $$, $$ - $$$
serves_cuisine	string[]?	Cuisine types (restaurants)
distance.value	float?	Distance from the search location
distance.units	string?	Distance unit
icon_category	string?	Icon category slug (e.g., cafe)
thumbnail.src	string?	Thumbnail image URL
thumbnail.original	string?	Original image URL
pictures.results	object[]?	Additional images (src, original)
profiles	object[]?	External profiles (name, url, long_name, img)
timezone	string?	IANA timezone (e.g., America/Los_Angeles)
zoom_level	int	Suggested map zoom level (default 7)

Geographic Place Fields (cities, countries, regions, neighborhoods)

All four buckets share one shape, differing only by the type identifier. The published spec names them CityResult / CountryResult / RegionResult / NeighborhoodResult.

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Bucket identifier: city, country, region, or neighborhood
name	string	Place name
country	string	Country code of the place
coordinates	[float, float]	[latitude, longitude]
thumbnail.src	string	Primary image URL

AddressResult Fields (addresses and streets)

Same model is used for both buckets. Items in addresses have type: "address" (street + number); items in streets have type: "street" (entire street).

Field	Type	Description
type	string	"address" (in addresses) or "street" (in streets)
name	string	Display name of the address or street
coordinates	[float, float]	[latitude, longitude]
pois	object[]	LocationResult objects located at this address/street
pois_nearby	object[]	LocationResult objects located nearby
zoom_level	int	Suggested map zoom level (default 15)
distance.value	float?	Distance from the search location
distance.units	string?	Distance unit
postal_address	object?	displayAddress, streetAddress, addressLocality, addressRegion, country

Mixed Ordering (mixed)

mixed is an ordered list of ResultReference objects telling clients how to interleave items from the different buckets on a single SERP.

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Bucket to draw from: results, cities, countries, regions, neighborhoods, addresses, or streets
index	int?	0-based index of the item within that bucket. May be null when all is true
all	bool	When true, all remaining items from the named bucket should be placed at this position

Clients that only render POIs can ignore mixed entirely and read results directly.

Example Response

{
  "type": "locations",
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "location_result",
      "title": "Blue Bottle Coffee",
      "url": "https://yelp.com/biz/blue-bottle-coffee-sf",
      "provider_url": "",
      "id": "loc4CQWMJWLD4VBEBZ62XQLJTGK6YCJEEJDNAAAAAAA=",
      "description": "Coffee Shop",
      "postal_address": {
        "type": "PostalAddress",
        "displayAddress": "315 Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102"
      },
      "contact": { "telephone": "+15106533394" },
      "rating": {
        "ratingValue": 4.3,
        "bestRating": 5.0,
        "reviewCount": 1024,
        "is_tripadvisor": true
      },
      "opening_hours": {
        "current_day": [
          { "abbr_name": "Tue", "full_name": "Tuesday", "opens": "07:00", "closes": "18:00" }
        ],
        "days": [
          [{ "abbr_name": "Mon", "full_name": "Monday", "opens": "07:00", "closes": "18:00" }]
        ]
      },
      "coordinates": [37.7763, -122.4215],
      "categories": [],
      "serves_cuisine": ["Cafe", "Coffee Shop"],
      "price_range": "$$",
      "icon_category": "cafe",
      "thumbnail": {
        "src": "https://example.com/thumb.jpg",
        "original": "https://example.com/original.jpg"
      },
      "zoom_level": 7
    }
  ],
  "cities": [],
  "countries": [],
  "regions": [],
  "neighborhoods": [],
  "addresses": [],
  "streets": [],
  "mixed": [
    { "type": "results", "index": 0, "all": false }
  ],
  "location": {
    "coordinates": [37.7749, -122.4194],
    "name": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US"
  }
}

For a query that matches a city name, the response additionally surfaces a city entry in cities:

{
  "cities": [
    {
      "type": "city",
      "name": "San Francisco",
      "country": "US",
      "coordinates": [37.7749, -122.4194],
      "thumbnail": { "src": "https://example.com/sf.jpg" }
    }
  ],
  "mixed": [
    { "type": "cities", "index": 0, "all": false }
  ]
}

Enriching Results with POI Details and Descriptions

POI id values from results can be passed to sibling endpoints for richer data:

# Get full POI details (hours, reviews, photos, web result mentions)
curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/pois" -G \
  --data-urlencode "ids=loc4CQWMJWLD4VBEBZ62XQLJTGK6YCJEEJDNAAAAAAA=" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}"

# Get AI-generated descriptions
curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/local/descriptions" -G \
  --data-urlencode "ids=loc4CQWMJWLD4VBEBZ62XQLJTGK6YCJEEJDNAAAAAAA=" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}"

Use Cases

• Map-based exploration: Search for POIs within a visible map viewport using coordinates + radius. No prior query needed.
• Location-aware apps: Build "nearby" features — pass device GPS coordinates and a query to find relevant businesses.
• Travel planning: Search for attractions, restaurants, and hotels by location string (e.g., paris france) without needing exact coordinates.

Notes

• Finds places, not pages: This endpoint searches a geographic index of physical places. Use web search for general information retrieval.
• Choosing a radius: A tighter radius (below ~20 km) gives more focused results. Raise it to reach specific or well-known places further afield; for common category searches (e.g., restaurants), the default bias or tighter works best.