Suggest / Autocomplete

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

Plan: Included in the Suggest plan. See https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com/app/subscriptions/subscribe

Quick Start (cURL)

Basic Suggestions

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/suggest/search?q=how+to+" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}"

With All Parameters

curl -s "https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/suggest/search" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-Subscription-Token: ${BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY}" \
  -G \
  --data-urlencode "q=albert" \
  --data-urlencode "country=US" \
  --data-urlencode "lang=en" \
  --data-urlencode "count=10" \
  --data-urlencode "rich=true"

Endpoint

GET https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/suggest/search

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

Optional Headers:

• Accept-Encoding: gzip — Enable response compression

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
q	string	Yes	—	Suggest search query (1-400 chars, max 50 words)
lang	string	No	en	Language preference (2+ char language code, e.g. fr, de, zh-hans)
country	string	No	US	Search country (2-letter country code or ALL)
count	int	No	5	Number of suggestions (1-20). Actual results may be fewer
rich	bool	No	false	Enhance with entity info (title, description, image). Paid Search plan required

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "suggest"
query.original	string	The original suggest search query
results	array	List of suggestions (may be empty)
results[].query	string	Suggested query completion
results[].is_entity	bool?	Whether the suggested enriched query is an entity (rich only)
results[].title	string?	The suggested query enriched title (rich only)
results[].description	string?	The suggested query enriched description (rich only)
results[].img	string?	The suggested query enriched image URL (rich only)

Fields with null values are excluded from the response. Non-rich results contain only the query field.

Rich Response Example (rich=true)

{
  "type": "suggest",
  "query": { "original": "albert" },
  "results": [
    {
      "query": "albert einstein",
      "is_entity": true,
      "title": "Albert Einstein",
      "description": "German-born theoretical physicist",
      "img": "https://imgs.search.brave.com/..."
    },
    { "query": "albert einstein quotes", "is_entity": false }
  ]
}

Use Cases

• Search-as-you-type UI: Real-time autocomplete dropdown. Debounce 150-300ms.
• Query refinement for RAG: Expand partial/ambiguous queries before calling web-search or llm-context.
• Entity detection: Use rich=true to detect entities with title, description, and image for preview cards.
• Typo-tolerant input: Get clean suggestions from misspelled input without separate spellcheck.

Notes

• Latency: Designed for <100ms response times
• Country/lang: Hints for suggestion relevance, not strict filters
• Typo handling: Suggestions handle common typos without separate spellcheck